Best September anniversary

1 CHEPMAN AND MYLLAR

This year we celebrate 500 years of printing in Scotland. However it was on 15 September, 1507, that King James IV granted merchant Walter Chepman and bookseller Androw Myllar a patent to begin printing at their press in Edinburgh's Cowgate. The only known copy of their first dated publication – John Lydgate's medieval romance, The Complaint of the Black Knight – is the centrepiece of a National Library of Scotland exhibition.

2 QUEEN MARY

In the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle on 9 September, 1543, Mary Queen of Scots was crowned. The over-large crown was held over her head as she was anointed with holy oil. The English envoy said the ceremony was conducted, "with such solemnitie as they do use in this country which is not very costlie". Mary bawled lustily throughout the coronation, showing wisdom and foresight beyond her five months.

3 FORTH ROAD BRIDGE

Twenty-five Royal Navy ships fired a salute as the Queen opened the bridge on 4 September, 1964, before returning across the river by the final run of the 800-year-old ferry service. The fourth largest bridge in the world and Europe's longest suspension bridge at the time, it was awarded Category-A listed structure status in 2001.

4 LAST GLASGOW TRAM

The last regular tram in Glasgow ran on service 9 between Auchenshuggle and Dalmuir West on 1 September, 1962. A special service with souvenir tickets operated for a further three days. Auchenshuggle (from the Gaelic for the rye field) in the East End, lived on as a destination for bus service 64 until 2005. Apart from Blackpool, Glasgow was the last British city to operate trams until the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992.

5 CAPTAIN PORTEOUS

Riots followed the hanging of a smuggler in Edinburgh's Grassmarket. Captain Porteous ordered his troops to fire; six people were killed. Porteous was sentenced to hang, but on 7 September, 1736, on news of a possible reprieve, he was dragged from his cell by a mob, stripped, badly beaten and strung up on a dyer's pole.