July 20 in Scottish History

On this day in 1811 James Bruce, the 8th Lord Elgin, Scottish Liberal statesman and diplomat, was born. During his career he served as Governor-General of Canada, 1847-54, and India, 1862-63, and was also special envoy to China and Japan. During a visit to China he burnt down the emperor's famous Summer Palace in Beijing, destroying thousands of priceless works of art, in order to intimidate the Chinese emperor and force him to sign an unratified treaty.

On this day in 1819 geologist, John Playfair, died. Playfair pioneered the theory that rivers carve out their own valleys. He was a close friend of geologist, James Hutton, and wrote 'Illustrations of the Huttonion Theory of the Earth', which amplified and expanded upon Hutton's revolutionary ideas about how the Earth was formed.

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