October 21 in Scottish History

On this day in 1983 The Burrell Collection was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Pollok Park, Glasgow. The £20.49m gallery contains more than 8,000 works of art collected by Glasgow shipping magnate, Sir William Burrell, who died in 1958. After amassing a fortune thanks to shrewd business sense, Burrell dedicated his retirement to travelling the world procuring a huge, eclectic selection of high quality artworks. In 1947 he bequeathed the collection to the people of Glasgow, but stipulated that it must be housed in a rural setting. The difficulty of finding a location meant he never saw his dream realised. It was not until the MacDonald family left their Pollok Estaste to the City of Glasgow in 1967 that a suitable site was found.

This day in 1971 saw a huge gas explosion in Glasgow. Just before 3pm, it ripped through the shopping precinct at Clarkston Toll on the city's south side. 21 people were killed and another 110 were injured. A strong smell of gas had been reported the day before and repair work had been carried out. On the afternoon of the blast, gas board inspectors and workers were checking the repair when a row of shops along Busby Road erupted with the force of a 300lb bomb. Most of the victims were young female shop assistants and housewives doing their shopping.

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