15th August 1903 - On this day Aberdeen Football Club played its first match, holding Stenhousemuir to a 1-1 draw. 15th August 1963 - On this day Henry John Burnett was hanged at Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen - the last execution to take place in Scotland.
Aberdeen has been inhabited for 8,000 years, since the first Hunter-Gatherers settled on the banks of the River Dee. From the slaughter of Aberdeen Castle's English garrison (part of a citizens' uprising in support of Robert the Bruce) to all-out assaults on the city by Kings, Royalists and Nazis, no century has left the city unmarked.