On this day in 1057 Scottish monarch, MacBeth, was killed at Lumphanan.

MacBeth had siezed power by assassinating the incumbent king, Duncan, in August 1040. Duncan's two infant sons fled, Malcolm to Cumberland, and Donal to the Western Isles. MacBeth appears to have ruled the country well, and is regarded as one of the more successful Scottish kings, however there were always uprisings by the supporters of Duncan, and, when Malcolm secured the support of Edward the Confessor of England and secured victory over Macbeth at the Battle of Dunsinane, Macbeth's days were numbered.

On 15 August 1856 James Keir Hardie, the Labour statesman, was born.One of the founders of the Labour Party, he was the first Labour Parliamentary MP.

Hardie stood as the Independent Labour MP for South West Ham between 1892 and 1895 and also as Labour MP for Merthyr between 1900 and 1915.

Today in 1771 Sir Walter Scott, poet and novelist, was born in Edinburgh. Scott's first successes lay in the field of poetry, where his The Lay of the Last Minstrel brought him instant fame.

However a series of bad business decisions, including those of buying a stake in both his printer and publisher. Both suffered during the crash of 1826 and Scott himself was bankrupted, and he died in 1832 having had to write furiously during the last years of his life to pay off his creditors.

Today's recipe: this crayfish ravioli makes a sumptuous seafood starter.