On thisa day in 1754 William Murdock, the Scottish engineer, was born.

Murdock invented coal-gas lighting, the first new form of lighting in the Industrial Age, and which remained the principal form of illumination until Edison's invention of electric lighting 100-years later. He was a close friend and associate of James Watt.

On 21 August 1937 Donald Dewar, the Scottish Labour statesman, was born. Dewar served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997-1999 and became the first leader of Scotland's devolved Parliament in 1999, although he was to tragically die in office from a brain haemorhage.

Today's recipe: making homemade pasta and pesto is easier than you may think!