On this day in 1871, Sir Roderick Murchison, the Scottish geologist, died.

Murchison began his working life as a soldier, only becoming interested in geology at the age of 32. He wrote an important work, the "The Silurian System", in 1837, and went on to classify the Cambrian, Ordovician, Devonian and Permian eras. He rose to become Director-General of the Geological Survey, the most important official post in British geology.

Today in 1989 Ewan MacColl, the multi-talented, Scottish socialist, folk singer-songwriter and playwright, died. George Bernard Shaw said of him in 1947, Apart from myself, MacColl is the only man of genius writing for the theatre in Britain today.

MacColl recorded a huge volume of traditional Scottish and English folk songs, as well as creating a vast body of his own work, which ranged from satirical protest songs to tender love ballads, the latter most popularly renowned in his composition, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, written for his wife, Peggy Seeger (another folk singer), but made most famous by Roberta Flack.

Today's recipe: keep out the cold with this classic Irish beef stew.