* October 17 – The Open Championship, also known as the British Open, is played for the first time at Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Glasgow Prestwick International Airport, serving Glasgow, is located in Ayrshire.

Vandalia is a sister city to Lichtenfels, Germany and Prestwick, Scotland.

* The inaugural British Open is won by Willie Park senior at Prestwick Golf Club.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is Glasgow's second airport, it also serves the Greater Glasgow urban area, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire and 32 miles from the city centre of Glasgow.

In physical terms, Prestwick is Scotland's largest commercial airfield, although in passenger traffic terms it sits in fourth place after Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow International, and Aberdeen Airport all of which are operated by BAA.

It is telling however, that many years since those proposals were made, Glasgow Prestwick Airport does have its own railway station, something that even Glasgow International Airport does not have.

Today, part of the Prestwick site is occupied by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm with RNAS Prestwick, ( officially known by the Royal Navy as HMS Gannet ), where a detachment of 3 Sea Kings provide a search and rescue role, covering one of the largest SAR areas of the UK including Ben Nevis, the Lakes, Northern Ireland and past the Irish coast.

For this reason, it is often used as a diversionary airport when weather conditions close aviation hubs elsewhere in the United Kingdom-heavy snowfall in the recent severe winters of 2009 and 2010-2011 resulted in large numbers of intercontinental flights bound for London Heathrow and elsewhere to be temporarily diverted to Prestwick.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is considered to be the only piece of United Kingdom territory on which Elvis Presley ever set foot, when the United States Army transport plane carrying him home stopped to refuel in 1960, whilst en route from Germany.

Irvine is also well served by several arterial roads, namely the A78 ( Greenock to Prestwick ), A71 ( Irvine to Kilmarnock and beyond to Edinburgh ), A737 ( through the Garnock Valley to Glasgow via the M8 ) and the A736 to Glasgow

The A77 is a crucial link from Glasgow to one of its two major airports, Prestwick Airport, and to the three main ferry terminals at Stranraer, Cairnryan, and Troon for sailings to Northern Ireland.

* The Prestwick Centre, Ayrshire, is home to the Scottish Area Control Centre ( including, since January 2010, the former Manchester Area Control Centre ), which controls traffic over Scotland, Northern Ireland, and up to FL285 over the northern half of England, and the Prestwick Oceanic Area Control Centre which provides a procedural control service for traffic crossing the North Atlantic via the Shanwick Oceanic Control Area.

Prestwick Airport ( used by RyanAir and several other airlines ) is connected directly to Wemyss Bay by FASTBUS 585, which runs twice an hour.

It is situated on the west coast of Scotland, about eight miles north of Ayr and three miles northwest of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport.

The nearest station is just over 2 miles away, at Glengarnock which provides direct rail links to Glasgow Central station and services to the Clyde coast and Glasgow Prestwick airport.

Beith is approximately 13 miles south of Glasgow International Airport, 21 miles north of Glasgow Prestwick airport and 60 miles west of Edinburgh airport.

The town is served by Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which serves many European destinations as well as transatlantic and other international cargo flights.

To the north of Prestwick is the small village of Monkton.

Prestwick is also a major air traffic control centre, with both the Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre ( controlling 70 % of UK airspace ) and Prestwick Oceanic Area Control Centre ( Shanwick Oceanic Control-responsible for air traffic over the eastern half of the North Atlantic ) located at the NATS owned ' Scottish and Oceanic Area Control Centre '.

It runs in a southwesternly direction from the city of Glasgow, past the towns of Giffnock, Newton Mearns, Kilmarnock, Prestwick, Ayr, Maybole, Girvan and Stranraer to the town of Portpatrick on the Irish Sea.

The town was the first home of the Open Golf Championship, which was played on the Prestwick Old Course from 1860 to 1872.

Prestwick Golf Club is located in the town of Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland.

Scottish Aviation Limited was a Scottish aircraft manufacturer, based at Prestwick in South Ayrshire.

In her book about Prestwick Airport, South Ayrshire councillor Ann Galbraith writes about this tough time in the airport's history, saying that " if it hadn ’ t been for Matthew Hudson the airport wouldn ’ t be here today ".

* On 28 April 1958, Vickers Viscount G-AORC crashed at Craigie, South Ayrshire on approach to Glasgow Prestwick Airport when the pilot misread the altimeter by a margin of.

Prestwick lies within the South Ayrshire council area.

His subsequent work included Kinghorn Golf Club in 1887, Prestwick, Muirfield, the Jubilee Course at St Andrews, Balcomie ( Crail ), Moray, Askernish in South Uist, Lahinch and Rosapenna in Ireland, and Warkworth and Royal North Devon Golf Club ( Westward Ho!

* Prestwick Golf Club, South Ayrshire, Scotland

* Prestwick St. Nicholas Golf Club, South Ayrshire, Scotland

* Glasgow Prestwick International Airport ( PIK ) is located 29 miles south west of the city in South Ayrshire and caters mainly for charter flights, low-cost airlines, and freight traffic.

The constituency was created by merging the Ayr burgh and Prestwick burgh components of the Ayr District of Burghs constituency with parts of the South Ayrshire and Kilmarnock constituencies.

The Representation of the People ( Scotland ) Act 1868 provided that the new South Ayrshire constituency was to consist of the District of Kyle and Carrick, consisting of the parishes of Auchinleck, Ayr, Ballantrae, Barr, Colmonell, Coylton, Craigie, Dailly, Dalmellington, Dalrymple, Dundonald, Galston, Girvan, Kirkmichael, Kirkoswald, Mauchline, Maybole, Monkton and Prestwick, Muirkirk, New Cumnock, Newton-on-Ayr, Ochiltree, Old Cumnock, Riccarton, St Quivox, Sorn, Stair, Straiton, Symington and Tarbolton.

Specifically, the Westland Sea King Mk5 aircraft of HMS Gannet, operating in the Search and Rescue role from Royal Naval Air Station Prestwick, Ayrshire, display a Saltire decal on the nose of each aircraft.

In the beginning, Prestwick was the only Scottish airport allowed to operate a transatlantic link, largely due to the very benign weather conditions on the Ayrshire coast.

Prestwick is on the Ayrshire Coast Line between Glasgow Central and Ayr.

This change of plan from the Scottish Executive was because of the Kingston Bridge's inability to handle an increase in traffic: the thinking was that the increased traffic from the new road will not then go straight over the bridge and will enable traffic from the south east, heading west to Ayrshire, Glasgow International Airport, Glasgow Prestwick Airport, or the docks at Greenock, Hunterston and Braehead, to bypass the Glasgow city centre section of the M8.

The name is a portmanteau of two of the air traffic facilities concerned with flights operating within this area of International Airspace, these being the Ballygirreen Radio Station, North of Shannon Airport in County Clare, Ireland, and the Prestwick Centre in Ayrshire, Scotland.

As part of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which begun in 2011, the Boundary Commission for Scotland has proposed changes to the Central Ayrshire constituency which would see Irvine moved to a proposed " North Ayrshire and Arran " seat, with Prestwick, Troon and the entire Kyle electoral ward moved into a reconfigured contituency called " Kyle and Cumnock ".

Peter Howson was born in London and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrshire, when Howson was aged four.

Scotland's aviation industry has long been based in and around Prestwick and its international airport, and although aircraft manufacture ceased at the former British Aerospace plant in 1998, a significant number of aviation companies are still based on the Prestwick site.

He was created a life peer as Baron Younger of Prestwick of Ayr in the District of Kyle and Carrick on 7 July 1992, five years before succeeding to the viscountcy.

The Open Championship was first played on 17 October 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland.

From its revival in 1872 until 1891 it was played on three courses in rotation: Prestwick, The Old Course at St Andrews, and Musselburgh Links.

The Jetstream however lived on as a successful product, the design being purchased and produced by Scottish Aviation at Prestwick and later when Scottish Aviation was incorporated into British Aerospace from 1977.

The restrictions on Glasgow Airport were lifted and the transatlantic operators immediately moved from Prestwick, Glasgow Airport being renamed Glasgow International Airport.

Prestwick Airport also used to host a bi-annual airshow, the first of which was held on 30 September 1967.

In the early to mid-1990s passenger figures fell sharply with only freight traffic and a small number of charter flights using Prestwick on a regular basis.

On 6 July 2005, Prestwick Airport became the entry point into Scotland for the world's most powerful leaders on the eve of the 31st G8 summit which was being held in Gleneagles.

Manston was sold to Infratil ( owner of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport ) on 26 August 2005.

Her political achievements include securing an amendment to the Government legislation on National Air Traffic Control Services which secured the building of the new Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre at Prestwick and playing a lead role in persuading the Government to set up the Financial Assistance Scheme and the Pension Protection Fund for those at risk of losing their occupational pensions if their employers go bankrupt.

Jack McConnell welcomes President of the United States George W. Bush and Laura Bush to Scotland for the 31st G8 summit on 6 July 2005 at Glasgow Prestwick International Airport.

The first fare-paying passengers to New York departed Prestwick on 21 December 1961.

* October 20 – The KLM Lockheed L-049-46-25 Constellation Nijmegen crashes in high ground on approach to Glasgow Prestwick Airport, in Prestwick, Scotland, killing all 40 people on board.

* December 25 – BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser G-ALSA crashes on landing at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, killing 28 of the 36 passengers and crew on board.