* 1879 – The Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.

He wrote about 200 poems, including his infamous " The Tay Bridge Disaster ", which are widely regarded as some of the worst in English literature.

Original Tay Bridge ( from the north ).

Original Tay Bridge ( from the south ) the day after the disaster.

Of the 200 or so poems that he wrote, the most famous is probably " The Tay Bridge Disaster ", which recounts the events of the evening of 28 December 1879, when, during a severe gale, the Tay Rail Bridge near Dundee collapsed as a train was passing over it.

: Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv ' ry Tay!

McGonagall had previously written a poem in praise of the Tay Bridge: " The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay " " With your numerous arches and pillars in so grand array ".

Once the new replacement bridge had been built, without the least feeling of irony, he proceeded to compose an ode to the new construction: " An Address to the New Tay Bridge " " Strong enough all windy storms to defy ".

* July 22 – The foundation stone of the first Tay Rail Bridge is laid ; the bridge collapses in a storm eight years later.

* December 28 – The Tay Bridge disaster – the central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.

The problem recurred at the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, and failures continued until all cast iron under-bridges were replaced by steel structures.

Beautiful Bridge of the Silvery Tay.

* Tay Bridge disaster

* Peter R. Lewis, Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay: Reinvestigating the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879, Tempus ( 2004 ), ISBN 0-7524-3160-9.

He was knighted after the successful completion of the first Tay Railway Bridge but his name is chiefly remembered for the subsequent Tay Bridge Disaster, in which 75 people are believed to have died as a result of defects in design, construction and maintenance, for all of which Bouch was held responsible.

Bouch's design for the Forth Bridge had been accepted and the foundation stone laid, but the project was cancelled due to the Tay Bridge Disaster.

* The Tay Bridge Disaster, a poem written by Scottish poet William McGonagall

The event was commemorated in a poem, The Tay Bridge Disaster, written by William McGonagall, a notoriously unskilled Scottish poet.

A. J. Cronin's first novel, Hatter's Castle ( 1931 ), includes a scene involving the Tay Bridge Disaster, and the 1942 filmed version of the book recreates the bridge's catastrophic collapse.

* Peter R Lewis, Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay: Reinvestigating the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879, Tempus ( 2004 ).

* Tay Bridge Disaster poem in full

Tay Bridge Disaster, The

Tay Bridge Disaster, The

Tay Bridge Disaster

Tay Bridge Disaster

William Topaz McGonagall produces his epic poem The Tay Bridge Disaster to commemorate the event.

* William McGonagall's poem on The Tay Bridge Disaster ( 1880 )

In 1878 the foundations for Thomas Bouch's Forth Bridge were laid on Inchgarvie ( and their bricks remain ), but after the Tay Bridge Disaster, these plans were abandoned, and the island languished until the west end of the island was extended with a pier, and used as the foundation for one of the Forth Bridge's cantilevers.

The Hopkins family fortune was destroyed by the association of this company with the Tay Bridge Disaster.

Perhaps the most famous Scottish loch is Loch Ness, although there are other large examples such as Loch Awe, Loch Lomond and Loch Tay.

Tay – Sachs disease ( also known as GM2 gangliosidosis or hexosaminidase A deficiency ) is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder.

A ganglioside is a form of sphingolipid, which makes Tay – Sachs disease a member of the sphingolipidoses.

The disease is named after the British ophthalmologist Waren Tay, who in 1881 first described a symptomatic red spot on the retina of the eye, and after the American neurologist Bernard Sachs of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, who described in 1887 the cellular changes of Tay – Sachs disease and noted an increased disease prevalence in the Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish population.

Research in the late 20th century demonstrated that Tay – Sachs disease is caused by a genetic mutation in the HEXA gene on ( human ) chromosome 15.

Tay – Sachs disease is classified into several forms, which are differentiated based on the onset age of neurological symptoms.

Juvenile Tay – Sachs disease is rarer than other forms of Tay – Sachs, and usually is initially seen in children between two and ten years old.

In contrast to the other forms, late-onset Tay – Sachs disease is usually not fatal as the effects can stop progressing.

Tay – Sachs disease is inherited in the autosomal recessive pattern, depicted above.

Tay – Sachs disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder, meaning that when both parents are carriers there is a 25 % risk of giving birth to an affected child with each pregnancy.

This mutation is the most prevalent mutation in the Ashkenazi Jewish population, and leads to the infantile form of Tay – Sachs disease.

Because Tay – Sachs was one of the first genetic disorders for which widespread genetic screening was possible, it is one of the first genetic disorders in which the prevalence of compound heterozygosity has been demonstrated.

Tay – Sachs disease is caused by insufficient activity of the enzyme hexosaminidase A. Hexosaminidase A is a vital hydrolytic enzyme, found in the lysosomes, that breaks down phospholipids.

Unlike other lysosomal storage diseases ( e. g., Gaucher disease, Niemann – Pick disease, and Sandhoff disease ), hepatosplenomegaly ( liver and spleen enlargement ) is not seen in Tay – Sachs.

There is currently no cure or treatment for Tay – Sachs disease.

Improvements in life-extending care have somewhat lengthened the survival of children with Tay – Sachs disease, but no current therapy is able to reverse or delay the disease's progress.