On 21 July 1796 Robert Burns died in Dumfries.

Burns was aged only 37 at his death. The cause of death appears to have been heart failure, probably brought on by the hard physical work done in his youth. His widow, Jean Armour, gave birth to a son on the day of her husband's funeral. However, Maxwell, named after Burns's doctor, died in infancy.

On 21 July 1827 Archibald Constable, the Scottish publisher, died. Responsible for printing many of Sir Walter Scott's works, Constable was the owner of the Encyclopaedia Britannica for a decade and was responsible for the commissioning of the 6th edition.