Significant points in the history of the programme included extensive coverage of the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 and the resignation of Grampian Police chief constable Dr. Ian Oliver in 1998. North Tonight also covered the murder of Aberdeen schoolboy Scott Simpson in the mid-1990s and the bird flu incident in Cellardyke, Fife in April 2006. Its predecessor, Grampian Today, had the first live broadcast from an oil platform in the North Sea, as well as the first live broadcast from the summit of Cairn Gorm. During the mid 1990s, the programme twice won the BAFTA Scotland award for Best News Programme.