Great gifts of history rated

After a long, arduous climb, NASA’s Perseverance rover has finally reached the top of Jezero Crater’s rim. It took the rover three and a half months to vertically ascend 500 metres (1,640ft), at times

The most gruesome case in Finland’s history began on Tuesday 19 August 1930, when 14-year-old Leo Löfman found a human hand in a spring. The boy had been picking berries in Tattarisuo, a marshy, unpop

Many birds have fabulous plumage to attract mates or send warning messages. Some of the colours in their feathers are produced by microscopic structures on the feather surface that absorb and reflect

Alfred and Bede. These are the two figures who tower over the first half-millennium of the history of Anglo-Saxon England. There’s a reason for that, of course: they wrote this history. The Venerable

In 1798, Britain’s most celebrated admiral pursued the French across the Mediterranean, attempting to thwart General Bonaparte’s mission to Egypt. The pursuit culminated in what was arguably the most strategically important naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars

KATHERINE COBB is a member of AGRA based in Somerset ANTONY MARR is a fellow, and previous chair, of AGRA and a former deputy registrar JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait s