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The world is asking how a country that tore itself apart over Brexit in June could be so gloriously united in August. At £4.1m per medal, Britain, or Team GB to give it its brand name, has found the fast lane from the ignominy of Atlanta (one gold medal) 20 years ago to Olympic...

The first queen of England in her own right, Mary I (reigned 19 July 1553 to 17 November 1558 ) was known as 'Bloody Mary' for her brutal persecution of Protestants. But she is also remembered for her phantom pregnancy of 1555. Perhaps a result of the queen’s overwhelming desire to have a child...

Europe’s Aeolus space laser mission, which is designed to make unprecedented maps of Earth’s winds, has reached a long-awaited key milestone. Engineers at Airbus in the UK have finally managed to bolt together all the elements of the satellite after overcoming major technical challenges...

Dour, sexless, perpetually unamused… Queen Victoria has had a notoriously bad press since her death in 1901. Yet according to A.N. Wilson, the historical adviser to new ITV drama Victoria, this reputation is not only wide of the mark, it was deliberate propaganda masterminded by a Royal Family...

An Ancient Egyptian tool has been found in a wardrobe. The 4,500-year-old wooden maul, or mallet, used by Egyptian craftsmen, had been stored in the wardrobe in Derbyshire to protect it from sunlight. It was originally discovered during World War Two in a cave near Cairo by a relative of...

Viewers were left astonished by the mysterious, emerald-green swimming pool that became a feature of the Rio Olympic Games. But those who think that this is one of the most bizarre scenes in Olympic history will have to think again. Over the 120 years since the first modern Games took place...

Team GB’s performance in Rio is both remarkable and refreshing, a ray of sunshine in the relentless gloom surrounding not just the usual dire outings in international football, but fears over Brexit, home-grown terror, a dysfunctional Labour Party, childhood obesity, housing shortages, a...

Silver 12th Century coins found in a field in Derbyshire have been declared treasure by a coroner. The 10 coins were unearthed by several metal detectorists in 2014 and date from the reigns of King Stephen and King Henry II. Historians believe they were probably originally in a purse dropped...

A forgotten British-era bunker has been discovered under a governor's residence in Mumbai (Bombay) decades after it was sealed off. The 500-ft long underground shelter was used when India was under colonial British rule, and it reopened this month for the first time in decades. Spread...

If you want your child to become Britain's next Olympic hero, then have your baby on 23rd March For that is the day four of Great Britain's most successful ever Olympians were born - Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Mo Farah. They have won a combined total of 20 gold...

The mystique of the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge has long stoked people’s imaginations. Theories as to what the Neolithic monument was used for include everything from a burial site to a place of healing. But a team of Australian researchers believes that the bluestone circle and...

Charles Darwin, the brilliant naturalist whose works on the theory of evolution single-handedly founded modern biology, is one of the greatest scientists who ever lived. Revered by many and despised by some, his massive influence strongly remains in many aspects of our lives. Let’s learn more...

Brunhilde Pomsel says working as secretary to Joseph Goebbels was "just another job", and that those who say they would have stood up to the Nazis in her shoes are probably mistaken. Ms Pomsel is, at 105, one of the few surviving people who regularly interacted with the Nazi inner circle...

Breaking apart from Europe, resentment towards Westminster elites, financial uncertainty - sound familiar? Back in 1972, before the UK had even joined the Common Market, Daphne du Maurier had anticipated it all in her novel Rule Britannia. So how much did she get right? Did Daphne du Maurier...

Britain’s medal haul in Rio is a lesson in the determined, often ruthless pursuit of success, and the rewards it brings. Yet again, the ideas of the Right have been proved to have so much more to offer than those from the Left... British success at the Olympics is not just a national...

A previously unknown Egyptian-style pyramid has been found in a remote area of the Kazakhstan steppe some 3,900 miles northeast of Cairo. The structure is now substantially in ruins but it is believed that it was a lookalike of the famous Pyramid of Djoser in Egypt - the first of the...

In 1536, a London merchant was gunned down with a lethal new weapon in a killing that bore all the hallmarks of a professional ‘hit’. But who pulled the trigger, and why? Derek Wilson investigates... The hunt for the Tudor hitman...

A copper brooch that could be up to 2,000-years-old has been discovered close to a site linked to the legendary King Arthur. The piece of jewellery is thought to date back to the Romano-British period while the country was under Roman rule. Some reports have even suggested it could have...

A few weeks of not abnormally warm summer weather have prompted light-headed journalists to report not only that this could be the “hottest August for years” and “the hottest year on record” but that, thanks to climate change, we can, within 30 years, expect “killer heatwaves” to become “the...

Sports broadcaster Gary Lineker presented the first episode of the new Match of the Day last night in nothing but his underpants. The Leicester City fan pledged last season that if 5000-1 outsiders Leicester City go on win the Premier League he would "do the first MOTD of next season in just...