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Prince Harry has paid tribute to the "professionalism and bravery" of Estonian troops during the first day of his visit to the little Baltic state. He paid his respects to soldiers who died fighting for the country by laying a wreath at a national monument in Freedom Square in the Estonian...

The Elephant Man's mother has got a headstone on her grave in Leicester. Mary Jane Merrick's family were unable to afford a headstone for her when she died in 1873. A group dedicated to keeping her son's memory alive organised the event at Welford Road Cemetery. Her son's name, Joseph, has...

The British Isles are awash with ancient legends of ghostly black dogs. These demonic entities, also known as hellhounds, are said to roam the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland, and many are said to be harbingers of doom. Each region has its own version - In Lancashire the black...

Michael Palin is today as well-known for his televised adventures around the world as he is for being a Python. His travels since the 1980s have seen him travel from Pole to Pole, around the Pacific Rim, across the Sahara Desert, through the Himalayas and, most recently, around Brazil, a...

London-based company OwnFone has launched the world's first customisable Braille phone to give visually impaired people more independence and confidence with mobile devices. The company uses 3D printing to add personalised buttons to the front of the phone for specific contacts. The...

750 years ago today the Battle of Lewes took place, a milestone marked by the recent creation of the Battle of Lewes Tapestry, unveiled in Lewes today. The tapestry, which is similar to the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the Battle of Hastings, took a team of 60 embroiderers two years to make...

Ale tankards and pipes used by drinkers in London over 650 years ago have been found near London Bridge. As part of the Thameslink Programme, which is extending the Thameslink rail system, which runs between Bedford and Brighton through London, from 68 stations to 100 stations, archaeologists...

Could Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who has been the Tory Mayor of London since 2008 and who is decended from King George II and King James I (VI of Scotland) and is a distant cousin of David Cameron, one day become President of the United States? He is, after all, eligible. Johnson was...

The tomb of Florence Nightingale at St St Margaret's Church in East Wellow, Hampshire, has been repaired after it was damaged in a storm. The tomb was damaged, including having a tree fall on it, during the St Valentine's Day storms. Nightingale, who nursed injured and sick British troops...

Roger Bannister was credited with being the first person to run a mile in under four minutes - but 18th Century runners are reported to have got there first. Why are they not recognised? The 18th Century four-minute mile...

The 2014 Sunday Times Rich List has showed that the number of billionaires living in Britain has topped 100 for the first time. There are 104 billionaires living in Britain. This means that Britain has more billionaires per head of population than any other country. London also has more...

British planetary scientist Professor Colin Pillinger, the man behind Britain's 2003 Beagle 2 Mars rover, has died aged 70. Prof Pillinger was at his home in Cambridge when he suffered a brain haemorrhage and fell into a deep coma. His family said he later died at Addenbrooke's Hospital...

The moat at the Tower of London is to be filled with almost 900,000 poppies to mark the centenary of the start of WWI. From August 5 to November 11, the dry moat will be turned into a sea of red, with one large ceramic poppy for each of the 888,246 British soldiers killed during the...

One of the world's first printed atlases is on sale at Bloomsbury in London for £90,000. The atlas of the known world is an interpretation of the works of Roman mathematician, astrologer and geographer Claudius Ptolemy, who lived between 90 and 168AD. It contains a barely recognisable...

The former British number one tennis star Elena Baltacha died on Sunday from liver cancer at the age of just 30. Baltacha, who was born in Ukraine and emigrated to Britain at the age of five with her professional footballer father (Ipswich Town, St Johnstone and Inverness Caledonian Thistle)...

Yes, it's that time of year again. This Saturday night it's the 59th Eurovision Song Contest, the cheesy popfest which will be broadcast live globally. As last year's winner, Denmark - which won it for the first time since 2000, with 1963 being their one other victory - is hosting this...

More than 100 people are taking part in the re-chalking of the Uffington White Horse. Set in the beautiful countryside of the parish of Uffington in Oxfordshire (previously in neighbouring Berkshire) the Uffington White Horse is thought to date back up to 1000BC, measures 374 feet in length...

The result of a judicial review over where the remains of Richard III should be buried is expected this month. The judicial review will examine Justice Secretary Chris Grayling's decision to authorise the exhumation and reinterment of the monarch’s remains in Leicester. It has been brought by...

Scottish independence setback after Salmond calls Scots "drunks" and backs Putin A new poll in Scotland has revealed a surge against Scottish independence after Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister and the leader of the SNP, the party campaigning for Scottish independence, pledged his...

The Wiltshire town of Amesbury has been confired as the UK's oldest settlement. The town, notable for being the location of Stonehenge, has been continually occupied since around the year 8820BC, experts have found. The news was confirmed following an archaeological dig which also unearthed...