A statue of the former Soviet dicatator Josef Stalin was removed from a plinth in his birthplace in Georgia.

Two Canadian teachers who wanted a memento of their trip to Auschwitz have been arrested by Polish police for stealing pins from the camp's railway track, according to reports.

Seeking to score a point against Darwin’s disciples, the Bishop of Oxford unwisely baited Thomas Henry Huxley by enquiring whether he would prefer to think of himself descended from an ape on his grandfather’s or grandmother’s side. According to legend he quickly had his comeuppance. Huxley whispered to a neighbour: “The Lord hath delivered him…

A nurse famously photographed being kissed by an American sailor in New York's Times Square in 1945 to celebrate the end of the Second World War has died at the age of 91…

While Mr. Reed said he can "appreciate the concern" of locals who have voiced their opposition to the bust, he said the bust can serve as a teaching tool to make visitors recognize the importance of Stalin as one of the leaders in World War II…

This strange and unusual story begins in 1910 London, with 48 year old American born Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, MD. (who also enjoyed practicing dentistry) Dr. Crippen was married to Cora, who preferred her stage name ‘Belle Elmore.’ ‘Belle’ was a mediocre theatrical singer in her early 30’s originally from New York and the couple…

A new examination of his papers shows how he agonised over every famous phrase – even adding one at the last minute – and how his private secretary was secretly unimpressed by his efforts.

A postcard sent home by a Bosnian soldier in the First World War has finally reached his family after 95 years, thanks to an antique collector who delivered it personally to the man's grandson after buying it at a fair in California.

Diaries and documents belonging to Benito Mussolini are hidden in a secret location near the Swiss border, it has been claimed.

Michelangelo concealed anatomical sketches in the robes and faces of the figures he painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in a coded attack on the Church's disdain for science, researchers believe.

Napoleon Bonaparte still harboured ambitions of invading Britain even as he was sailing to St Helena where he was exiled, according to a previously unseen diary.

An archaeologist has discovered an 800 year-old medieval badge emblazoned with three lions.

Slowly but steadily, a decade-old business around the dead and universally despised dictator Adolf Hitler is emerging as a small-scale industry in India.

A photograph of Winston Churchill giving his victory salute has been airbrushed to remove his signature cigar.

The idea that Hitler should be thanked for Indian independence proceeds from the view that, by weakening Britain, Germany forced it to abandon its empire.

Mikhail Gorbachev, whose attempts to reform the Soviet Union helped to bring about its demise, says he regrets the destruction of monuments to Joseph Stalin which he described as a “silly, anti-historical act”.

A former UK ambassador to Israel has been named as the government's first envoy for post-Holocaust issues.

Russia has uncovered at least 495 skeletons, many with head gunshot wounds, in a mass grave probably dating back to purges under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in the 1930s, municipal authorities said.

A legendary bluesman and massive influence upon rock groups such as Led Zeppelin. Take a look at the great man in action here: video.

Schumann’s parents were not musical but they encouraged his interest in music with Piano lessons from the age of 10. However his family was later to be beset by tragedy. When Schumann was in his teens, his father died and his sister committed suicide in quick succession, events that were to have a deep impact…

Germany's two main neo-Nazi parties are considering plans to merge in an attempt to gain popularity, according to reports.

Almost a generation after leaving the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev blames himself – for reforming the Soviet Union so fast that it couldn't survive. Mary Dejevsky meets him

Life in Medieval Britain may not have been comfortable but its inhabitants had a dedication to debt-free living that we could learn from today, a think-tank has claimed.

The hovercraft was invented by Christopher Cockerell in 1956. The theory behind one of the most successful inventions of the 20th century, the Hovercraft, was originally tested in 1955 using an empty KiteKat cat food tin inside a coffee tin, an industrial air blower and a pair of kitchen scales. link

A top Russian official says there's no legal basis for reopening an investigation into the Katyn massacres, when thousands of Polish officers were killed by Soviet secret police.

A Second World War bomb has exploded in central Germany, killing three people.