Latest fromHistory

Brits keep tight hold on NZ war diaries
The father of a Northland man's World War I diaries could be the last returned to veterans' descendants by the British archive.

UK navy sub spied on its own side
A Royal Navy sub was sent on a Cold War mission to spy on its own side to prove that crews could safely carry out surveillance of the Russian fleet.

How Bond actor's grandfather spied on the Nazis
Real-life links of Ben Wishaw's family to world of espionage revealed in book by agent's daughter.

The hardy souls who tamed the heartland
An edited extract from High Country Stations of the Mackenzie, written by Mary Hobbs reveals the pioneers of the famed Mt Cook Station.

Sir Edmund on world heritage list
The legacy of Sir Edmund Hillary has scaled new heights, with his personal documents added to a list of the world's most treasured documents.

Is Tinder killing romance?
Is lasting love being replaced by bored singles looking for one night stands?

Old dog can teach us new tricks
The teeth of a dog may provide new insight into how humans migrated across the world's largest ocean to New Zealand, and where they came from.

Why we have a thing for bling
Our obsession with bling has shone through the centuries. What draws us to shiny things and how much is too much?

Titanic's menu auctioned for $137K
Items from the Titanic, including a lunch menu grabbed by a survivor, have been sold at auction.

Work begins on removing ancient bones
Work is to start on removing human bones from a restaurant building site at Auckland's Long Bay Regional Park.

Fear and loathing in Taranaki
How did the 19th century murder of a vivacious young Englishwoman affect the invasion of a Maori pacifist settlement one year later?

Mansfield and the shadow of WWI
On the afternoon of October 6, 1915, Leslie Beauchamp, a New Zealander in the British Army, gave a class in grenade throwing. He didn't survive it.

Highlights of the Heritage Festival
Why stay home in the holidays? Catherine Smith checks out the Heritage Festival's highlights.

Museum's trip down memory lane concludes
Standing in the light of a gas lamp and pressing your nose against window panes to peer into a quaint colonial shop or cottage will become a thing of the past for visitors to Auckland Museum.

Did Anne Boleyn write a song pre-execution?
Forgotten for nearly 500 years, the sheet music owned by Henry VIII's second wife could shed new light on her life - and loves, says Ivan Hewett.

Council stands firm on heritage
The Auckland Council is holding the line on rules to protect the city's built heritage after being advised they are a burden on landowners seeking to develop their properties.

Veterans remember WW2's fallen
Veterans who today marked 70 years since the end of World War Two in the Pacific say people haven't learned enough lessons from the war.

The mystery of the stolen Stradivarius
After 35 years a violin worth millions finally makes its way home.

Editorial: Hiroshima nightmare still a reality
If there is one event that defines the modern world, it is the blinding, searing, radioactive explosion over the city of Hiroshima 70 years ago today.

Alexander Gillespie: The deadly legacy of Hiroshima
Seventy years on, the feared nuclear Armageddon has been kept in check - but a new threat is mounting, writes Alexander Gillespie.

Bones in the wilderness trigger many emotions
I've written, enough times to make it seem memorable, of hikers, hunters, divers and cavers coming unexpectedly upon human bones.

Beeman Base at cross roads
Neglected Campbell Island seems to me like New Zealand's planet Pluto.

Prehistoric tooth reveals painful dentistry
And before the advent of local anaesthetic, the process of treating them sounds fairly miserable.

Germany: The great escape
Grant Bradley revisits a long-held interest with a tour of Colditz, the German castle which housed POWs during World War II.

Clash scuttles event to mark wreck discovery
Politics have scuttled an event to celebrate the discovery of the "ghost ship" SS Ventnor, which sank off Hokianga in 1902.

The moment the bombs exploded
"I looked at Martini and said 'abandon ship, we need to get out of here'.