Unopened letters more than 300 years old that were folded using mysterious techniques have now been read for the first time without opening them, a new study finds. For centuries, before mass-produced envelopes started proliferating in the 1830s, most letters across the globe were sent using letterlocking, a method of folding letters to become their own envelopes. These intricate techniques also often served to help recipients detect if mail had been tampered with.

Human evolution and exploration of the world were shaped by a hunger for tasty food – “a quest for deliciousness” – according to two leading academics. Ancient humans who had the ability to smell and desire more complex aromas, and enjoy food and drink with a sour taste, gained evolutionary advantages over their less-discerning rivals, argue the authors of a new book about the part played by flavour in our development.

It is estimated that at the beginning of the 20th century about 67% of the population in Germany were Protestants. However, the Catholics were strong in some areas such as in Bavaria. The Jews formed just under 1 per cent of the total population of Germany.

A team of electrical technicians made the discovery while moving an electrical pole in Monmouthshire.

In the late 1700s, a large percentage of Europeans feared the tomato. A nickname for the fruit was the “poison apple” because it was thought that aristocrats got sick and died after eating them, but the truth of the matter was that wealthy Europeans used pewter plates, which were high in lead content. Because tomatoes are so high in acidity, when placed on this particular tableware, the fruit would leach lead from the plate, resulting in many deaths from lead poisoning.

My father, John Mortimer, brought me up to believe that you can be a good person and kill someone and a perfectly awful person who never gets so much as a parking ticket your whole life. It’s an education I’m proud of. He was an author and a criminal defense barrister — in his words, “the only playwright ever to have defended a murderer in the central criminal court at the Old Bailey” — and his prowess in both professions rode on his ability to see past easy morality and to respect the fact that the truth is never one-sided and therefore art should not be, either.

Martin Cooper, who led the creation of the DynaTAC, shares his thoughts on that first phone and what would've happened if AT&T had remained a monopoly.

many engrossing and possibly gross stories about historical body parts that we are going to share with you today, from Buddha’s tooth to Napoleon’s …

Researchers designed a way to open ancient letters without ever breaking their seal using X-ray technology.

Practice of intricately folding letters to secure them is known as "letterlocking."

As the U.S. Treasury considers putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill to honor her role in the northbound underground railroad, new attention is being paid to the often overlooked southbound route.

The well-preserved chariot, complete with decorative medallions depicting erotic scenes, is an "extraordinary discovery" that may have been used in wedding ceremonies.

Warfare before computers: A German U-boat from 1915.

During the Korean War, the United States inflicted unimaginable horrors on the Korean people. Yet today Americans know almost nothing about their government's role in war crimes and atrocities.

A campaign by Quebec separatists culminated in two kidnappings, a killing and the suspension of civil liberties

The CIA tried to fight communism by dosing unwitting soldiers and prisoners with acid. ON APRIL 10, 1953, ALLEN DULLES, THE NEWLY APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF THE CIA, delivered a speech to a gathering of Princeton alumni. Though the event was mundane, global tensions were running high. The Korean War was coming to an end, and earlier that week, The New York Times had published a startling story asserting that American POWs returning from the country may have been “converted” by “Communist brain-washers.”

The move draws sharp criticism from tribal legislators who say the court exceeded its authority by changing the constitution itself without a vote of the Cherokee people.

After the Civil War, Henrietta Wood made history by pursuing an audacious lawsuit against the man who’d kidnapped her back into slavery. Yet the story was lost to her own family.

At the turn of the 20th Century, Thomas Edison invented a battery with the unusual quirk of producing hydrogen. Now, 120 years later, the battery is coming into its own.

A new book, about the suburban women who poisoned their husbands in post-war Sydney, explores their cold-blooded modus operandi and the hot dinners they prepared.