Seventy years ago today, a German submarine went on an unsuccessful search for ships to sink in New Zealand waters.

The surprise departure of NZ spy agency boss Ian Fletcher has prompted questions about whether he was unsettled by potential changes which could be in the pipeline.

Most of us are still suckers for an old wives' tale, presuming that homely wisdom passed down through the ages must contain at least a grain of truth.

Veteran supermaxi Wild Oats XI has reinforced her standing as the most successful boat in the 70-year history of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, claiming line honours for a record eighth time.

It is a quarter of a century since Straight Outta Compton, the seminal gangsta rap album, made a 25 sq km area of Los Angeles synonymous with gang violence and murder.

The Boxing Day feats of Brendon McCullum have underlined his favouritism to win this year’s supreme Halberg Award. Andrew Alderson selects another six of the finest performances by New Zealand test cricketers in a calendar.

Grisly exhibits linked to some of Britain’s most notorious criminals are set to go on display for the first time – after years hidden away.

Every American knows about the Mayflower making landfall in 1620 in what is now called Provincetown, Massachusetts...

The Marsden Cross is known to most of us only as a photograph. It is on a remote northern shore in the Bay of Islands, not as accessible as Waitangi or Russell.

On Wednesday it rained and on the few occasions it stopped, it thundered. It was a hell of a day to go to poor old Motat and hardly anyone did.

There is a growing belief that we're going to end up with a national flag that reflects our prowess on the rugby field rather than continuing with the existing emblem.

A 93-year-old German man Oskar Groening, who claims he was an accountant at Auschwitz, to go on trial for being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 prisoners.

55: For five anxious years the troopships set sail from New Zealand, carrying her men in uniform away to war.

Four surviving veterans of one of New Zealand's most famous naval battles joined nearly 600 sailors and thousands of well-wishers in a parade on Auckland's Queen St yesterday to mark the Battle of the River Plate's 75th anniversary.

"I wasn't as dead as I had first surmised." Those were the words of HMS Achilles gunnery officer, Lieutenant Richard Washbourn, in a previously unpublished letter.

Many years ago, when I was a young man, I visited London for the first time.

A tunnel will remove a road that had cut off part of the heritage site, and restore some tranquility to the mystic setting.

New research suggests Viking conquests were more like romantic getaways than drunken stag dos - but they still had a penchant for brutality.

World War II's greatest escape, which involved Kiwi officers scaling barbed wire fences instead of the previously favoured method of tunnelling, has been told for the first time.

Scientists studying the DNA of Richard III, whose body was found buried beneath a Leicester car park, have revealed that there was marital infidelity among his descendants.

A 7.8ha coastal section owned by descendants of one of the original settler families of Mangawhai is on the market for the first time in 125 years.

Two military heroes - former spy Pippa Doyle and Willie Apiata - rubbed shoulders last night as France bestowed its highest honour on the 93-year-old Mrs Doyle.

She parachuted behind enemy lines, evading the Nazis to to spy on their troop movements. Now a quiet Aucklander is to receive France's highest honour.

Spend a moment with the ghosts of Little Bighorn, writes Ben Stanley.

An agent who evaded the Nazis to send coded messages to Britain is to be honoured by France. Andrew Stone writes about a modest war hero who lives quietly in Auckland.

A macabre international trade in severed heads intensified Maori inter-tribal warfare to such an extent it was feared they would be wiped out altogether, a new book claims.

Our small population means we've produced few world-renowned people warranting the ultimate tribute of a statue.

Prince Harry returned to Afghanistan today on behalf of the Queen as he led emotional tributes to his friends who died in the name of war.

44: Hastings-born George Masters took part in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 before being posted to Europe. His bravery was recorded in the London Gazette

The South Island's Waitaki Valley is big country: a wide-open world of bare brown hills and huge rocks. Despite this inland setting, Otago University palaeontologist Ewan Fordyce likes to think of himself as snorkelling when he visits.