* Photographs can portray the beautiful stories from history. The British Library has released over a million images onto Flickr Commons for people to use however they see fit. The images have been taken from pages of seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century books by technology giant Microsoft and given to the library for free.
* Which historical figure has the biggest reputation? How will Justin Bieber stand up against Jesus through history? Time magazine has listed the top 500 historical figures by systematically measuring each figure's historical significance into a single consensus value (similar to the way Google ranks webpages). The aim is to see which figures will still populate future generations mindshare in the years to come.
* Work has begun in Leicester on the £4million visitor centre to commemorate the exhumation of King Richard III's body last year. The centre will tell the story of the king's life, his brutal death at Bosworth Field in 1485 and the discovery of his grave by University of Leicester archaeologists and the Richard III Society.
* This week proved eventful for archaeologists with several discoveries that broke new scientific ground. Radiocarbon dating results revealed that a body found in a bog in Ireland is 600 years older than previously thought, making it the oldest to be discovered in Europe.
* A bit closer to home, scientists have reconstructed a Neolithic man found buried in a 300-foot-long mauseleom. The enamel on the man's teeth allowed scientists to determine the composition of his drinking water and to learn that he moved back and forth between modern Wales and the area surrounding Stonehenge until well into his teens.
* The discovery of an ancient bone at a burial site in Kenya puts the origin of human hand dexterity more than half a million years earlier than previously thought. It is the earliest fossilised evidence of when humans developed a strong enough grip to start using tools.
* Scientists in China have discovered an 'important step' in the modern domestication of cats. Scientists believe it was the cat's appetite that led to domestication; grain stored by ancient farmers was a magnet for rodents, which in turn attracted wild cats. Over time, the cats adapted to village life and became tame around their human hosts.
* British criminal Ronnie Biggs, who took part in the 1963 Great Train Robbery, died this week aged 84. Biggs was part of the gang which escaped with £2.6million from the Glasgow to London mail train on 8 August 1963.
Victoria Barnsley, former CEO of Harper Collins, gave an interview on BBC Radio 4, where she discussed the role of women in publishing, the future of self-publishing and new business models.
Which history and publishing stories have you enjoyed reading this week?