The first edition of The Sunday Times Colour Section was published on 4 February 1962, and included some significant harbingers of the Swinging Sixties.

The magazine has published lengthy and detailed articles on major events, from the Great Train Robbery to 9/11, from Beatlemania to Britart, and from the 1969 Moon landing to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Since 1977 the magazine has published the column "A Life In The Day", which has revealed intimate everyday details via interviews with many prominent people, including Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Paul McCartney, Nancy Dell'Olio, Muammar Gaddafi, Kate Winslet and Celine Dion.

Recent highlights in the magazine have included David James Smith's account of the 9/11 victims who jumped from the World Trade Center ("The Fallen"), for which Smith won Features Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards for 2011;[3] Lynn Barber's 2010 interview with the writer Christopher Hitchens; and John Arlidge's 2009 interview with Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.

In 1990 the magazine established the Ian Parry Scholarship, in order to encourage young photographers and help them to undertake the assignments of their choice.

[4] The Sunday Times Magazine has published many special editions, with subjects ranging across politics, the arts, science and sport.