  It is now more than 40 years since the discovery of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)
and in the last two decades there has been major progress in the observations
of bursts, the afterglows and their host galaxies. This recent progress has
been fueled by the ability of gamma-ray telescopes to quickly localise GRBs and
the rapid follow-up observations with multi-wavelength instruments in space and
on the ground. A total of 674 GRBs have been localised to date using the coded
aperture masks of the four gamma-ray missions, BeppoSAX, HETE II, INTEGRAL and
Swift. As a result there are now high quality observations of more than 100
GRBs, including afterglows and host galaxies, revealing the richness and
progress in this field. The observations of GRBs cover more than 20 orders of
magnitude in energy, from 10^-5 eV to 10^15 eV and also in two
non-electromagnetic channels, neutrinos and gravitational waves. However the
continuation of progress relies on space based instruments to detect and
rapidly localise GRBs and distribute the coordinates.
