The Times has officially opened up its digital archive of 200 years of newspapers.

The archive, which was launched in beta last month, features content from the paper between January 1 1785 and December 31 1985.

A few pages are missing, according to the site’s FAQs, and there are no editions from December 1 1978 to November 12 1979 because of an industrial dispute at the time.

Each edition has been digitally scanned and the archive has a very speedy and accurate search.

Access to the archive will be free for an introductory period, but registration with TimesOnline is required.