Gamma‐ray bursts remain one of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics in spite of recent observational advances and intense theoretical work. Many properties of bursts which were known 20 years ago have been confirmed and further detailed by observations of BATSE on the Compton Observatory. The new observation with the greatest impact has been the observed isotropic distribution of bursts along with a deficiency of weak bursts along with a deficiency of weak bursts which would be expected from a homogeneous burst distribution. This is not compatible with any known Galactic population. New spectral observations have been made as well: BATSE has observed spectral changes on very short timescales and EGRET has seen burst emission above 1 GeV.