22 August

Richard III is killed at Bosworth and Henry Tudor becomes Henry VII.

Princes in the Tower Unsolved

In 1483 a twelve-year-old king and his brother vanished inside the Tower of London and their uncle took the crown. What became of them is still debated.

Rackham, Bonny, Read and about a dozen men steal the sloop William from Nassau harbour.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read Convicted

Two women sailed with John Rackham for barely two months in 1720. Their trial in Jamaica is the solid record; almost everything else is later legend.

The Home Secretary commutes the sentence to penal servitude for life.

Florence Maybrick Disputed verdict

An American wife, a Liverpool cotton broker who dosed himself with arsenic, and a verdict so doubtful the Home Office reprieved her within weeks.

All four defendants are convicted; Thérèse and Frédéric are sentenced to five years.

Thérèse Humbert Convicted

For twenty years Paris lent fortunes against an American millionaire's legacy locked in Thérèse Humbert's safe. In May 1902 they opened it.

The painter Louis Béroud finds the picture gone; after a morning of confusion the museum confirms it has been stolen.

Mona Lisa theft Convicted

In 1911 a glazier walked out of the Louvre with Leonardo's portrait. It was gone 28 months, and the empty wall made it the world's most famous painting.