12 July

Henry II does public penance at Becket's tomb in Canterbury.

Thomas Becket Never caught

Four of Henry II's knights cut down the Archbishop of Canterbury in his own cathedral in 1170. Within three years he was a saint and the king did penance.

Charles Edward Cotton, aged seven, dies after a few days' illness.

Mary Ann Cotton Executed

A County Durham nurse buried husbands, children and a lover to 'gastric fever'. A seven-year-old stepson's death finally brought arsenic to light.

The Court of Cassation quashes the Rennes verdict and declares Dreyfus innocent.

Dreyfus Affair Disputed verdict

A torn note from a wastebasket, a Jewish captain sent to Devil's Island, and the real spy acquitted in three minutes: the injustice that split France.

Detective Chief Inspector John Kane of Scotland Yard arrives to join the investigation.

Irish Crown Jewels theft Unsolved

Days before a royal visit in July 1907, the diamond regalia of the Order of St Patrick vanished from a safe in Dublin Castle. They have never been found.

Khioniya Guseva stabs Rasputin outside his house in Pokrovskoye; he recovers.

Rasputin Never caught

Poisoned cakes, a man who would not die, a body under the ice: the famous story comes from one of Rasputin's killers. The autopsy tells a plainer one.