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Wills, heirs, estates and the lawsuits over them, each with its sources. Search, or filter by subject, drama, era and region.

AI illustration: An antique will on a walnut desk with its red wax seal broken
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  1. 2026Raymond's founder gave his son his 37 percent stake and says he was then pushed out of the family towerDivorce and feuds
  2. 2026Valentino left his estate to a foundation in Liechtenstein that the public had never heard ofBusiness dynasties
  3. 2026CIA officer Aldrich Ames paid cash for a $540,000 house on a salary under $70,000; he and his wife forfeited the proceeds, and she went to prison while their son lived in BogotáStates and spies
  4. 2026Dolly Parton's estate company sued her nephew and former security chief one month after her death, alleging threats to ruin her brandMusic and sport
  5. 2025Lord Brocket was jailed for five years for insurance fraud in 1996, and his trustees leased out Brocket HallEuropean families
  6. 2025The Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land for £300,000 in 1869, went insolvent in 2025, and sold its 1670 charter for $18 millionNorth America
  7. 2025Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead a week apart, and his children are fighting wills that leave them nothingHollywood and TV
  8. 2025Sunjay Kapur died at a polo match, and his children say the will leaving his Rs 30,000 crore estate to his widow is forgedIndia and South Asia
  9. 2025Michael Schumacher's family has kept his condition secret since 2013, and a former guard tried to sell his medical records for €15 millionMusic and sport
  10. 2025Sly Stone was living in a van when a jury awarded him $5 million in stolen royalties, and the award against his manager was reversedMusic and sport
  11. 2025Bill Gates said in May 2025 the Gates Foundation will spend its endowment and close on 31 December 2045Foundations
  12. 2025Nick Reiner, charged with killing Rob and Michele Reiner, sues for his $1.5 million trust fundHollywood and TV
  13. 2025Two half-brothers were each crowned Pakubuwono XIII in 2004, and in 2025 two of the next king's sons each took the title Pakubuwono XIVJapan and Southeast Asia
  14. 2025Giorgio Armani's will orders his heirs to sell 15 percent of his company to a rival group within 18 monthsBusiness dynasties
  15. 2025Venezuela seized foreign oil projects in 2007, and a Delaware judge ordered its US refiner Citgo sold for $5.9 billion to pay the claimsOil and natural resources
  16. 2025A mob demolished the house where Sheikh Hasina's father was killed, and a tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia and ordered her assets confiscatedJailed and executed
  17. 2025Najib Razak's stepson made The Wolf of Wall Street with money from Malaysia's state fund, and Najib was given 15 more years in prisonMoney and markets
  18. 2025Brian Wilson was placed in a conservatorship after his wife died, while his first wife sued for half of a $50 million rights saleMusic and sport
  19. 2025A year after Ozzy Osbourne died, Sharon Osbourne asked the High Court to remove his accountant of more than 40 years as executorMusic and sport
  20. 2024Alain Delon never acknowledged the son his mother raised, and French courts ruled the claim too late after both men diedSecret heirs
  21. 2024Suzuki Motor was run by four adopted sons in a row, including Osamu Suzuki, who married into the family and ran it for 43 yearsBusiness dynasties
  22. 2024Alain Delon's three children fought over his care and his two wills, and in 2026 two of them were fined for secretly recording the thirdHollywood and TV
  23. 2024Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou's three other children froze $1.8 billion in Hong Kong to claim trusts he wrote by handAsian dynasties
  24. 2024Liam Payne fell from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony with no will, and his £24 million went to his seven-year-old sonMusic and sport
  25. 2024Shannen Doherty signed her divorce settlement the day before she died of cancerHollywood and TV
  26. 2024Ratan Tata's will gave a third of the residue to a little-known Jamshedpur businessmanIndia and South Asia
  27. 2024Elon Musk gave his foundation $7.9 billion in Tesla stock in two years, and its filings show it paid out less than requiredFoundations
  28. 2024The Māori King's council passed over the son who had stood in for him and named his youngest child queen at his funeralNative nations and islands
  29. 2024Mango's founder fell to his death on a hike with his son, and a judge has named the son the only suspectBusiness dynasties
  30. 2024Roberto Cavalli split his estate equally among his partner and six children, and the heirs accepted it only up to the value of his debtsBusiness dynasties
  31. 2024O.J. Simpson paid little of the $33.5 million judgment while alive, and in 2025 his executor accepted a $58 million claim from Ron Goldman's fatherJailed and executed
  32. 2024Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony, and the state held his body for eight days while investigators pressed his mother to agree to a secret burialJailed and executed
  33. 2024Warren Buffett's will once named the Gates Foundation; he removed it in 2024 and stopped his lifetime gifts to it in 2026Money and markets
  34. 2024Norman Jewison's three children sued after he changed his will two months before his death in 2024; the claims were settled by mediation and never tested in courtHollywood and TV
  35. 2023A 2014 letter said the four Hinduja brothers owned everything jointly, and the eldest brother's daughters fought it through his dementia and deathIndia and South Asia
  36. 2023Robert Blake was acquitted of murdering his wife, then ordered to pay her children $30 millionHollywood and TV
  37. 2023Gina Lollobrigida left half her estate to an assistant who was convicted of exploiting her, and her son says €10 million is goneHollywood and TV
  38. 2023After Mohamed Al Fayed died, more than 180 women came forward, and Harrods went to court over his estate2015 to 2026
  39. 2023Matthew Perry died of ketamine, and his doctor, his assistant and a dealer called the "Ketamine Queen" were prosecutedHollywood and TV
  40. 2023Michael Oher of "The Blind Side" learned he was never adopted, and a judge ended the Tuohy conservatorshipMusic and sport
  41. 2023Silvio Berlusconi left €100 million to his 33-year-old partner and €30 million to a friend convicted of mafia ties2015 to 2026
  42. 2023Greece took its exiled king's palaces without payment, and the European Court ordered €13.7 million in compensationRoyalty
  43. 2023The SEC fined the LDS Church and Ensign Peak $5 million for hiding its stock portfolio behind 13 shell companiesFoundations
  44. 2023LG's chairman adopted his nephew as heir; his widow and daughters sued to undo the share split and the adoption, and lost both in 2026Business dynasties
  45. 2023Mohbad's father has kept the singer unburied for nearly three years until a court-ordered DNA test shows whether his grandson is his son's childFame and fortune
  46. 2023Abby Choi's former husband and his father and brother are on trial for her murder over a flat she had put in her father-in-law's nameFame and fortune
  47. 2023The last Nizam of Hyderabad inherited one of the world's largest fortunes and died in Turkey after losing most of itFame and fortune
  48. 2023Israeli troops shot hostage Yotam Haim as he fled his captors, and in 2026 a court let his mother use his sperm for a grandchildModern estates
  49. 2023FBI spy Robert Hanssen forfeited $1.4 million from Moscow and his pension, and his plea deal left his wife the house, three cars and a survivor annuityStates and spies
  50. 2023Matteo Messina Denaro owned nothing on paper when he was caught after 30 years on the run, and gave his surname to his daughter weeks before he diedMoney and markets
  51. 2023People in the old county of Lancashire who die with no will and no kin leave their estates to the King, and the Guardian found the money refurbishing his rental propertyLand and wealth transfer
  52. 2023Chuck Feeney secretly handed his Duty Free Shoppers stake to a foundation in 1984, gave away more than $8 billion, and kept about $2 millionLand and wealth transfer
  53. 2023Tony Bennett's daughters sued their brother, his manager and trustee, saying a man who earned $100 million left under $7 millionMusic and sport
  54. 2023Lisa Marie Presley's mother contested her trust, then resigned as trustee in exchange for $1 million and a grave near Elvis at GracelandMusic and sport
  55. 2023Lisa Marie Presley's trust was told it owed $3.8 million on Graceland, and the Missouri woman who forged the loan got 57 months in prisonMusic and sport
  56. 2023Jimmy Buffett left his widow a $275 million trust with his accountant as co-trustee, and each has asked a court to remove the otherMusic and sport
  57. 2023Rupert Murdoch tried to rewrite his family trust so Lachlan would control his companies, and a Nevada commissioner found they acted in bad faithBusiness dynasties
  58. 2023Harry Belafonte tried to sell Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers, King's children said they were wrongfully taken, and Belafonte sued them and kept the papersMusic and sport
  59. 2023The original Hermes bag made for Jane Birkin sold at Sotheby's Paris in July 2025 for 8.58 million euros, the highest price paid for a handbag at auctionHollywood and TV
  60. 2022Leonardo Del Vecchio split his holding company into eight equal shares, and his heirs are suing in Milan and LuxembourgEuropean families
  61. 2022Anne Heche's ex said a 2011 email was her will, and the court gave her estate to her 20-year-old sonHollywood and TV
  62. 2022Wendy Williams has been under a guardianship since 2022 and is still asking a New York court to end itHollywood and TV
  63. 2022Pelé fought a paternity case he lost, and after his death a woman claimed his estate until two DNA tests failedMusic and sport
  64. 2022The Tata board removed Cyrus Mistry in 2016, and India's Supreme Court upheld it over the minority family's appealIndia and South Asia
  65. 2022Barre Seid gave his company to a new 501(c)(4) run by Leonard Leo, a $1.6 billion political gift that avoided up to $400 million in taxFoundations
  66. 2022Angola's former president died in Barcelona, a daughter fought to bury him in Spain, and a Spanish court sent the body to his widow in LuandaEgypt and Africa
  67. 2022Hawaii's "last princess" was ruled unable to manage her $215 million trust, married her partner during the court fight, and the settlement gave her wife $40 millionNative nations and islands
  68. 2022Gal Costa's adopted son asked to exhume her and challenged her widow's claim to half the estate, then settled for an equal splitModern estates
  69. 2022Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju's family paid inheritance tax with 29.3 percent of his holding company, and the government could not find a buyerModern estates
  70. 2022A Miami businessman burned a drawing he said was Frida Kahlo's to sell 10,000 NFTs, and Mexico investigated because her work is a national monumentModern estates
  71. 2022Angola's president made his daughter head of the state oil company; his successor fired her, and courts froze her assets in four countriesOil and natural resources
  72. 2022Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky's youngest son agreed to sell his manuscripts for $7 million; his brothers said Torah law split the estate among three sons and none of the five daughtersJewish law and estates
  73. 2022Naomi Judd's will named her husband executor, and her family sued to keep the police file on her death sealedMusic and sport
  74. 2022Sidhu Moose Wala's parents won his song copyright in court, had a son by IVF at 58, and were questioned by the state over the babyMusic and sport
  75. 2022Jerry Lee Lewis put his ranch in his manager's name to hide it from the IRS; after he died, a judge ordered his son out and the manager's heirs listed it for $1.6 millionMusic and sport
  76. 2022Takeoff of Migos was shot dead with no will; his mother and father are fighting over the money the bowling alley paid for his deathMusic and sport
  77. 2022Bernie Worrell's widow sued George Clinton for half of 264 Parliament-Funkadelic recordings, and an appeals court sent the case to trialMusic and sport
  78. 2022Nichelle Nichols's son became her conservator in 2019 and fought her manager in court; after her 2022 death a jury awarded her family $13 million, capped at $400,000Hollywood and TV
  79. 2021The Barclay twins' nephews bugged the Ritz conservatory and recorded their uncle's business talksDivorce and feuds
  80. 2021Melinda French Gates left the Gates Foundation with $12.5 billion from Bill Gates under their divorce agreementDivorce and feuds
  81. 2021Tengelmann chief Karl-Erivan Haub vanished near the Matterhorn, and his brother bought out his widow and childrenEuropean families
  82. 2021Argentine president Carlos Menem's son from his prison-era affair was recognised by a court only in 2006, after his mother's deathSecret heirs
  83. 2021Tom Girardi was put under his brother's conservatorship with Alzheimer's disease, then convicted of stealing client money and sent to prison at 86Jailed and executed
  84. 2021South Korea could not collect 86.7 billion won of Chun Doo-hwan's forfeiture after he diedMilitary families
  85. 2021DMX died without a will, leaving 15 children, a fiancée the court would not recognize, and an estate valued under $1 millionMusic and sport
  86. 2021The Zulu king's widow challenged his will as forged, and his successor's recognition went to South Africa's highest courtRoyalty
  87. 2021Japan's Princess Mako refused a ¥140 million payout to marry a commoner and lost her royal statusRoyalty
  88. 2021Bernard Tapie was beaten in his home six months before he died owing the state more than 400 million euros, and his widow lost her flatModern estates
  89. 2021An 88-year-old Shanghai man signed his 3 million yuan home over to the fruit seller who cared for him, a court later declared him incapable, and the gift still stoodModern estates
  90. 2021Bitcoin pioneer Mircea Popescu drowned off Costa Rica, and no heir or keyholder has come forward for coins said to number up to a millionModern estates
  91. 2021Majid Al Futtaim died with ten heirs and a $16 billion mall group, and a court set up by Dubai's ruler gave government appointees five of nine board seatsModern estates
  92. 2021Equatorial Guinea's vice president bought a Paris mansion on a minister's salary, France confiscated it, and the UN court refused to stop the saleOil and natural resources
  93. 2021Alex Murdaugh renounced his murdered wife's estate, the family estate sold for $3.9 million, and in 2026 South Carolina's top court threw out his murder convictionJailed and executed
  94. 2021Bernie Madoff died in prison, his sons' estates gave up their fortunes, and the trustee recovered $15.5 billionMoney and markets
  95. 2021In HBO's Succession, the children's veto over the family company sat in their parents' divorce deal, and their father and mother renegotiated it awayFiction and film
  96. 2021The Order of Malta's Grand Master fired his chancellor in 2016, the Pope forced the Grand Master out, and a 30-million-franc gift from a Geneva trust sat behind the fightSecret societies and orders
  97. 2021Larry King's handwritten 2019 will left his estate to five children, two of whom died before him, and his estranged wife Shawn contested itHollywood and TV
  98. 2021Phil Spector died in prison serving a murder sentence; his daughter sued his ex-wife, alleging she posed as the daughter to sell his memorabiliaMusic and sport
  99. 2021The widow of Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" co-writer sued for a share of his $300 million song sale and lost twiceMusic and sport
  100. 2021Bunny Wailer's wife was missing when he died, his 13 children were told to take DNA tests, and his son sued to remove his brother as executorMusic and sport
  101. 2021Vicente Fernández's widow went to court to stop Televisa using his name for a biopic, and the series aired anywayMusic and sport
  102. 2021Trustees for the family of Mondrian's heir Harry Holtzman sued the Philadelphia Museum of Art in December 2021 for a painting the Nazis took from a Hanover museum in 1937, valued at over $100 millionLiterature and art
  103. 2020Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee's heirs paid 12 trillion won in inheritance tax, the largest in Korean historyAsian dynasties
  104. 2020Diego Maradona left five recognised heirs, more paternity claims, and two trials over his death and his nameMusic and sport
  105. 2020Sumner Redstone's ex-girlfriend said he was incompetent, the judge disagreed, and his daughter took control of CBS and ViacomDivorce and feuds
  106. 2020Lotte's 93-year-old founder fired his younger son, the shareholders kept the son, and a court put the father under guardianshipDivorce and feuds
  107. 2020The Marquess of Bath's trustees asked the High Court in 2026 to let his surrogate-born son into the Longleat trustsGreat houses
  108. 2020The heir of the House of Hanover offered Marienburg Castle to the state for one euro, and his father sued him for gross ingratitudeGreat houses
  109. 2020Bulgaria sued its former tsar to take back his palaces, and the Supreme Court gave him Tsarska Bistritsa but the state got Vrana parkGreat houses
  110. 2020Banco Espírito Santo collapsed in 2014 and its chief Ricardo Salgado was sentenced to eight yearsEuropean families
  111. 2020Steve Bing's father asked a court to rule that Bing's two children born outside marriage were not his grandchildren, and lostSecret heirs
  112. 2020Zappos founder Tony Hsieh died with no will, and five years later a will appeared in the mail naming a witness who may not exist2015 to 2026
  113. 2020Deputies and firefighters shared photos of Kobe Bryant's remains, and his widow won $28.85 million from Los Angeles CountyMusic and sport
  114. 2020Oman's sultan died childless, and his successor's name was read from a sealed envelopeRoyalty
  115. 2020Joseph Safra's son sued his mother and brothers over the family bank, alleging his father had been influenced to change his will, and settled in 2024Latin America
  116. 2020One Sursock left his Beirut villa to the city as a museum; another Sursock palace passed to a single heiress; the 2020 port blast hit both, and she died of her injuriesAsian dynasties
  117. 2020A Delhi court ruled that Sushant Singh Rajput's publicity rights died with him, so his father could not stop a film about his deathFame and fortune
  118. 2020Jack Whittaker won a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot, and his granddaughter and daughter were found dead within seven yearsFame and fortune
  119. 2020An unmarried Delhi man froze his sperm before chemotherapy, a court ruled it was property his parents inherit, and the government appealedModern estates
  120. 2020A Bangkok dealer died under US indictment for selling looted Khmer statues, and his daughter gave the 125 pieces she inherited back to CambodiaJapan and Southeast Asia
  121. 2020Pierre Cardin's great-nephew found a will naming him sole heir to an €800 million estate, and a Paris court ruled it was not a willBusiness dynasties
  122. 2020Hanmi Pharm's founder died owing a family tax bill of 500 billion won, his widow and daughter agreed to merge with OCI, and his sons stopped it at a shareholder voteScience and medicine
  123. 2020Czechoslovakia seized the Prince of Liechtenstein's estates as German property in 1945, and when one of his paintings was lent to Cologne, every court turned him awayWar and property
  124. 2020Venezuela's 31 tonnes of gold have sat in the Bank of England through two rival governments, a captured president and an earthquakeMoney and markets
  125. 2020Switzerland froze 700 million francs tied to Mubarak's circle in 2011, and after 11 years released the last 400 million to its ownersMoney and markets
  126. 2020MF DOOM's widow sued a former label manager for 31 notebooks of lyrics and got them back in 2025Music and sport
  127. 2020Stanley Ho sued 11 defendants, including 2 of his wives and 5 of his children, hours after saying on television he would not sue his familyBusiness dynasties
  128. 2020Little Richard's brother emailed the buyer about elder abuse and racism, the buyer withdrew its offer for the estate's rights, and the court took away his shareMusic and sport
  129. 2020Charley Pride's son by a flight attendant was left out of the will, barred from the funeral, and sued the widow of 60 yearsMusic and sport
  130. 2020Caroline Flack died in February 2020 before an assault trial; the coroner found the prosecution was among the causes, and her family said police and prosecutors singled her outHollywood and TV
  131. 2020Kirk Douglas left most of a $61 million estate to charity and nothing to his son MichaelHollywood and TV
  132. 2020Chadwick Boseman died in 2020 without a will, and his widow filed in Los Angeles to run an estate first listed at $938,500Hollywood and TV
  133. 2019MacKenzie Scott left her marriage with 4 percent of Amazon and gave Jeff Bezos the votesDivorce and feuds
  134. 2019Korean Air's "nut rage" heiress joined an activist fund to oust her brother, and lost the shareholder voteDivorce and feuds
  135. 2019Porsche tried to buy Volkswagen and ended up owned by it, and Ferdinand Piëch was later forced out of VWEuropean families
  136. 2019Nipsey Hussle was shot dead outside his store, and his family took guardianship of his daughter from her motherMusic and sport
  137. 2019Goo Hara's mother left when she was a child and claimed half her estate; Korea changed its inheritance lawMusic and sport
  138. 2019Pat Bowlen's trust was meant to keep the Broncos in his family; two daughters and his brother sued, and the team was soldMusic and sport
  139. 2019A London judge ordered Dubai's ruler to provide £554 million to the ex-wife whose phone he had hackedRoyalty
  140. 2019The Sacklers drew $11 billion out of Purdue Pharma, museums removed their name, and the Supreme Court voided their release in 2024Foundations
  141. 2019Jeffrey Epstein signed his will two days before he died in jail; victims' claims cut the $577 million estate to about $107 million2015 to 2026
  142. 2019K.K. Modi's trust deed split his family into court cases, and his son accused his mother's side of having him assaulted at a board meetingBusiness dynasties
  143. 2019A Sinar Mas son was left 1 billion rupiah, sued his half-brothers over an estate he put at 649 trillion rupiah, and lost his status as a legitimate childBusiness dynasties
  144. 2019João Gilberto's daughter had him declared incapable while he faced eviction, and his heirs won R$150 million from his record label after he diedFame and fortune
  145. 2019Tob Cohen's body was found in the septic tank of his Nairobi home, and his widow is on trial for his murder while his will leaves the estate to his sisterModern estates
  146. 2019Robert Mugabe left about $10 million and no will, and a village chief fined his widow five cows and ordered his body dug upModern estates
  147. 2019José José's older children searched Miami hospitals and funeral homes for his body, and two wills name different heirsModern estates
  148. 2019Gugu Liberato's will left nothing to the mother of his three children, and a chef who said he was Gugu's partner of eight years sued as wellModern estates
  149. 2019Tanzanian tycoon Reginald Mengi's will left his estate to his second wife and their twins, and the High Court threw it outModern estates
  150. 2019Kelantan's council made the sultan's son sultan while the father lay ill, and the father asked the Federal Court to give his throne backJapan and Southeast Asia
  151. 2019Karl Lagerfeld left about €200 million to his assistant, models, his godson and his cat, and seven years later a French tax claim and a will challenge hold itBusiness dynasties
  152. 2019El Chapo was ordered to forfeit $12.6 billion, and two of the sons who inherited his cartel faction pleaded guilty in ChicagoMoney and markets
  153. 2019Tunisia's president proposed equal inheritance for daughters and sons, died before parliament voted, and his successor called the debate falseProbate and trust law
  154. 2019In Knives Out, a novelist leaves everything to his nurse, his grandson frames her so the slayer rule will cut her out, and the plan failsFiction and film
  155. 2019Doris Day's husband died in 1968 and she learned her lawyer and her husband had lost her earnings; a court awarded the couple $26,396,511Hollywood and TV
  156. 2018XXXTentacion was shot dead at 20, and his son was born seven months later outside his willMusic and sport
  157. 2018Crypto CEO Gerald Cotten died in India holding the only keys to C$215 million, and regulators found the money was already goneModern estates
  158. 2018Sun Hung Kai's chairman was removed by his mother and brothers, who said he was mentally ill, and cut from the family trustDivorce and feuds
  159. 2018Magna founder Frank Stronach sued his daughter and grandchildren over the family's racing empireDivorce and feuds
  160. 2018Baron Empain was kidnapped in Paris in 1978, lost part of a finger, was held 63 days, and sold his stake in Empain-Schneider three years laterEuropean families
  161. 2018A Texas-born princess was evicted from the Roman villa with Caravaggio's only mural after six auctions drew no bidsEuropean families
  162. 2018A Delhi court forced a former chief minister to give blood for a paternity test; his son won, and was killed a year after the father diedSecret heirs
  163. 2018Robert Indiana was sued the day before he died alone on a Maine island, and his LOVE estate spent years in courtLiterature and art
  164. 2018Japan's "Don Juan of Kishu" left his fortune to his town; his widow was acquitted of killing him and may still inherit halfJapan and Southeast Asia
  165. 2018Stan Lee's last manager was charged with elder abuse after the Marvel creator diedHollywood and TV
  166. 2018Paul Allen's will ordered his teams sold, and his sister sold the Trail Blazers for about $4 billionMusic and sport
  167. 2018Tom Benson's daughter and grandchildren sued to have him declared incompetent after he gave the Saints to his third wifeMusic and sport
  168. 2018Ingvar Kamprad put IKEA into a Dutch foundation in 1982 that The Economist called the world's richest charity and one of its least generousFoundations
  169. 2018New York shut down the Donald J. Trump Foundation in 2018 and Trump paid $2 million to eight charitiesFoundations
  170. 2018Banking heir Matthew Mellon died with $193 million in XRP, the keys hidden under other people's names, and a deal that let his estate sell only a little each dayModern estates
  171. 2018Japan hanged Aum's founder in 2018, his daughters fought over his ashes, and the state refused to hand them over until a 2026 court orderJailed and executed
  172. 2018Whitey Bulger hid $822,000 in the walls of his Santa Monica flat, and the Marshals sold his belongings for his victims' familiesMoney and markets
  173. 2018Avicii died at 28 without a will; his parents inherited about $25 million and sold 75 percent of his catalogMusic and sport
  174. 2018Aretha Franklin's 2014 will was found in a notebook under her couch cushions, a jury upheld it in 2023, and her estate was still open in 2026Music and sport
  175. 2018Burt Reynolds's 2018 will named his son Quinton as intentionally omitted and routed his assets through a trust run by his nieceHollywood and TV
  176. 2017Johnny Hallyday disinherited two of his children under California law, and a French court ruled French law appliedMusic and sport
  177. 2017Arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi's ex-wife won a divorce payment reported near $874 million, then the largest on recordDivorce and feuds
  178. 2017Liliane Bettencourt gave a photographer about €1 billion, and her daughter's complaint ended in his convictionEuropean families
  179. 2017Jerry Lewis's will excluded all six sons from his first marriage and their childrenHollywood and TV
  180. 2017Bill Paxton's family sued his surgeon and Cedars-Sinai after he died following heart surgeryHollywood and TV
  181. 2017Billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife were found strangled at their pool; police first called it murder-suicide, and the case is unsolved2015 to 2026
  182. 2017Aaron Hernandez's suicide wiped out his murder conviction, and two years later the state's top court put it backMusic and sport
  183. 2017Glen Campbell's wills cut out three of his eight children, and they challenged his capacity after Alzheimer'sMusic and sport
  184. 2017Tom Petty's daughters sued his widow for $5 million over control of his musicMusic and sport
  185. 2017Romania's King Michael was forced to sign a pre-typed abdication, and his grandson was later struck from the successionRoyalty
  186. 2017Malaysia stopped paying the Sulu sultan's heirs in 2013, and a Spanish arbitrator awarded them US$14.92 billionJapan and Southeast Asia
  187. 2017An H. L. Hunt great-grandson took a nine-figure settlement and promised not to contest his father's will, then contested itOil and natural resources
  188. 2017North Korea's leader's half-brother was killed with VX at Kuala Lumpur airport, and Malaysia traded his body for nine of its citizens held in PyongyangStates and spies
  189. 2017Lil Peep's mother sued his management company for wrongful death and settled with control of his musicMusic and sport
  190. 2017Chris Cornell's widow sued Soundgarden over his last seven recordings and called their $278,000 buyout offer "villainously low"Music and sport
  191. 2017Chester Bennington left everything to his widow and six children, and his first wife's claim took half of his Linkin Park royaltiesMusic and sport
  192. 2016The Ranbaxy brothers sold their drug company for billions, owed the buyer Rs 3,500 crore, and were arrested over their lenderDivorce and feuds
  193. 2016Esselunga founder Bernardo Caprotti took back the shares he had given his children and left control to his second wife and daughterEuropean families
  194. 2016The 6th Duke of Westminster's £9 billion estate passed in trust to his 25-year-old son over three daughtersEuropean families
  195. 2016Anton Schlecker's drugstore chain collapsed in 2012, and his son and daughter went to prison for taking 7 million euros out firstEuropean families
  196. 2016A former baker bought a prince's title by adult adoption, sold it on to adopted sons, and became Zsa Zsa Gabor's heirSecret heirs
  197. 2016Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband ran her estate as conservator and moved most of her ashes to BudapestHollywood and TV
  198. 2016Harper Lee's second novel was published when she was frail and her lawyer controlled her affairs; her will stayed sealed until The New York Times suedLiterature and art
  199. 2016Juan Gabriel left everything to one son, and a man claiming to be another son asked a court for part of his remainsMusic and sport
  200. 2016Thailand's new king changed the law to put the Crown Property Bureau's billions in his own nameRoyalty
  201. 2016Evergreen's founder left his whole personal fortune to his youngest son, the three older half-brothers removed him from the airline, and the courts upheld the willAsian dynasties
  202. 2016Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski sold his family's collection to Poland for €100 million, the money went to Liechtenstein, and he sued his daughterEuropean families
  203. 2016Qatar's emir took power from his cousin in 1972; in 1995 his son took it from him and froze his bank accounts abroadAsian dynasties
  204. 2016Jayalalithaa left no will; a court gave her house to her niece and nephew, and the state took 21 kilos of her goldFame and fortune
  205. 2016A Saudi billionaire took a diplomatic post to defeat his ex-wife's claim, lost, and died nine days before he had to pay £53 millionFame and fortune
  206. 2016Douyin creators sold AI videos of dead actor Qiao Renliang saying he had not really left, and his father asked who gave them the rightModern estates
  207. 2016Curt Engelhorn sold Boehringer Mannheim to Roche with no German tax paid, two of his daughters were arrested, and the family settled for €135 million to €145 millionScience and medicine
  208. 2016Chesapeake founder Aubrey McClendon was indicted for rigging oil lease bids and died in a crash the next day, and the claims moved to his estateOil and natural resources
  209. 2016A legal secretary bought the same stocks as her bosses for decades and left more than $8 million to scholarships, and her husband may not have knownMoney and markets
  210. 2016David Bowie was cremated two days after he died with no one present, and his will asked for his ashes to go to BaliMusic and sport
  211. 2016George Michael left his £97 million estate to his sisters and nothing to his partner, who would not leave the Regent's Park houseMusic and sport
  212. 2016Leonard Cohen's manager emptied his retirement fund, and after his death his children found a forged page in his trustMusic and sport
  213. 2016Prince died without a will, more than 45 people claimed to be his relatives, and his estate took 6 years and a tax court case to divideMusic and sport
  214. 2016Muhammad Ali's company sued Fox for more than $30 million over a 3-minute Super Bowl LI promotional video using his image, and Fox settledMusic and sport
  215. 2016Glenn Frey's widow sued Mount Sinai for his death and was ordered to hand over the Eagles' contractsMusic and sport
  216. 2016Lou Pearlman built the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC on a $300 million Ponzi scheme, fled to Bali, and died in prison as investors got 6 cents on the dollarMusic and sport
  217. 2016Zaha Hadid's business partner sued her three co-executors in London over a roughly £70 million estate and lost a key ruling in November 2020Literature and art
  218. 2016Debbie Reynolds never raised the money for her Hollywood museum, sold her 3,500-item collection in 2011, and her estate auctioned more after she died a day after Carrie FisherHollywood and TV
  219. 2015A Korean court ordered SK Group's chairman to pay his ex-wife 1.38 trillion won, and the Supreme Court threw it outDivorce and feuds
  220. 2015Samsung's founder's eldest son sued his brother Lee Kun-hee for 4.1 trillion won in shares and lostDivorce and feuds
  221. 2015A Japanese furniture founder fired his daughter, she beat him in a proxy fight, and the company was soldDivorce and feuds
  222. 2015Spain seized José María Ruiz-Mateos's Rumasa group by decree in 1983, and his second group collapsed in 2011European families
  223. 2015Kirk Kerkorian's investigator took Steve Bing's dental floss from the trash and proved Kerkorian's "daughter" was Bing's childSecret heirs
  224. 2015Lee Kuan Yew's will asked that his house be demolished, and Singapore made it a national monument over his son's objectionJapan and Southeast Asia
  225. 2015Kirk Kerkorian left $2 billion to charity, and his 57-day wife was paid to go away2015 to 2026
  226. 2015Two Rothschild banks went to law over who could use the family name alone, and settled in 2018 that neither mayBusiness dynasties
  227. 2015Yogyakarta's sultan has five daughters and no son, and all 11 of his younger brothers opposed him when he raised the eldest toward the throneJapan and Southeast Asia
  228. 2015Hamdard split at Partition, its Pakistani founder was shot dead in Karachi, and the Delhi heirs' fight over the waqf took Rooh Afza off Indian shelvesScience and medicine
  229. 2015Police found the P2 lodge's 962 names in Licio Gelli's factory in 1981, and after he died prosecutors asked a court to confiscate his villa from a dead manSecret societies and orders
  230. 2015B.B. King's daughters accused his manager and his assistant of poisoning him; the coroner found no poison and the manager kept control of the estateMusic and sport
  231. 2015Scott Weiland's 2007 will made his ex-wife executor over his widow, and she spent years settling his tax liens and lawsuitsMusic and sport
  232. 2015Joni Mitchell's friend told a court the singer was unconscious while her website said she was alert, and won control of her medical careMusic and sport
  233. 2014Casey Kasem's wife and children fought over his care until he died, then she took his body to NorwayHollywood and TV
  234. 2014A London judge awarded a Russian oligarch's ex-wife £453 million, then found their son had helped hide itDivorce and feuds
  235. 2014"Putin's banker" put $100 million into New Zealand trusts for his family, and a London judge ruled the trusts were shamsDivorce and feuds
  236. 2014Vladimir Potanin's ex-wife sought billions in Moscow, then moved to London to try again, and the UK Supreme Court stopped her 3 to 2Divorce and feuds
  237. 2014Hedge fund manager Chris Hohn was ordered to pay his ex-wife about $530 million, and the judge called him a financial geniusDivorce and feuds
  238. 2014The 11th Duke of Marlborough went to court in 1994 so his drug-addicted heir would never control Blenheim PalaceEuropean families
  239. 2014The Duchess of Alba gave her estate to her six children before marrying a civil servant 24 years youngerEuropean families
  240. 2014Spain's Supreme Court admitted a paternity suit against Juan Carlos I, then threw it out 7 votes to 3Secret heirs
  241. 2014Mickey Rooney worked 90 years and left an $18,000 estate to one stepsonHollywood and TV
  242. 2014Ken Takakura's adopted daughter cremated him before his family knew he had died, and inherited his estate and film rightsHollywood and TV
  243. 2014A recluse found with 1,406 artworks in his Munich flat left them all to a Swiss museum, and his cousin said he was not of sound mindLiterature and art
  244. 2014Gabriel García Márquez said his last novel must be destroyed; his sons published it on his 97th birthdayLiterature and art
  245. 2014Doctors declared Donald Sterling incapacitated, and his wife sold the Clippers out from under him for $2 billionMusic and sport
  246. 2014Spain's King Felipe renounced his father's inheritance after a $100 million Saudi payment came to light, and Juan Carlos left for Abu DhabiRoyalty
  247. 2014A Qatari collector died in 2014 owing auction houses millions; his heirs split over his blue diamond, and a cousin's company sued to buy itAsian dynasties
  248. 2014L'Wren Scott left her $9 million estate to Mick Jagger and wrote that she had left out her family on purposeBusiness dynasties
  249. 2014A Vermont gas station attendant and janitor left more than $8 million in stocks, and his stepson had no ideaMoney and markets
  250. 2014Switzerland's top court ruled that Baby Doc's family could have his frozen millions hours before the Haiti earthquake, and parliament passed a law to stop itMoney and markets
  251. 2014After the Sewol sank with 304 dead, the man prosecutors called its real owner fled, was found dead in a plum field, and the state went after his family's assetsShips and railways
  252. 2014Robin Williams's widow and three children fought in a San Francisco court over his belongings, and the children got more than 85 watchesHollywood and TV
  253. 2014Joan Rivers's executors sued the Manhattan clinic where she stopped breathing during a throat procedure and settled in 2016 for an undisclosed sumHollywood and TV
  254. 2014Philip Seymour Hoffman left an estimated $35 million to Mimi O'Donnell, whom he never married, and refused a trust for his three childrenHollywood and TV
  255. 2013An oil trader hid London houses inside his companies, and the UK Supreme Court ordered them handed to his ex-wifeDivorce and feuds
  256. 2013A DNA test showed a baronet's grandfather was not his father's son, and the Privy Council gave the title to a cousinSecret heirs
  257. 2013Paul Walker left $25 million to his 15-year-old daughter, who then sued PorscheHollywood and TV
  258. 2013Amanda Bynes lived under her mother's conservatorship for nine yearsHollywood and TV
  259. 2013Jerry Buss's sons tried to vote their sister off the Lakers board; she went to court and removed one of them as trusteeMusic and sport
  260. 2013A Belgian court ordered King Albert II to take a DNA test, and his secret daughter became a princess with inheritance rightsRoyalty
  261. 2013A granddaughter accused TV evangelists Paul and Jan Crouch in 2012 of spending their network's donations on themselvesFoundations
  262. 2013Rabbi Ovadia Yosef left nearly everything to his youngest son; his other children fought over the Jerusalem flat until 2016Jewish law and estates
  263. 2013Nelson Mandela's grandson moved three of Mandela's children's graves to his own village, and 16 relatives won a court order to return them to Qunu in 2013Egypt and Africa
  264. 2013Boris Berezovsky lost his case against Abramovich, died seven months later, and a judge called his estate hopelessly insolventRussia and Byzantium
  265. 2013A Chinese couple died in a car crash five days before their embryos were to be implanted, and four years later a surrogate from Laos gave birth to their sonModern estates
  266. 2013Mandela's eldest daughter put his ID card, shirts and a Robben Island key up for auction in New York, and the state fought the sale to the Constitutional CourtModern estates
  267. 2013Missoni's chief executive vanished in a plane off Venezuela, his father died before the wreck was found, and the family gave up the companyBusiness dynasties
  268. 2013China's courts jail grave robbers who sell women's corpses as "ghost brides" for sons who died unmarriedGhosts and legends
  269. 2013Two brothers bought life insurance to keep their company in the family, and the Supreme Court counted the payout in the dead brother's estateMoney and markets
  270. 2013Tom Clancy signed a codicil 68 days before he died, and the top court of Maryland ruled 4 to 3 that it freed his widow's family trust from estate taxLiterature and art
  271. 2013James Gandolfini's will left 80 percent of an estimated $70 million estate to his sisters and infant daughter, and a tax lawyer said about $30 million would go to taxesHollywood and TV
  272. 2012Whitney Houston left everything to her daughter; three years later the daughter died and the money went to Whitney's mother and brothersMusic and sport
  273. 2012Harold Hamm's ex-wife refused his $974.8 million check, then cashed it and lost her appeal for moreDivorce and feuds
  274. 2012A Tetra Pak heir kept his wife's body in their London house for two monthsEuropean families
  275. 2012Aldi's Theo Albrecht was ransomed for 7 million marks, and his son's widow fought the family foundation for a decadeEuropean families
  276. 2012Sherman Hemsley's body stayed in a funeral home refrigerator for months while a half-brother contested his willHollywood and TV
  277. 2012Rajesh Khanna's live-in partner sued his widow and daughters for 14 years, and his bungalow was sold for Rs 90 crore and torn downHollywood and TV
  278. 2012Thomas Kinkade's girlfriend produced handwritten notes leaving her his mansion and $10 million, and his estranged wife said he was drunk when he wrote themLiterature and art
  279. 2012Jenni Rivera's children sued their grandfather's label for exploiting her music, and the family split in courtMusic and sport
  280. 2012Tonga's constitution lets only children born in marriage inherit the throne or a noble estate, so King George Tupou V's daughter could not succeed himNative nations and islands
  281. 2012A Chicago man died of cyanide the day after his $1 million lottery check was issued, and his widow and siblings fought over the estateFame and fortune
  282. 2012A 15-year-old died under a subway train, and her parents fought Facebook for eight years to read her messagesModern estates
  283. 2012Lacoste's chairman sued to annul his daughter's appointment, then both sides of the family sold to the Swiss partnerBusiness dynasties
  284. 2012Switzerland's oldest bank took the American clients UBS dropped, pleaded guilty in New York, and closed after 272 yearsMoney and markets
  285. 2012Roman Blum left about $40 million and no will in 2012, a Surrogate's Court threw out a will naming a disbarred lawyer, and a Moscow man says he is the great-grandsonLand and wealth transfer
  286. 2012Etta James's husband and her son fought in court over her $1 million while she was dying of leukemiaMusic and sport
  287. 2012Davy Jones's 2004 will left out the wife he married in 2009; she petitioned for half as a pretermitted spouse and the family sealed the fileMusic and sport
  288. 2012Donna Summer's estate refused Kanye West permission to use "I Feel Love," sued when he used it anyway, and made him agree never to distribute the songMusic and sport
  289. 2012Robin Gibb left a £93 million fortune to his wife and three children; his daughter with the housekeeper got a closing line in the willMusic and sport
  290. 2012Gore Vidal changed his trust in 2011 to leave everything to Harvard, and his half-sister and nephew suedLiterature and art
  291. 2012Maurice Sendak's foundation and the Rosenbach Museum fought for two years in a Connecticut probate court over his rare-book collectionLiterature and art
  292. 2012Celeste Holm's sons sued her fifth husband over a 2002 trust, the fight ran about six years, and she died in 2012 with a $13 million estate and a settlement forcing him out of her apartmentHollywood and TV
  293. 2011Steve Jobs swore he was sterile to avoid paying for his daughter, lost on a blood test, and later left her millionsSecret heirs
  294. 2011A singer's son by a Suharto minister changed Indonesian law: children born outside marriage can now claim their fathersSecret heirs
  295. 2011Jimmy Savile left £4.3 million to friends and his charity; abuse claims froze the estate and the courts approved paying it to his victimsHollywood and TV
  296. 2011Peter Falk's daughter lost a conservatorship fight to his widow and then pushed for a lawHollywood and TV
  297. 2011Amy Winehouse's father sued her friends over $1.2 million from her dresses and lostMusic and sport
  298. 2011The Oppenheimers sold their 40 percent of De Beers for $5.1 billion in 2011, and in 2026 Anglo American offered its 85 percent for about $1 billionBusiness dynasties
  299. 2011A dying woman told her mother "I want you to carry my babies," and the Court of Appeal overruled the regulator that refused to release her frozen eggsModern estates
  300. 2011Yuli Ofer's last will gave most of his empire to his daughter; his son said he was no longer clear of mind, and the daughter wonBusiness dynasties
  301. 2011Mike Campbell won his farm case against Zimbabwe in 2008; he was beaten, his house burned, the tribunal was shut down, and South African courts let the farmers sell Zimbabwe's Cape Town property for costsLand and wealth transfer
  302. 2011Huguette Clark's second will cut out her relatives and left her nurse about $30 million, and the relatives settled for $34.5 millionFame and fortune
  303. 2011Gil Scott-Heron died with no will; his daughter said a DNA test showed his son was not his, and a Manhattan court ruled the son was an heirMusic and sport
  304. 2011Lucian Freud left a 96 million pound estate to his solicitor and one daughter, and a High Court judge refused to open the will to a son who was one of at least 14 childrenLiterature and art
  305. 2011Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry sold for $137,235,575 at Christie's in December 2011, the most ever paid for a jewelry collection, with the proceeds going to her foundationHollywood and TV
  306. 2010LVMH secretly built a 17 percent stake in Hermès, and 52 family members locked half their shares together to stop itBusiness dynasties
  307. 2010Elaine Wynn's divorce left her shares voting with her ex-husband's, and she sued Wynn Resorts to break the pactDivorce and feuds
  308. 2010A German paper heiress's prenup held in London, and her French ex-husband's £5.85 million award was cut to £1 millionDivorce and feuds
  309. 2010A polo club founder adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend after a fatal drunk-driving crash, giving her a share of his children's trustSecret heirs
  310. 2010A Utah judge ruled Gary Coleman's ex-wife was not his common-law wife; his ashes were locked in a vaultHollywood and TV
  311. 2010Tony Curtis left everything to his wife and named his five living children to exclude themHollywood and TV
  312. 2010Dennis Hopper filed for divorce while dying of cancer and fought his wife over money until his deathHollywood and TV
  313. 2010J.D. Salinger blocked an unauthorised Catcher in the Rye sequel, and his estate settled to keep it out of North America until the copyright endsLiterature and art
  314. 2010Ras al-Khaimah's ruler removed his eldest son as heir after four decades; when the ruler died in 2010 the son came home to claim the throne and his guards were arrestedAsian dynasties
  315. 2010Alexander McQueen died the day before his mother's funeral and left £50,000 to his dogs and most of £16 million to a charity for artistsBusiness dynasties
  316. 2010A man says he found the only other copy of the Korean alphabet's founding book while cleaning his house, and the state that owns it cannot find itHeirlooms and treasure
  317. 2010A metal detectorist found a Roman cavalry helmet in a Cumbrian field, a private buyer paid £2.3 million after the local museum dropped out at £1.7 million, and Parliament changed the lawHeirlooms and treasure
  318. 2010A secretary bought three Abbott shares for $180 in 1935, never sold them, and left $7 million to Lake Forest CollegeMoney and markets
  319. 2010Wagner's grandson held a lifetime contract at Bayreuth, refused to leave when the board named his daughter's rival, and handed the festival to his daughters at 89Music and sport
  320. 2009A Doosan heir exposed his brothers' slush fund to win the chairmanship, was cast out of the family, and died by suicideDivorce and feuds
  321. 2009A Saudi trading family accused its son-in-law of a $9 billion fraud, and a Cayman judge found the family had authorized himDivorce and feuds
  322. 2009Steve Cohen's first wife sued him 19 years after their divorce, alleging he hid $5.5 million, and an appeals court revived the caseDivorce and feuds
  323. 2009Bernie Ecclestone put his Formula One shares in his wife's Liechtenstein trust, and the divorce and tax cases followed the trustDivorce and feuds
  324. 2009Kumho's board fired one founding brother, the group split in two, and the brothers sued each other for yearsDivorce and feuds
  325. 2009Indira Gandhi's government jailed Jaipur's Rajmata and searched Jaigarh Fort for treasure for five months, and found noneIndia and South Asia
  326. 2009Two barristers bought Countess Markievicz's childhood home and spent seven years in court with Sligo County Council over its avenuesGreat houses
  327. 2009Franz Ulrich Kinsky sued the Czech state more than 100 times for land taken in 1945, and Strasbourg ruled his trials unfairEuropean families
  328. 2009Ryan O'Neal took a Warhol portrait from Farrah Fawcett's home; her university sued and lostHollywood and TV
  329. 2009Vivian Maier was a nanny who died unknown; after her photographs sold, Cook County took over her estate to find out who owned themLiterature and art
  330. 2009Fairuz's nephews blocked her from staging her late husband's musical without their approval, and a Beirut court stopped her performing his brother's workFame and fortune
  331. 2009A woman took over a $30 million lottery winner's money, and police found him buried under a concrete slabFame and fortune
  332. 2009Omar Bongo left about 300 billion CFA francs and 54 children; one daughter took his heir's birth certificate to a French court, and France charged at least nine of the childrenOil and natural resources
  333. 2009Russia put a dead lawyer on trial and convicted him in 2013, and the European court ordered Russia to pay his widow and motherJailed and executed
  334. 2009The Staffordshire Hoard paid a jobless detectorist and a farmer £3.285 million between them, and the farmer banned him from his landHeirlooms and treasure
  335. 2009Edith Windsor paid $363,053 in estate tax because the United States did not recognise her marriage to Thea Spyer, and the Supreme Court struck the law downProbate and trust law
  336. 2009Maurice Jarre left his estate to his widow through a California trust, and France's highest court said his children's reserved share did not follow him abroadProbate and trust law
  337. 2009Michael Jackson's estate put its value at $5.1 million, the Tax Court set $111.5 million, and a judge later ordered $625,000 in bonuses returnedMusic and sport
  338. 2009Michael Jackson's companies face abuse suits from Wade Robson and James Safechuck, revived on appeal in 2023 and set for trial in 2028Music and sport
  339. 2009Brittany Murphy's father sued the coroner for her hair samples, then said a lab found heavy metals; her mother called it a smearHollywood and TV
  340. 2009Allen Klein managed three Beatles, sued them for $19 million after they fired him, and took $5 million to settleMusic and sport
  341. 2009David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok closet in 2009; Thai police said suicide, the family's pathologist said accident, and his widow sued the film companyHollywood and TV
  342. 2008Heath Ledger's will was written before his daughter was born and left her nothingHollywood and TV
  343. 2008A Geneva court ordered a Russian fertilizer billionaire to pay his ex-wife 4 billion francs, then an appeal court cut it by 86 percentDivorce and feuds
  344. 2008Jocelyn Wildenstein's divorce was reported at $2.5 billion, and the judge barred her from spending alimony on surgeryDivorce and feuds
  345. 2008Formosa Plastics' founder died without a will, and his son sued to unwind $15 billion placed in Bermuda trustsDivorce and feuds
  346. 2008Robert Mondavi was pushed out of his family's winery after a fight with his brother, sued, and wonDivorce and feuds
  347. 2008The Red Duchess of Medina Sidonia married her secretary on the day she died, and her children sued over the palace foundationEuropean families
  348. 2008Iceland exhumed Bobby Fischer to test a girl's paternity claim, and the DNA said noSecret heirs
  349. 2008Indonesia's Supreme Court ordered General Suharto's Supersemar foundation to pay about 4.4 trillion rupiahMilitary families
  350. 2008George Carlin's estate sued a podcast over an AI-made comedy special and won its removalHollywood and TV
  351. 2008Paul Newman left his food company to a foundation run by his adviser, his daughter said the family was pushed out, and Congress changed the law for itFoundations
  352. 2008Deutsche Post's chief hid money in a Liechtenstein foundation, a bank clerk sold the data, and he was convicted in 2009Foundations
  353. 2008Badri Patarkatsishvili died in Surrey worth over $1 billion, a relative produced a copy of a will naming himself executor, and the widow called it a forgery in courts in five jurisdictionsRussia and Byzantium
  354. 2008Choi Jin-sil's ex-husband regained rights over her children the day she died, and a fan stole her ashes from her graveFame and fortune
  355. 2008Claus von Bülow was acquitted of trying to kill his wife, then gave up her fortune to settle her children's $56 million suitFame and fortune
  356. 2008Huntington Hartford had $90 million at 12, lost about $30 million on Paradise Island, and was found in a Brooklyn rental at 90Fame and fortune
  357. 2008Yves Saint Laurent signed a civil union days before he died, and his collection sale included two bronze heads looted from Beijing in 1860Business dynasties
  358. 2008British and French troops looted the Summer Palace in 1860; Yves Saint Laurent's estate auctioned two of its bronze heads, and the winning bidder refused to payWar and property
  359. 2008A son used his dying mother's power of attorney to move $10 million into a partnership and a charity trust a week before she died, and the Tax Court undid itMoney and markets
  360. 2008A UBS banker told the US how the bank hid Americans' money, went to prison for 31 months, and the IRS paid him $104 millionMoney and markets
  361. 2008A Greek Muslim left everything to his wife by notarial will, his sisters invoked sharia, and Greek courts cut her to a quarterProbate and trust law
  362. 2008Isaac Hayes lost his song royalties to a bank in bankruptcy; his heirs took one song back and sued Donald Trump over itMusic and sport
  363. 2008Robert Rauschenberg's art trust grew from $605.6 million to $2.2 billion, and a Florida judge gave his three trustees $24.6 million in feesLiterature and art
  364. 2008Michael Crichton's son was born after his death and left out of his will; in 2024 his estate sued Warner Bros., calling The Pitt an ER rebootLiterature and art
  365. 2008Britney Spears's father ran her money for 13 years on $16,000 a month, a judge removed him, and she paid to end the fightMusic and sport
  366. 2008Bo Diddley's will gave his managers 30 percent of his songs forever, a judge let them sell the catalog to pay the IRS, and 22 heirs objectedMusic and sport
  367. 2008Miriam Makeba's grandchildren fought her own trustees for her music, and the state paid their lawyers until the Public Protector ruled it unlawfulMusic and sport
  368. 2007Brooke Astor's son was convicted of looting her estate while she had Alzheimer'sFame and fortune
  369. 2007The Gallo brothers raised their younger brother after their parents' murder-suicide, then sued him for using the family nameDivorce and feuds
  370. 2007Dow Jones's family owners split over Murdoch's $5 billion offer, and adviser fees helped decide the voteDivorce and feuds
  371. 2007Two men took a Leonardo off the wall at Drumlanrig Castle, and the lawyers who arranged its return were tried for extortionGreat houses
  372. 2007Rudolf-August Oetker's eight children from three marriages split the Dr. Oetker group in two in 2021European families
  373. 2007The Winnie-the-Pooh rights holder sued Disney for 13 years, and lost because its investigator took Disney's trashLiterature and art
  374. 2007Isabella Blow's father left her £5,000, and after her death her estate put her McQueen wardrobe up for auctionFame and fortune
  375. 2007Pavarotti left three wills, and his daughters challenged the share of his second wife until a 2008 settlementMusic and sport
  376. 2007Ike Turner wrote two handwritten wills and revoked one; a judge found he died with no valid willMusic and sport
  377. 2007Anna Nicole Smith's body went to her 5-month-old daughter's guardian after a Florida judge wept through the ruling, and DNA named the girl's fatherFame and fortune
  378. 2007Leona Helmsley left $12 million in trust for her dog Trouble and nothing to 2 grandchildren, and a judge cut the dog's trust to $2 millionFame and fortune
  379. 2007Nina Wang won her kidnapped husband's estate in Hong Kong's top court in 2005, then her feng shui adviser was jailed for forging her willBusiness dynasties
  380. 2007Evel Knievel's family company sued Disney over Toy Story 4's Duke Caboom, and two federal courts held the toy daredevil transformed his likenessMusic and sport
  381. 2006James Brown left his fortune to educate poor children, and 15 years of lawsuits came before the estate sold for about $90 millionMusic and sport
  382. 2006Thieves stole the coffin of Friedrich Karl Flick, heir to a Nazi-era fortune, from his Austrian mausoleumEuropean families
  383. 2006Chile's Supreme Court forfeited Pinochet's assets in 2018 after the US Senate exposed his Riggs Bank accountsMilitary families
  384. 2006Stroessner's family wealth was never prosecuted, and human bones were found in his former house in 2019Military families
  385. 2006The Satmar Rebbe's will named his younger son successor; New York's highest court refused to decide which son controls the congregationJewish law and estates
  386. 2006Saddam Hussein was buried in his own mausoleum, the mausoleum was destroyed, and no one will say where his body isJailed and executed
  387. 2006Muriel Spark left her entire estate to her companion Penelope Jardine and took steps to leave her only son nothingLiterature and art
  388. 2005Sal. Oppenheim survived the Nazis under another name, then lost its independence over loans to the Karstadt heiressEuropean families
  389. 2005The last Korean imperial heir divorced his American wife after relatives pressed for a son, died in the Tokyo building where he was born, and was given an adopted son after his deathAsian dynasties
  390. 2005Rafik Hariri was killed in 2005; his family chose the second son as political heir, the other brothers sold him their shares of Saudi Oger, and the company closed in 2017Asian dynasties
  391. 2005The Rong family's mills passed to the state in the 1950s, and the son who stayed became China's vice president and his son a billionaireBusiness dynasties
  392. 2005Robert Kearns showed Ford his intermittent wiper, sued for decades, won about $30 million and lost his marriageScience and medicine
  393. 2005Lilly Cassirer gave up her Pissarro to the Nazis for an exit visa in 1939, and her heirs' suit against Spain's Thyssen museum went to decision in October 2026War and property
  394. 2005Rosa Parks left almost all her estate to her institute, her 13 nieces and nephews contested the will, and a 2007 settlement gave them 20 percentFame and fortune
  395. 2005Zdzisław Beksiński was stabbed to death in his Warsaw flat in February 2005 by the 19-year-old son of his aide, after refusing a loanLiterature and art
  396. 2005Arthur Miller kept his son Daniel with Down syndrome out of public view and left him an equal share of the estate six weeks before he diedLiterature and art
  397. 2005Hunter S. Thompson's ashes were launched from a 15-story tower at his ranch in August 2005, and a lawsuit later put the cost at $3 million paid by Johnny DeppLiterature and art
  398. 2005Johnny Carson's trust gave his foundation $156 million after his death, and no public accounting of his estate has appearedFame and fortune
  399. 2004Stieg Larsson's partner of 30 years got nothing from the Millennium fortune because they never marriedLiterature and art
  400. 2004Dart Group's founder fired his son during his own divorce, then married on his deathbed and cut his children out of his willDivorce and feuds
  401. 2004The McCain brothers fought over which nephew would run their french fry empire, and one brother was removedDivorce and feuds
  402. 2004The 10th Earl of Shaftesbury was strangled by his wife's brother in Cannes, and his heir died six months laterEuropean families
  403. 2004Portugal vetoed António Champalimaud's bank deal with Santander until Brussels overruled it for the first timeEuropean families
  404. 2004Prince Bernhard denied a secret daughter to the Lockheed inquiry, then left her and a second one a sixth of his estate eachSecret heirs
  405. 2004Marlon Brando's $21.6 million will left out one child, and a son's girlfriend scattered part of his ashesHollywood and TV
  406. 2004Ray Charles gave each of his 12 children $500,000 and left the rest to a foundation; seven of them moved to take back his songsMusic and sport
  407. 2004Priyamvada Birla's will left a Rs 5,000 crore group to her accountant; the Birla family has fought it in court since 2004India and South Asia
  408. 2004Polish colonel Ryszard Kukliński passed 40,000 pages to the CIA, was sentenced to death in absentia, and lost both sons within months in 1994States and spies
  409. 2004A Qatari prince's letter said Nawaz Sharif's father had willed his Gulf profits to a grandson, and courts fought for six years over four Park Lane flatsMoney and markets
  410. 2004Melita Jackson left £486,000 to animal charities and nothing to the daughter who left home at 17, and the courts argued over the daughter's share for ten yearsProbate and trust law
  411. 2004The heir to the Santos docks fortune spent it all and died on a state pension in the Rio hotel his family built and soldCities
  412. 2004Ol' Dirty Bastard died without a will; his widow sued the Wu-Tang Clan for royalties while his children said they had received nothingMusic and sport
  413. 2004Dimebag Darrell was shot dead on stage with no will; his girlfriend of two decades was left out, later took over his estate's trust, and lost most of its suit against Dean Guitars in 2026Music and sport
  414. 2004Rick James's trust was sued for $50 million by a woman who says he raped her at 15 in a Buffalo group homeMusic and sport
  415. 2004Theo van Gogh was killed on an Amsterdam street on 2 November 2004, and Mohammed Bouyeri was sentenced to life without parole as a terroristHollywood and TV
  416. 2003Margherita Agnelli sued her three children over her mother's estate, and Turin prosecutors charged her son John Elkann with tax fraudEuropean families
  417. 2003Strom Thurmond's family confirmed his Black daughter six months after his death, and South Carolina added her name to his monumentSecret heirs
  418. 2003Anita Mui put her estate in a trust to keep it from her mother; the mother sued for 20 years, went bankrupt, and died in 2026 after Mui's ashes went missingHollywood and TV
  419. 2003John Ritter's family collected $14 million in settlements, then lost a $67 million suit against two doctorsHollywood and TV
  420. 2003Alberto Sordi's sister left his €50 million to a foundation, relatives accused nine people of exploiting her, and all nine were acquittedHollywood and TV
  421. 2003Dayanidhi Maran alleged his brother took control of Sun TV while their father was in a coma, then withdrew the notice two months laterIndia and South Asia
  422. 2003Arnaud Lagardère inherited control of his father's group in 2003, lost it to Vivendi in 2023, and was charged with using company money to pay inheritance debtBusiness dynasties
  423. 2003Russia jailed Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky and auctioned his oil company for back taxes, and the Dutch Supreme Court made a $50 billion award to its shareholders finalOil and natural resources
  424. 2003Celia Cruz left everything to her husband; one of her executors sued the other for draining his money while he had dementiaMusic and sport
  425. 2003Elliott Smith's partner sued his estate for lifetime support, and a talent-agent law voided their whole agreementMusic and sport
  426. 2003Johnny Cash's trust sued Coca-Cola for using a tribute singer who sounds like himMusic and sport
  427. 2003Barry White never divorced the wife he separated from in 1988; she became his executor, and 2 of his children later sued her over stopped paymentsMusic and sport
  428. 2003Nina Simone left most of her estate to a trust for African children; the California Attorney General said her daughter diverted it, and the daughter resigned and gave up the rightsMusic and sport
  429. 2002Dhirubhai Ambani died without a will; one son became Asia's richest man and the other told a court he was worth zeroIndia and South Asia
  430. 2002A 19-year-old Pritzker heir sued her father and 11 cousins for raiding her trusts, and took about $450 millionDivorce and feuds
  431. 2002Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza sued over his family's Bermuda trust and sold his collection to Spain for $350 millionEuropean families
  432. 2002Freddy Heineken was kidnapped for 35 million guilders, and his only daughter inherited control of the breweryEuropean families
  433. 2002Twins conceived after their father's death were denied his Social Security benefits by a unanimous Supreme CourtSecret heirs
  434. 2002Hall of Famer Mike Webster lived in his truck, died at 50, and his estate won his NFL disability pay after his deathMusic and sport
  435. 2002A Jersey accountant sued to open Princess Margaret's sealed will to prove he was her secret sonRoyalty
  436. 2002The Queen Mother left her estate to her daughter free of inheritance tax under a 1993 deal between the palace and the TreasuryRoyalty
  437. 2002South Africa's Constitutional Court made two Khayelitsha girls sole heirs of their father and struck down male primogeniture in 2004Egypt and Africa
  438. 2002An orphanage trust sold its Mumbai plot for Antilia in 2002, the waqf board called the sale illegal, and the Bombay High Court dismissed the last challenge in 2025Cities
  439. 2002Ted Williams's will asked for his ashes to be scattered at sea, two of his children had him frozen in Arizona, and an ex-employee said his head was severedMusic and sport
  440. 2002Layne Staley's mother was paid his Alice in Chains share for ten years, then sued his bandmates when they ended itMusic and sport
  441. 2002John Entwistle's executors sold his guitars, his cars, his house and its last 700 lots within three years of his death; his ashes stayed in the groundsMusic and sport
  442. 2001Hyundai's founder split his empire between feuding sons, and the heir he chose jumped from his office during a corruption probeDivorce and feuds
  443. 2001Daniel Wildenstein's widow said his sons hid the art fortune in trusts, and France prosecuted the heir for tax fraudDivorce and feuds
  444. 2001Lord Wraxall's will gave Tyntesfield to 19 relatives and ordered a fast sale, and the public raised millions to buy itGreat houses
  445. 2001The JCB founder's sons litigated in three countries over the company, then a cousin's £30 million fee claim failedEuropean families
  446. 2001Japan's Supreme Court struck down the half-share rule for children born outside marriage in 2013, 18 years after upholding itSecret heirs
  447. 2001Zhang Xueliang inherited his murdered father's Manchurian army in 1928 and spent more than 50 years in detentionMilitary families
  448. 2001Dale Earnhardt's widow got Florida to seal his autopsy photos, and 18 states copied the lawMusic and sport
  449. 2001Nepal's crown prince shot dead the king, the queen and seven relatives, and was king for three days while in a comaRoyalty
  450. 2001South Africa's Constitutional Court upheld the Valoyi community's choice of Tinyiko Shilubana as its first woman Hosi in 2008Egypt and Africa
  451. 2001Gwalior's Rajmata disinherited her son and barred him from her last rites; the Scindia property fight ran 40 yearsIndia and South Asia
  452. 2001Shuji Nakamura was paid ¥20,000 for the blue LED patent, a Tokyo court awarded him ¥20 billion, and he settled for ¥840 millionScience and medicine
  453. 2001A doctor patented a cell line from John Moore's spleen, and California's Supreme Court ruled that Moore did not own his cellsScience and medicine
  454. 2001A hedge fund had Argentina's navy training ship held in Ghana for 11 weeks over defaulted bondsMoney and markets
  455. 2001A dying man in Luzhou left his savings and his ashes to the woman he lived with, and the court gave everything to his wifeProbate and trust law
  456. 2001Aaliyah's uncle owned her masters, and most of her music stayed off streaming for 20 years after her deathMusic and sport
  457. 2001George Harrison's estate sued his cancer doctor for making him sign a guitar two weeks before he diedMusic and sport
  458. 2001Anthony Quinn bought 29 acres on Rhodes in 1960, a Greek court cancelled the sale in 1984, and he died before he was repaidHollywood and TV
  459. 2000Rome's last Doria Pamphilj princess adopted two English babies, and her daughter went to court to keep her brother's surrogate-born children out of the inheritanceGreat houses
  460. 2000René Favaloro, who developed coronary bypass surgery, shot himself after his foundation went unpaid by Argentina's health insurersScience and medicine
  461. 2000A Hong Kong buyer asked twice whether anything had happened in the flat; a boy had fallen to his death from its balconyGhosts and legends
  462. 2000Big Pun's widow sued Fat Joe for his posthumous royalties, saying payments stopped in 2005Music and sport
  463. 2000Hedy Lamarr's adopted son sued in Florida in 2000 over a will that left him nothing from her $3.3 million estateHollywood and TV
  464. 1999U-Haul's founder lost his company to his sons, a daughter-in-law was shot dead, and a jury awarded his side $1.47 billionDivorce and feuds
  465. 1999Banker Edmond Safra died in a fire his nurse set in Monaco while his bank was being sold to HSBCEuropean families
  466. 1999The 7th Marquess of Bristol spent a fortune of up to £35 million on drugs and died at 44 after selling the Ickworth leaseEuropean families
  467. 1999King Hussein of Jordan removed his brother as heir after 34 years, two weeks before he diedRoyalty
  468. 1999Rabbi Joseph Halpern's family settled his estate before a Beth Din in Zurich, then fought in London over whether Jewish law governed the dealJewish law and estates
  469. 1999Vineeta Sharma's father died in 1999 and the Delhi courts said she was too late to share the family property; the Supreme Court made every Hindu daughter a co-owner by birthIndia and South Asia
  470. 1999Nicola Trussardi and his son Francesco died in car crashes four years apart, and the family lost the Trussardi companyBusiness dynasties
  471. 1999Fred Trump's grandchildren contested his will in 2000, and Donald Trump and 2 siblings cut off health insurance for them and an ailing babyDivorce and feuds
  472. 1999Curtis Mayfield's manager ran his estate; his widow said the manager borrowed against the songs and took about $920,000 in commissionsMusic and sport
  473. 1998A forged will leaving £386,000 to Dr Harold Shipman exposed Britain's worst serial killerJailed and executed
  474. 1998A German woman born in 1948 lost her father's estate to relatives he never met, and Europe's human rights court ruled for herSecret heirs
  475. 1998Four governments returned more than $780 million of General Sani Abacha's money to NigeriaMilitary families
  476. 1998Tammy Wynette's daughters sued her husband for $50 million, and her body was exhumed for an autopsyMusic and sport
  477. 1998Frank Sinatra's will disinherited any family member who challenged it, listing 13 forbidden legal actionsMusic and sport
  478. 1998Brunei accused the sultan's brother of taking billions as finance minister, and the Privy Council ordered him to hand over his hotelsRoyalty
  479. 1998A couple put their Ponzi commissions in a Cook Islands trust that locked when they were sued, and a US judge jailed them for six monthsMoney and markets
  480. 1998Sonny Bono's widow used a 2016 copyright termination notice to stop paying Cher her half of his song royalties, and a federal judge ruled for CherMusic and sport
  481. 1998Phil Hartman was shot dead by his wife in 1998; their wills left $1.23 million to two children, and a 1999 suit blamed ZoloftFame and fortune
  482. 1997CBS newsman Charles Kuralt kept a second family for 29 years, and a letter from his hospital bed gave his mistress his Montana landSecret heirs
  483. 1997Craig McCaw's ex-wife took about $460 million, mostly in Nextel stock, and bought a California newspaper with itDivorce and feuds
  484. 1997Gianni Versace was shot dead in Miami and left half his fashion house to his 11-year-old nieceEuropean families
  485. 1997The Butlers sold Kilkenny Castle to the town for £50 in 1967, and the Ormonde earldoms went dormant in 1997European families
  486. 1997Louis Napoléon's 1997 will passed over his son Charles and named his 11-year-old grandson head of the Bonaparte houseMilitary families
  487. 1997Michael Hutchence left half his estate to his baby daughter, and the money went into offshore trusts she did not controlMusic and sport
  488. 1997Jack Kent Cooke's will ordered the Redskins sold to fund his foundation, and his son was outbid by Daniel SnyderMusic and sport
  489. 1997Princess Diana's executors changed her will after her death and gave each godchild one item instead of a quarter of her possessionsRoyalty
  490. 1997Switzerland released Mobutu Sese Seko's frozen money to his heirs, and his body stays in RabatEgypt and Africa
  491. 1997Bảo Đại handed his gold seal to the revolution in 1945, sued his own son for it in France, and his widow's heirs sold it for 6.1 million eurosJapan and Southeast Asia
  492. 1997The Notorious B.I.G.'s mother and widow co-owned his catalog; after the mother died, her trustee sued the widow and wonMusic and sport
  493. 1997Fela Kuti's brother announced he died of AIDS, he was buried in his own courtyard, and his estate signed with WME 26 years laterMusic and sport
  494. 1997Townes Van Zandt's ex-wife ran his estate, his eldest son questioned her title to the songs, and the family spent 11 years fighting the label that held his mastersMusic and sport
  495. 1997Willem de Kooning's Woman-Ochre was cut from a Tucson museum frame in 1985 and found in 2017 at the estate sale of a retired coupleLiterature and art
  496. 1997James Michener gave away about $117 million and left the bulk of his estate to Swarthmore CollegeLiterature and art
  497. 1996François Mitterrand's secret daughter walked behind his coffin after the state had paid to hide herSecret heirs
  498. 1996Tupac Shakur's estate forced Drake to delete a song that used an AI copy of Tupac's voiceMusic and sport
  499. 1996Tupac's mother beat his absent father in court and built his estate; her executor was then sued by Tupac's sisterMusic and sport
  500. 1996Shearn Moody Jr. was accused of making Moody Foundation grants to himself, and the IRS sought $14 millionFoundations
  501. 1996Lesotho's military ruler exiled King Moshoeshoe II and put his son on the throne, the son handed it back in 1995, and the father died in a car crash a year laterEgypt and Africa
  502. 1996A Lesotho chief's eldest daughter sued to inherit his chieftainship, and the courts kept it in the male lineEgypt and Africa
  503. 1996Kim Kwang-seok's daughter, heir to his song copyrights, died in 2007, and her mother told no one for ten yearsFame and fortune
  504. 1996Titina Loizidou was kept from her Kyrenia land after 1974, won in Strasbourg, and Turkey paid in 2003 but never gave back the landWar and property
  505. 1996Samsung's heir and his three siblings bought Everland bonds at 7,700 won a share in 1996, two executives were convicted, and their father was cleared on that chargeMoney and markets
  506. 1996Bradley Nowell had registered the name Sublime to himself, and his estate got a federal injunction against his own bandmatesMusic and sport
  507. 1995The Duke of Northumberland agreed to sell a Raphael to the Getty for £35 million, and the government blocked itGreat houses
  508. 1995Maurizio Gucci was shot dead in Milan in 1995 on the order of his ex-wife Patrizia ReggianiEuropean families
  509. 1995A British widow had her dead husband's sons abroad, then fought until Parliament let his name go on their birth certificatesSecret heirs
  510. 1995Lana Turner left her daughter $50,000 and the rest of a $1.7 million trust to her maid of 45 yearsHollywood and TV
  511. 1995Bob Ross left his name to his son, and his business partners won it in courtLiterature and art
  512. 1995Selena was shot by her fan club president; her father later sued her widower to stop a TV show about herMusic and sport
  513. 1995Eazy-E married on his deathbed and left Ruthless Records to his bride; his son challenged the marriage 21 years laterMusic and sport
  514. 1995Jerry Garcia's widow barred his ex-wives from his funeral and stopped paying his $5 million divorce settlementMusic and sport
  515. 1995Nigeria hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight Ogoni activists over oil-region protests, buried them without their families, and pardoned them 30 years laterOil and natural resources
  516. 1995An IRS auditor who said she was held back as a Jewish woman left $22 million in stock to Yeshiva University, a school she had no ties toMoney and markets
  517. 1995Seymour Durst passed over his eldest son, the family bought Robert out for about $65 million, and Robert died a convicted murdererNorth America
  518. 1995J. Howard Marshall II's widow Anna Nicole Smith won $474 million in a bankruptcy court, and after two Supreme Court cases her estate got nothingFame and fortune
  519. 1995Patricia Highsmith left her whole estate, over $3 million, to the Yaddo artists' colony, and her papers went to the Swiss Literary ArchivesLiterature and art
  520. 1994Russborough House was robbed four times from 1974 to 2002, and Sir Alfred Beit gave his stolen Vermeer to Ireland before it was foundEuropean families
  521. 1994Robert Tönnies sued his uncle Clemens to take back a 5 percent gift in the family meat groupEuropean families
  522. 1994A court removed 17-year-old Frances Bean Cobain from Courtney Love's care, and she took control of her father's imageMusic and sport
  523. 1994A son-in-law moved 98 percent of a dying Texan's fortune into a family partnership the day after a "Fortress Plan" seminar, and the IRS taxed all of itMoney and markets
  524. 1994A German mother disinherited the son who attacked her, he killed her a month later, and two courts still awarded him his compulsory shareProbate and trust law
  525. 1994A Yuen Long woman's brother drove her from their father's house, and village women made Hong Kong let daughters inherit New Territories land in 1994Cities
  526. 1994Kurt Cobain left no will; his widow sued his bandmates for Nirvana, sold a quarter of his songs, and his Unplugged guitar went to his daughter's ex-husbandMusic and sport
  527. 1994Harry Nilsson's business manager stole his savings, and he died in Chapter 11 owing 75 creditorsMusic and sport
  528. 1994Jack Kirby's heirs served 45 copyright termination notices on Marvel; the Second Circuit ruled his work was for hire in 2013 and the case settled in 2014Literature and art
  529. 1994Martha Raye married a man 33 years younger and left him her $2 million estate, after her daughter sued for conservatorshipFame and fortune
  530. 1993Doris Duke left $1.2 billion with her butler as executor, and a court-appointed lawyer said her doctor hastened her deathFame and fortune
  531. 1993The 6th Earl Cawdor left Cawdor Castle to his second wife, and a court put his son's children out of itEuropean families
  532. 1993Albert II of Monaco acknowledged two children born outside marriage, and Monaco's constitution keeps both off the throneSecret heirs
  533. 1993Walt Disney's twin grandchildren split over a $400 million trust after the trustees paid one twin and refused the otherHollywood and TV
  534. 1993Audrey Hepburn's two sons ended up on opposite sides of a lawsuit over who controls her imageHollywood and TV
  535. 1993Gail Zappa left two of her children control of Frank Zappa's estate, and Dweezil was told he could not use his own surname for his bandMusic and sport
  536. 1993A woman claiming to be heir of the kings of Awadh lived nine years in a Delhi railway station and won a palace; she was the widow of a university registrarIndia and South Asia
  537. 1993Cantinflas's son and nephew fought over his films on the strength of a deathbed paper, and the family crypt was broken open in 2018Latin America
  538. 1993Pablo Escobar's four hippos outlived him, Colombia seized his ranch, and in 2026 the government approved killing their descendantsLatin America
  539. 1993A Baguio locksmith said Marcos's men seized his golden Buddha, and a Hawaii jury valued the gold he never got back at $22 billionJapan and Southeast Asia
  540. 1993Audrey Walton put about $200 million of Wal-Mart stock into two trusts reported as gifts worth nothing, and the Tax Court ruled for her against the IRSMoney and markets
  541. 1993Brandon Lee was killed on the set of The Crow in 1993 by a bullet fragment fired from a prop gun, and his mother and fiancee settled with the producers for an undisclosed sumHollywood and TV
  542. 1993Rudolf Nureyev left most of his estate to two foundations; a sister and niece contested the will, and a federal judge ruled for the foundation in 1998Fame and fortune
  543. 1993Raymond Burr left everything to his partner Robert Benevides, and a judge threw out his niece's claim of undue influence in 1994Hollywood and TV
  544. 1992Gina Rinehart's children sued her for control of a $5 billion family trust, and her daughter replaced her as trusteeDivorce and feuds
  545. 1992Freddie Bartholomew's parents lost a court fight with his aunt over the boy and his MGM salaryHollywood and TV
  546. 1992Francis Bacon's sole heir sued Bacon's dealer for up to £100 million, then dropped the case two weeks before trialLiterature and art
  547. 1992Eddie Mabo died five months before the High Court upheld Meriam title to his island, and his grave was defaced the day after his memorialNative nations and islands
  548. 1992The Canterbury Shakers closed membership in 1957, refused to recognize the converts at Sabbathday Lake, and the last Shaker community has three members in 2025Secret societies and orders
  549. 1992Alex Haley died owing about $1.5 million, his estate auctioned his Pulitzer for $50,000, and Betty Shabazz sued over the Malcolm X manuscriptLiterature and art
  550. 1992Benny Hill left an estate of 7,548,192 pounds to seven nieces and nephews, and his grave was broken into in 1992 over a rumour of buried goldFame and fortune
  551. 1992Marlene Dietrich's daughter sold her estate to Berlin in 1993, about 300,000 pages, 16,500 photographs and 3,300 garmentsHollywood and TV
  552. 1991A French court declared Yves Montand a girl's father after his death, and his body was exhumed to test itSecret heirs
  553. 1991A Los Angeles man willed 15 vials of his sperm to his girlfriend before killing himself, and his children asked the court to destroy themSecret heirs
  554. 1991A fugitive baron died in Manila with two infant sons by two women, and the Lords gave his title to his half-brother after DNA ruled out one boy and bigamy the otherSecret heirs
  555. 1991Publisher Robert Maxwell went overboard from his yacht, and his sons inherited companies that had used the staff pension fundsBusiness dynasties
  556. 1991Dr. Seuss's widow ran his licensing for 27 years; three years after her death his estate pulled six of his booksLiterature and art
  557. 1991Freddie Mercury left his house and half his fortune to his ex-girlfriend, who buried his ashes in a place only she knowsMusic and sport
  558. 1991Travancore's last ruler died in 1991, the Kerala High Court said his brother could not inherit the temple's management, and the Supreme Court gave the family controlIndia and South Asia
  559. 1991Electra Waggoner Biggs sued in 1991 to sell her family's oil-and-cattle ranch, and after 25 years a court receiver sold it to Stan KroenkeOil and natural resources
  560. 1991Skull and Bones' alumni trust changed the locks on the Tomb in 1991 when the seniors tapped seven women, and William F. Buckley went to court to stop the initiationSecret societies and orders
  561. 1991Miles Davis's will left nothing to two of his sons, and the eldest wrote a book blaming his aunt and sisterMusic and sport
  562. 1991A lawyer sued KISS in the name of Eric Carr's estate, and Carr's family said they had never authorized itMusic and sport
  563. 1991Jerzy Kosiński was accused of plagiarism and ghostwriting in 1982 and killed himself in 1991 with a plastic bag over his headLiterature and art
  564. 1991The IRS seized Redd Foxx's Las Vegas home, seven vehicles and bank accounts in 1989, and his estate was still in probate with an IRS lien in 2006Hollywood and TV
  565. 1991Gene Roddenberry's first wife sued his estate for Star Trek profits and lost 2-1 on appeal in 1996; his widow's 2009 trust left their son $60 million and the dogs a $4 million home trustHollywood and TV
  566. 1991Martha Graham left her dances to Ron Protas in 1991, and federal courts ruled from 2002 to 2006 that her own center owned themFame and fortune
  567. 1991Margot Fonteyn died in Panama in 1991 after her savings went to her paralysed husband's care, and a 1990 gala raised 250,000 pounds for herFame and fortune
  568. 1990Gloria von Thurn und Taxis auctioned the family treasures and handed 2,200 objects to Bavaria to settle her husband's estateEuropean families
  569. 1990French law gave a child born of adultery half a share of his mother's estate until Europe's human rights court ruled against it in 2000Secret heirs
  570. 1990Joe Robbie's nine children sued each other, his widow claimed her 30 percent, and a $47 million tax bill forced the sale of the DolphinsMusic and sport
  571. 1990Armand Hammer built his museum with Occidental Petroleum money and died with shareholders, his son and USC in courtFoundations
  572. 1990Sun Hung Kai's eldest son was kidnapped for a record ransom, then removed as chairman by his mother, who controlled the family's sharesAsian dynasties
  573. 1990Malcolm Forbes spent 25 years buying the tsars' Fabergé eggs, his family sold all nine to a Russian billionaire before the auction, and the US sanctioned the buyer in 2018Russia and Byzantium
  574. 1990An Wang put his son in charge of a $3 billion company, the son was out by 1989, and Wang Laboratories went bankrupt in 1992Business dynasties
  575. 1990Halston sold his name with his company for $16 million and was then barred from itBusiness dynasties
  576. 1990Death duties forced an earl's family to sell Leonardo's notebook in 1980, and a widow's niece's lawsuit forced its next owner's museum to sell it againHeirlooms and treasure
  577. 1990A jeweller's daughter found ten 1933 gold double eagles in his safe-deposit box, handed them to the Mint to authenticate, and the government kept themMoney and markets
  578. 1990Navajo uranium miners died of radiation, and their widows had to prove marriages made by Navajo custom to collect $100,000Native nations and islands
  579. 1990The IRS seized Willie Nelson's ranch, studio and guitars over a $16.7 million tax bill, and fans bought them backMusic and sport
  580. 1990Sammy Davis Jr. died owing the IRS about $7 million, and his widow lost the rights to his name and musicMusic and sport
  581. 1990Stevie Ray Vaughan's mother and brother sued the helicopter company; his fiancée was left out of the estate, and thieves later took his belongings from Jimmie's storage unitMusic and sport
  582. 1990Paulette Goddard inherited Erich Maria Remarque's money, properties and art in 1970 and left New York University more than $20 million in 1990Literature and art
  583. 1990Netflix bought the Roald Dahl Story Company in September 2021 for a reported 500 million pounds, about $686 millionLiterature and art
  584. 1990Jim Henson died during a $150 million sale to Disney, his children ended the deal and sued Disney, and the Muppets went to Disney anyway in 2004Hollywood and TV
  585. 1989August Busch III ousted his father from Anheuser-Busch in a boardroom coup, and 33 years later the family lost the companyDivorce and feuds
  586. 1989Faridkot's Maharaja lost his only son, and a will read three days after his death gave his forts and palaces to a trust run by his staffGreat houses
  587. 1989Prince Paul Esterházy made his widow sole heir, and the Esterházy family lost Burgenland's largest estate to her foundationsEuropean families
  588. 1989Bette Davis wrote her daughter, her adopted daughter and two grandsons out of her will after "My Mother's Keeper"Hollywood and TV
  589. 1989A Madrid judge had Salvador Dalí exhumed for a paternity test 28 years after his death, and the DNA said noLiterature and art
  590. 1989The Vunivalu of Bau title stood empty for 34 years after 1989 because Cakobau's clan could not agree on an heirNative nations and islands
  591. 1989The Dalai Lama named a six-year-old as Panchen Lama in 1995; the boy disappeared within days and China installed another boy chosen from a golden urnAsian dynasties
  592. 1989Three Abu Dhabi rulers were killed in family feuds in six years; the survivors swore to their mother never to do it again, and in 1966 one brother removed another without bloodshedAsian dynasties
  593. 1989Japan's imperial family paid 3.3 billion yen in property tax in 1947, and in 1989 the new emperor paid 428 million yen in inheritance tax while the regalia passed tax-freeJapan and Southeast Asia
  594. 1989Marcos drew a salary of 100,000 pesos a year, and the Philippine Supreme Court took $658 million of his Swiss depositsJapan and Southeast Asia
  595. 1989Marcos's body lay in a glass case in Batac for 23 years until a 9-5 Supreme Court vote put it in the Heroes' CemeteryJapan and Southeast Asia
  596. 1989The Vuitton family's patriarch brought in Bernard Arnault and was fired from LVMH, and Arnault has locked his own five children into a 30-year holdingBusiness dynasties
  597. 1989A New York court ruled the Nyack house "haunted as a matter of law" and let the buyer walk away from $650,000Ghosts and legends
  598. 1989Robert Mapplethorpe inherited three quarters of Sam Wagstaff's $7 million estate over the sister's challenge, left his own parents nothing, and was tried posthumously in CincinnatiLiterature and art
  599. 1989Edward Abbey wrote instructions to be buried without a coffin or permit, and friends buried him in the Arizona desert two days after he diedLiterature and art
  600. 1988The Binghams sold the Louisville Courier-Journal after a daughter demanded her shares be bought outDivorce and feuds
  601. 1988Chiang Ching-kuo never acknowledged his twin sons, and one of them took the Chiang name 63 years laterSecret heirs
  602. 1988Basquiat died at 27; his estate shut its authentication board, and the FBI later seized 25 fake Basquiats from a museumLiterature and art
  603. 1988Luis Barragán's archive was sold in 1995 and kept closed in Switzerland, and an artist made a diamond from his ashes to trade for itLatin America
  604. 1988Aristotle Onassis's only granddaughter inherited half his fortune at 18, after her father and the trustees fought for yearsBusiness dynasties
  605. 1988Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar were born in Peshawar houses their families left at partition, the new owners refused to sell, and the province took both by compulsory purchaseWar and property
  606. 1987Fred Astaire's widow charged fees for clips of him, lost a federal appeal over 90 seconds of film, and licensed him to a vacuum maker over his daughter's objectionHollywood and TV
  607. 1987Andy Warhol's foundation valued his art at $95 million; a court said $390.9 million, and his estate lawyer was paid on the differenceLiterature and art
  608. 1987Four families held Tirumala's priesthood by birth and kept the temple jewels in turns; Andhra Pradesh abolished the inheritance in 1987India and South Asia
  609. 1987Clint Murchison Jr. inherited an oil fortune, bought the Dallas Cowboys for $550,000, and died $100 million short of his debtsOil and natural resources
  610. 1987A doctor fled south in 1950 with one daughter, and 59 years later his four children left in North Korea sued their half-siblings for his estateWar and property
  611. 1987Liberace's doctor signed a death certificate that hid AIDS; the coroner pulled his embalmed body back for an autopsyMusic and sport
  612. 1987Peter Tosh died without a will; his ten children fought in a Manhattan court over his royaltiesMusic and sport
  613. 1987Jaco Pastorius died broke after a club bouncer beat him, his estate nearly closed with debts, and his stolen bass took four years of litigation to get backMusic and sport
  614. 1987Kishore Kumar's nephew agreed to sell his childhood home for Rs 14 crore, his son published a legal notice to stop it, and the house became a ruinMusic and sport
  615. 1987Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali was shot in London in 1987, Britain expelled Israeli officials after a Mossad double agent was jailed, and no one has been charged with the murderLiterature and art
  616. 1987James Baldwin's estate sold his papers to the Schomburg Center in 2017, with part of his correspondence reported sealed for 20 yearsLiterature and art
  617. 1986Georgia O'Keeffe's late codicils left most of a $65 million estate to her assistant, 58 years younger, and her family suedLiterature and art
  618. 1986ETA killed the 17th Duke of Veragua, a descendant of Columbus and a Spanish vice admiral, in Madrid in 1986Explorers
  619. 1986Borges left everything to the woman he married seven weeks before he died; she died without a willLiterature and art
  620. 1986Max Feinberg's trust treated any grandchild who married outside Judaism as dead, and the Illinois Supreme Court let it standJewish law and estates
  621. 1986Kenya's Court of Appeal gave S.M. Otieno's body to his brother and clan over his widow's objection, and he lay unburied for 140 daysEgypt and Africa
  622. 1986Japanese courts cancelled auction sales of houses where owners had died by suicide, and in 2021 the state set a three-year disclosure ruleGhosts and legends
  623. 1986Thieves stole Henry Moore's 2-ton Reclining Figure, valued at 3 million pounds, from his foundation in 2005 and police believe it was sold for scrap worth under 3,000 poundsLiterature and art
  624. 1986L. Ron Hubbard was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea within a day of his death in January 1986, after his son had sued to have him declared deadLiterature and art
  625. 1986Coluche left 6.1 million francs of debt in 1986, his ex-wife refused the estate, and his sons spent 28 years suing over his sketchesFame and fortune
  626. 1985A jury found Rock Hudson hid his AIDS from his lover and awarded $21.75 million against his estateHollywood and TV
  627. 1985Philip Larkin's secretary shredded his 30 volumes of diaries after he died, on an instruction his will did not spell outLiterature and art
  628. 1985Ricky Nelson died in a plane fire owing money; his ex-wife tried to take over the estate, lost, then fought her brother Mark Harmon for custody of their sonMusic and sport
  629. 1985Orson Welles's daughter Beatrice sued his partner Oja Kodar, fought her over The Other Side of the Wind, and lost her claim to the Citizen Kane copyrightHollywood and TV
  630. 1985Chagall's heirs paid his death duties with 46 paintings and 406 drawings, and his granddaughters' committee seized a £100,000 fake to destroy itLiterature and art
  631. 1984A Maharana's will gave Udaipur's City Palace to his younger son, and 41 years later the heirs threw stones at its gatesGreat houses
  632. 1984Lord Brooke sold Warwick Castle to Madame Tussauds for £1.3 million in 1978, ending 374 years of Greville ownershipEuropean families
  633. 1984Jackie Coogan earned $3 million as a child; $252,000 was left when he sued his motherHollywood and TV
  634. 1984Truman Capote's ashes were divided, stolen at a party, returned in a garden hose, and auctioned in 2016Literature and art
  635. 1984Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father, left no will and $9 million in debt, and his children won the "Blurred Lines" caseMusic and sport
  636. 1984Anna Anderson claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia for 64 years and fought German courts for 32 years for the Romanov moneyRoyalty
  637. 1984Jackie Wilson spent eight years in a coma under a court-appointed guardian, died $300,000 in debt, and was buried in an unmarked graveMusic and sport
  638. 1983A Johnson & Johnson heir left $400 million to the maid he married, and his six children suedFame and fortune
  639. 1983Muddy Waters' heirs spent 35 years fighting his manager over his copyrightsMusic and sport
  640. 1983Italy's crown jewels have sat in a Bank of Italy vault since 1946, and a Rome court ruled in 2025 they belong to the stateRoyalty
  641. 1983A 40-acre allotment had 439 owners, Congress let tiny shares pass to the tribe instead of the heirs, and the Supreme Court struck the law down twiceNative nations and islands
  642. 1983The FBI believed Meyer Lansky had $300 million hidden; he died in Miami with less than $35,000 in the bankMoney and markets
  643. 1983Dennis Wilson's estranged wife had him buried at sea with White House help, against his brother's plan to bury him beside their fatherMusic and sport
  644. 1983Arthur Koestler and his wife Cynthia died together in 1983; his 1 million pound estate paid for a parapsychology chair after four universities declined itLiterature and art
  645. 1983Tennessee Williams left his $10 million estate to Sewanee and his brother $25,000; the brother sued for undue influence and settled for $100,000Literature and art
  646. 1983Balanchine's 1983 will split the rights to about 100 ballets among a handful of friends, and the heirs formed a TrustFame and fortune
  647. 1982Whaling magnate Anders Jahre denied owning a fortune abroad, and Norway spent 30 years after his death recovering about 1 billion kronerEuropean families
  648. 1982Swaziland's royal council deposed Queen Regent Dzeliwe in 1983 after Sobhuza II diedEgypt and Africa
  649. 1982Indian troops disarmed Sikkim's palace guard in 1975; the last king died in New York, his heir died on a mountain road, and a federal committee was still deciding which palace property the family ownsAsian dynasties
  650. 1982Alfred Bloomingdale's mistress sued his dying body for palimony, was beaten to death a year later, and her estate won $200,000Fame and fortune
  651. 1982God's banker was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge with bricks in his pockets, and the Vatican bank paid $250 million to his bank's creditorsMoney and markets
  652. 1982Randy Rhoads's mother gave filmmakers his photos for a documentary that never came out, and an appeals court let them publish a book insteadMusic and sport
  653. 1982Ayn Rand's heir kept the first and last pages of The Fountainhead manuscript; the Library of Congress took them from his home in January 2002Literature and art
  654. 1982A helicopter killed Vic Morrow and two child actors on the Twilight Zone set in 1982, and director John Landis and four others were tried for manslaughter and acquitted in 1987Hollywood and TV
  655. 1982Fassbinder's first wife said the head of his foundation invented a marriage to him to control his estate, and 25 colleagues demanded she resignHollywood and TV
  656. 1981Bob Marley died without a will, and his widow forged his signature to move his companies into her nameMusic and sport
  657. 1981Charles Harpur-Crewe died in 1981, an £8 million tax bill fell on Calke Abbey, and the house went to the nation with everything in itGreat houses
  658. 1981Joe Louis owed the IRS more than $1 million and ended his life as a casino greeter in Las VegasMusic and sport
  659. 1981Nigeria's Supreme Court upheld Gladys Ukeje's share of her father's Lagos estate and declared the Igbo rule excluding daughters void in 2014Egypt and Africa
  660. 1981The 16th Karmapa died in Illinois in 1981; two rival successors were enthroned, and the Black Crown he left at Rumtek has gone unused sinceAsian dynasties
  661. 1981Natalie Wood drowned off Santa Catalina Island in 1981, and in 2012 the Los Angeles coroner changed her death certificate to "drowning and other undetermined factors"Hollywood and TV
  662. 1980Norway bought shipowner Hilmar Reksten's shares in 1975 while his fortune sat hidden abroad; his estate went bankrupt and his heir paid back 60 million kronerEuropean families
  663. 1980Marcel Boussac, France's richest man in 1951 and Dior's backer, died ruined; his collapsed group became Bernard Arnault's startEuropean families
  664. 1980Peter Sellers signed a trust for his daughter the day he collapsed; his widow kept a £4 million estateHollywood and TV
  665. 1980Nicaragua's Decree 3 confiscated Somoza family property in 1979, and Somoza was killed in Asunción in 1980Military families
  666. 1980Iran sued the exiled Shah in New York for billions, lost, and the tower his foundation built ended up paying terror victims $318 millionRoyalty
  667. 1980H.L. Hunt's sons bought a third of the world's silver, lost more than $1 billion, and filed for bankruptcy after a Peruvian state company won in courtBusiness dynasties
  668. 1980A Hungarian soldier was found hanged beside an empty pit in 1980, and the Roman silver he is believed to have dug up sold for €43 millionHeirlooms and treasure
  669. 1980A father and son found a medieval church hoard with metal detectors; the High Court gave them £5.5 million, and the Supreme Court gave the state the hoardHeirlooms and treasure
  670. 1980Britain barred Seretse Khama from his chieftaincy for marrying an Englishwoman, and as Botswana's president he signed his people's mining land over to the state without compensationOil and natural resources
  671. 1980John Lennon's will left everything to a trust run by Yoko Ono, and his son Julian sued for 16 yearsMusic and sport
  672. 1980John Lennon's diaries and watch were stolen from Yoko Ono's home and taken to Berlin; Switzerland's top court ruled the watch hers in 2024Music and sport
  673. 1980Nina Kandinsky was strangled at her Gstaad chalet in 1980, about $2 million of her jewellery was stolen, and no one has been chargedLiterature and art
  674. 1980Sartre adopted Arlette Elkaïm and made her his heir, so Simone de Beauvoir had no legal say over his work and adopted a daughter of her ownLiterature and art
  675. 1979Raul Gardini ran his in-laws' Ferruzzi group, was voted out in 1991 and shot himself in 1993 as it collapsed with 31,000 billion lire of debtEuropean families
  676. 1979Charles Clore moved to Monaco to avoid tax, and the Revenue proved after his death that he was still EnglishEuropean families
  677. 1979Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom drowned, his widow inherited 70 percent of the team, fired his son and moved the team to St. LouisMusic and sport
  678. 1979Conrad Hilton left his hotel shares to his foundation, and his son Barron spent 10 years in court winning them backFoundations
  679. 1979Peggy Guggenheim's grandsons sued the Guggenheim Foundation in Paris to undo her gift of the Venice collection and lostLiterature and art
  680. 1979Iran's revolutionary court had plastics maker Habib Elghanian shot in 1979, and the state took the tower he builtBusiness dynasties
  681. 1979Barbara Hutton inherited the Woolworth fortune at 21, married seven times, and died with $3,500 in the bankBusiness dynasties
  682. 1979The IRS valued Samuel Newhouse's newspaper shares at $1.32 billion and sought a $305 million fraud penalty, and the Tax Court sided with his sonsMoney and markets
  683. 1979John Wayne's heirs ended an 11-year trademark fight with Duke University after agreeing that no letter of DUKE on their liquor will be blueHollywood and TV
  684. 1979Sid Vicious asked to be buried beside Nancy Spungen; her mother said no, and his mother scattered his ashes on the grave anywayMusic and sport
  685. 1979The FBI planted a false story about Jean Seberg's pregnancy in 1970, admitted it in 1979, and she was found dead in her car in ParisHollywood and TV
  686. 1979A French woman sued Darryl F. Zanuck's estate for $15 million in 1980, saying his son had her cut from the will; the case ended in 1988 with her claim going to a universityHollywood and TV
  687. 1978J. Roderick MacArthur sued his late father's $1.5 billion foundation in 1984 and asked a court to liquidate itFoundations
  688. 1978Norman Rockwell's sons sued to stop the Berkshire Museum selling paintings he gave it, and Shuffleton's Barbershop went to George Lucas's museumLiterature and art
  689. 1978Bob Crane was bludgeoned to death in 1978, left everything to his estranged second wife, and the 1994 acquittal and 2016 DNA retest never named a killerHollywood and TV
  690. 1977Two men stole Charlie Chaplin's coffin for ransom, and his widow refused to payHollywood and TV
  691. 1977An heiress and her nurse were killed inside Glensheen, and the adopted daughter who stood to inherit $8 million was acquittedGreat houses
  692. 1977Jacqueline Onassis paid to stop her aunt's eviction from Grey Gardens, and the house sold for $220,000 on condition it not be torn downGreat houses
  693. 1977Joan Crawford's will left out Christina and Christopher "for reasons which are well known to them"Hollywood and TV
  694. 1977Groucho Marx's companion lost the fight over his estate, and his heirs lost the rights to his actHollywood and TV
  695. 1977Bing Crosby's sons waited for a trust they could not touch until 65, and their mother's trust went brokeHollywood and TV
  696. 1977Nabokov told his wife to burn his last novel; it sat in a Swiss bank vault for 32 years before their son published itLiterature and art
  697. 1977Lynyrd Skynyrd's widows and survivors used a 1988 court order to block a film about the plane crash, and lost on appealMusic and sport
  698. 1977A Beverly Hills oil widow's will told her brother-in-law to bury her in her Ferrari or lose his inheritance, and a court held her to itOil and natural resources
  699. 1977Maria Callas died without a valid will, her estranged husband and mother split her $8 million, and her ashes were stolenMusic and sport
  700. 1977Elvis Presley's probate judge ruled that Colonel Parker's 50 percent share "shocks the conscience of the court" and ordered the estate to sue himMusic and sport
  701. 1976Gordon Getty, sole trustee of the family trust, sold Getty Oil to Texaco, and his nieces petitioned to remove himDivorce and feuds
  702. 1976J. Paul Getty paid part of his kidnapped grandson's ransom and lent the rest to his son at 4% interestEuropean families
  703. 1976The 7th Duke of Leinster sold his future inheritance to a moneylender and died in a London bedsitEuropean families
  704. 1976Getty Trust chief Barry Munitz resigned in 2006 and paid back $250,000 after reports on his spendingFoundations
  705. 1976The Cojuangcos bought Hacienda Luisita in 1957 on a promise to sell it to tenants, and the Supreme Court ordered it handed to 6,296 farmworkers in 2011Japan and Southeast Asia
  706. 1976Fort Worth oil heir Cullen Davis was tried for killing his stepdaughter and for hiring a hitman to kill his divorce judge, was acquitted, and later listed $865 million in debtsOil and natural resources
  707. 1976A Pertamina general died with 54 million marks in Singapore accounts in his and his widow's names, and the courts gave it to the state oil company as bribesOil and natural resources
  708. 1976East Germany gave Junker land to new farmers in 1945, and reunified Germany took it back from their heirs without compensationLand and wealth transfer
  709. 1976Florence Ballard was put out of the Supremes, barred from using the name for a $139,804 payment, and was on welfare seven years laterMusic and sport
  710. 1976Howard Hughes left no valid will, a jury found the Mormon will naming Melvin Dummar a forgery, and Texas and California fought over his death taxesFame and fortune
  711. 1976The Man Ray Trust said in 2021 that 148 of 188 lots in a Christie's Paris sale of his assistant's collection lacked clear title; Christie's sold themLiterature and art
  712. 1976Eileen Gray's furniture was removed from her villa E-1027 and sold at Sotheby's in 1991; the state bought the ruined house in 1999Literature and art
  713. 1976Agatha Christie gave her grandson the rights to The Mousetrap as a child, and the company holding her estate was sold three timesLiterature and art
  714. 1975The Three Stooges' heirs fought each other over royalties, then won the case that set the limits of a dead star's likenessHollywood and TV
  715. 1975Spain's Supreme Court confirmed in March 2026 that Franco's grandchildren must give the Pazo de Meirás to the stateMilitary families
  716. 1975Saudi King Faisal was shot by his nephew during an audience, and the nephew was beheaded in a Riyadh squareRoyalty
  717. 1975Ethiopia's Derg said Haile Selassie died after prostate surgery, and his bones were found under his palace office 16 years laterRoyalty
  718. 1975Beryl Buck left oil stock for Marin County, Shell's purchase made it worth $253 million, and a court kept it in MarinFoundations
  719. 1975Josephine Baker barricaded herself in the kitchen of her château when it was sold for her debts, and was carried out to the stepsFame and fortune
  720. 1975Umm Kulthum's heirs sued to pull the biopic "El Sett" from cinemas, and Egypt's Administrative Court ordered them to pay costsMusic and sport
  721. 1974Charles Lindbergh had seven secret children in Germany, confirmed by DNA 29 years after his deathSecret heirs
  722. 1974Karnataka took Mysore Palace during the Emergency, lost in court in 1997, and passed a law to take it again in 1998Great houses
  723. 1974Lord Lucan vanished the night his children's nanny was killed in 1974, and the High Court declared him dead in 2016European families
  724. 1974The government refused Mentmore for £2 million, and Sotheby's sold its contents for more than £6 million in 1977European families
  725. 1974Oilman H.L. Hunt had three families with 15 children, and the wife from his bigamous marriage sued his heirs four years after his deathSecret heirs
  726. 1974A court had ordered Sherman Gordon to support his daughter, but Illinois gave his only asset, a $2,500 car, to his parents and siblingsSecret heirs
  727. 1974Louis Kahn died unidentified in a Penn Station restroom, owing hundreds of thousands of dollars, with three families at his funeralLiterature and art
  728. 1974Thieves cut the hands off Juan Perón's body in 1987 and demanded 8 million dollars, and the judge investigating died in a car crashLatin America
  729. 1974Montoneros kidnapped the Born brothers, heirs to Bunge y Born, and freed them after nine months for a reported $60 millionBusiness dynasties
  730. 1974Puma's founder left everything to one son, the other son won control in court, and the Dassler brothers lie at opposite ends of one cemeteryBusiness dynasties
  731. 1974The Amityville house sold for $80,000 after six murders; the family that fled sued, and a judge called their story largely fictionGhosts and legends
  732. 1974Duke Ellington's grandchildren beat their father's estate for his royalties, then lost to EMI over foreign earningsMusic and sport
  733. 1974Nick Drake's estate stopped the auction of six unheard 1967 recordings claimed by his friend Beverley MartynMusic and sport
  734. 1974Anne Sexton's psychiatrist gave about 300 therapy tapes to her biographer after her death, with her daughter's consent as literary executor, and ethicists condemned itLiterature and art
  735. 1974Christine Chubbuck shot herself on live television in 1974, and her station's tape has been held privately sinceHollywood and TV
  736. 1973Picasso died with no will and about 43,000 works, and the French state took its tax in paintingsLiterature and art
  737. 1973India's 2005 Supreme Court ruling gave the Raja of Mahmudabad's son back his palaces, and Parliament rewrote the law to take them againGreat houses
  738. 1973Marjorie Merriweather Post deeded Mar-a-Lago to the nation, and Congress handed it back in a Lake Tahoe land billGreat houses
  739. 1973Christabel Russell said she was a virgin when her son was conceived, and the House of Lords made him heir to the Ampthill baronySecret heirs
  740. 1973Mario Lalli called Robert "my son" in a notarized paper, and the Supreme Court still let New York shut him out of the estateSecret heirs
  741. 1973Chile dug up Pablo Neruda 40 years after the 1973 coup, and scientists found botulism bacteria in his toothLiterature and art
  742. 1973About 50 distant cousins of Henry Darger sued the landlords who saved his art, 49 years after his deathLiterature and art
  743. 1973The Tolkien estate sued New Line for $150 million, saying it had received nothing from three films that earned billionsLiterature and art
  744. 1973Gram Parsons' road manager stole his body from Los Angeles airport and burned it in Joshua TreeMusic and sport
  745. 1973An Ohio doctor's will gave his son seven years to marry a Jewish woman or lose his share to the State of Israel, and the court upheld itJewish law and estates
  746. 1973Guerrillas killed Eugenio Garza Sada in a kidnapping attempt in 1973, and his family split the Monterrey Group into fourBusiness dynasties
  747. 1973A Chinese fast-food chain used a Bruce Lee figure as its logo for 15 years, and his daughter sued for 210 million yuanFame and fortune
  748. 1973Jim Croce's widow sued his producers and their lawyer over the contracts he signed in 1968, and won only against the lawyerMusic and sport
  749. 1973Soldiers shot Víctor Jara 44 times, his widow buried him in secret, and 50 years later Chile jailed his killers and Florida deported the last oneMusic and sport
  750. 1973A French court gave Renoir's assistant Richard Guino co-authorship of the Renoir sculptures in 1973; his heirs won a US infringement verdict against Renoir's great-grandson in 2008Literature and art
  751. 1973Pearl S. Buck left three contradictory wills, a dance instructor and her seven adopted children fought for six years, and a Vermont court found undue influenceLiterature and art
  752. 1972Edward VIII gave up the throne, sold Sandringham and Balmoral to his brother, and hid how much money he hadRoyalty
  753. 1972Marie Robertson's heirs sued Princeton over her $35 million gift in 2002 and settled in 2008 with $40 million in legal fees repaidFoundations
  754. 1972Oman's sultan was counting his money when his son demanded his abdication in 1970; he fired a pistol, signed, and flew to London that nightAsian dynasties
  755. 1972Ezra Pound spent more than 12 years at St. Elizabeths; his wife held legal control, and after he died the Pound archive was sold to Yale and both claimants were paidLiterature and art
  756. 1972A car bomb killed Ghassan Kanafani and his 17-year-old niece in Beirut on 8 July 1972, and Mossad is reported to have claimed responsibilityLiterature and art
  757. 1971Jim Morrison left everything to Pamela Courson; she died three years later without a will, and both sets of parents fought for The Doors' moneyMusic and sport
  758. 1971Idi Amin seized the Madhvani sugar estate in 1972; the widow came back to one working tractor, and the heirs split again in 2020Business dynasties
  759. 1971Coco Chanel used Nazi anti-Jewish laws to try to take her perfume company from the Wertheimers, who had signed it over to an aircraft makerBusiness dynasties
  760. 1971RCA fought Philo Farnsworth for the television patent, lost, paid him royalties, and he died in debt while television made others richScience and medicine
  761. 1971Arbenz's land law took 234,000 acres from United Fruit; after the 1954 coup the junta seized the Arbenz family farm, and Guatemala apologised to his family in 2011Land and wealth transfer
  762. 1971Stravinsky's widow and children litigated his estate for four years, and the dispute over the royalties reached a New York appeals court in 2003Music and sport
  763. 1971Louis Armstrong's will said he had no children, his widow's nieces contested her will, and his letter called a girl born in 1955 his "Little Satchmo"Music and sport
  764. 1970Mark Rothko's executors sold 798 of his paintings to a gallery one of them worked for, and his 19-year-old daughter suedLiterature and art
  765. 1970Jimi Hendrix died with no will, and his father's will later cut his brother out of an $80 million estateMusic and sport
  766. 1970Marquis Casati Stampa shot his wife, her lover and himself; his daughter inherited at 19 and sold Arcore to Berlusconi for unlisted sharesEuropean families
  767. 1970A Korean family gave away 300 years of wealth to found a college, and the government merged it and named Park Chung-hee its founderLasting legacies
  768. 1970Grünenthal paid 100 million marks into a foundation for thalidomide victims, and a 1971 law wiped out their claims against the companyScience and medicine
  769. 1970Two brothers spent eight years in jail for refusing to leave their grandfather's heirs' property on Silver Dollar RoadNorth America
  770. 1970Janis Joplin changed her will two days before she died and left $2,500 for her friends to throw a partyMusic and sport
  771. 1970Barnett Newman's "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III" was slashed in Amsterdam in 1986; a $400,000 restoration was judged to have destroyed itLiterature and art
  772. 1970Mishima's widow boycotted Paul Schrader's 1985 film, and his children won a copyright suit over his lettersLiterature and art
  773. 1969A Florida judge ruled that the will giving Jack Kerouac's estate to his widow's family was forged, and the ruling changed nothingLiterature and art
  774. 1969A Schiele portrait lent to MoMA was seized in New York as Nazi loot, and the Vienna museum paid the owner's heirs $19 million to keep itLiterature and art
  775. 1969The Kabaka of Buganda climbed his palace wall to escape the army, and died in a London flat three years laterRoyalty
  776. 1969Kerala tradition says Parashurama gave the land to Brahmins; only eldest Namboodiri sons could marry so estates never split, and land reform took them in 1969India and South Asia
  777. 1969Phillips Petroleum found Ekofisk on its last required well in 1969, and Norway saved the oil money in a fund for future generationsOil and natural resources
  778. 1969Ho Chi Minh's will asked for cremation and his ashes split three ways; the Politburo embalmed him, cut the request from the published will and moved his death date by a dayStates and spies
  779. 1969Judy Garland's fifth husband buried her in New York; 48 years later her children moved her to HollywoodMusic and sport
  780. 1969John Kennedy Toole's mother got A Confederacy of Dunces published, then fought a bookseller and Toole's relatives over The Neon Bible until 1989Literature and art
  781. 1969After Sharon Tate's murder her mother Doris backed California's 1982 Victims' Bill of Rights and became the first victim's relative to speak at a state parole hearingHollywood and TV
  782. 1968Ezra Vincent signed a paper acknowledging his daughter, and in 1971 the Supreme Court let his brothers and sisters take his whole estateSecret heirs
  783. 1968A jury awarded John Steinbeck's stepdaughter more than $13 million against his son's family for blocking films of his novelsLiterature and art
  784. 1968Assis Chateaubriand had Vargas change the law to win custody of his daughter, gave his media empire to 22 employees, and that daughter lost the fight to recover it in 2014Latin America
  785. 1968Three women claimed to be Frankie Lymon's widow, and New York courts had to decide who owned his share of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love"Music and sport
  786. 1968Martin Luther King Jr.'s estate sued his daughter in 2014 to take his Nobel medal and Bible for sale, and a judge locked both in a bank boxFame and fortune
  787. 1968Marcel Duchamp worked in secret for 20 years on Étant donnés; it was moved to Philadelphia under his 1966 instructions after he died in 1968Literature and art
  788. 1967Alfried Krupp was convicted at Nuremberg, got his property back in 1951, and left the firm to a foundation instead of his sonEuropean families
  789. 1967Prince Janusz Radziwiłł lost about 43,700 hectares to Soviet and communist seizure, and his wife died in NKVD custodyEuropean families
  790. 1967Prince Felix Yusupov sold two Rembrandts to Joseph Widener with a buy-back option, raised the money, and lost them in courtEuropean families
  791. 1967The Lobkowicz family lost its castles to the Nazis in 1939 and the Communists in 1948, and a grandson spent 12 years recovering the Prague palaceEuropean families
  792. 1967China's last emperor kept his title and palace after abdicating, and soldiers blew open his ancestors' tombsRoyalty
  793. 1967Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach gave up the Krupp inheritance for 2 million marks a year so a foundation could own the companyFoundations
  794. 1967Oil on an 11-year-old Creek Freedwoman's allotment brought her $300 a day, a white guardian took charge, and W. E. B. Du Bois wrote to her judge about reports she was being cheatedNative nations and islands
  795. 1967Three days after Hyderabad surrendered in 1948, its minister moved £1 million to Pakistan's envoy; a London court gave it back to the Nizam's heirs 71 years laterIndia and South Asia
  796. 1967Bolivian officers cut off Che Guevara's hands in 1967, a minister had them smuggled toward Cuba in a jar, and his body was found under an airstrip 30 years laterLatin America
  797. 1967Mohammed bin Laden's sons ran his construction group for decades, and three of them signed their shares over to the state while detainedBusiness dynasties
  798. 1967Bill Koch sold his stake for $1.1 billion, sued his brothers for more, lost, and settled after 20 yearsBusiness dynasties
  799. 1967Mossadegh nationalised Iran's oil, was overthrown in a CIA and MI6 coup, and was buried under the floor of his own houseOil and natural resources
  800. 1967A cousin with only a life estate sold John Coltrane's Philadelphia house for $100,000, and his sons sued to take it backMusic and sport
  801. 1967Brian Epstein died at 32 owed 25 percent of the Beatles' royalties for nine years, and his mother sold that claim to a City investment trustMusic and sport
  802. 1967Jo Hopper left the Whitney more than 3,000 Edward Hopper works in 1968; a critic alleges a Nyack minister who shared the residue took hundreds more, and the museum has declined to pursue itLiterature and art
  803. 1967Jayne Mansfield's estate was appraised at $600,000 in 1967; by 1977 her children found about $500,000 in debts and the estate insolventHollywood and TV
  804. 1966The Nawab of Rampur's eldest son took all his private property in 1966; after 53 years the Supreme Court split it among 16 heirsIndia and South Asia
  805. 1966Guinness heir Tara Browne died at 21 before his £1 million inheritance, and his mother won custody of his sonsFame and fortune
  806. 1966A forger sold about 1,300 fake Giacometti sculptures over ten years, German police seized more than 1,150 suspect works in 2009, and a Stuttgart court gave dealers two-year suspended sentencesLiterature and art
  807. 1966Monet's last heir died in a car crash on 3 February 1966 and left Giverny and his father's paintings to the Académie des Beaux-ArtsLiterature and art
  808. 1966Lenny Bruce died broke in 1966 with an appeal pending, and New York pardoned him in 2003Fame and fortune
  809. 1965Tchibo heir Günter Herz was forced out by his family in 2001 and sold out with his sister for an estimated $5 billionEuropean families
  810. 1965King Farouk left Egypt on his yacht, and one of his gold coins later sold for $18.9 millionRoyalty
  811. 1965Syria hanged Israeli spy Eli Cohen in 1965 and kept his body; 60 years later the Mossad brought back his will and the keys to his Damascus flat, but not his remainsStates and spies
  812. 1965Somerset Maugham tried to disinherit his daughter in 1962 to adopt his secretary Alan Searle; a 21-month case in British and French courts barred the adoptionLiterature and art
  813. 1965T. S. Eliot's 1,131 letters to Emily Hale stayed sealed at Princeton for 60 years, and Harvard released his own denial the same dayLiterature and art
  814. 1964Ian Fleming had two heart attacks during the Thunderball trial, settled, and died nine months laterLiterature and art
  815. 1964Philippine Executive Order No. 1 paid MacArthur $500,000 in 1942, and the payment stayed secret until 1979Military families
  816. 1964Sam Cooke was shot by a motel manager who then sued his estate, and his manager's company already owned his recordingsMusic and sport
  817. 1964Seibu's founder left his railway empire to his third son over the eldest, and that son was convicted in 2005 over shares kept in other people's namesBusiness dynasties
  818. 1964Italian fishermen netted a Greek bronze in 1964, Italy's courts acquitted the sellers, and decades later ordered it confiscated from the GettyHeirlooms and treasure
  819. 1964The KGB seized Vasily Grossman's novel and every draft in 1961, and the FSB gave the papers to a state archive in 2013, not to his heirsStates and spies
  820. 1963Sylvia Plath died separated but not divorced, so Ted Hughes inherited her work and destroyed her last journalLiterature and art
  821. 1963Rikidōzan hid that he was Korean, died of a yakuza stab wound, and left his 22-year-old widow president of five companies and a reported 3 billion yen of debtFame and fortune
  822. 1963Edith Piaf's body was driven secretly from Grasse to Paris so her death could be announced there, and her husband inherited her debtsMusic and sport
  823. 1963Patsy Cline's brother sued her sister over Patsy's stage clothes, and a judge ordered the dresses sold to pay the lawyerMusic and sport
  824. 1963A Lewis scholar says he saved C. S. Lewis's papers from a bonfire; a critic charged in 1988 that the story and an unfinished novel were a hoaxLiterature and art
  825. 1962Juan March bought Barcelona Traction bonds, had the company declared bankrupt in Reus and took Catalonia's power networkEuropean families
  826. 1962Ernie Kovacs's mother sued his widow, Edie Adams, over how she paid his tax debtsHollywood and TV
  827. 1962Solomon Linda sold "Mbube" for 10 shillings, and his daughters seized Disney's South African trademarks to win a share of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"Fame and fortune
  828. 1962Oregon claimed a dead woman's estate because her only heirs lived in East Germany, and the Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a state cannot run its own Cold War through probateStates and spies
  829. 1962Marilyn Monroe's executor told tax officials she lived in New York, so a court barred her estate's company from claiming California image rightsHollywood and TV
  830. 1961The US government seized Dashiell Hammett's royalties for back taxes, and after he died Lillian Hellman took control of his copyrightsLiterature and art
  831. 1961The Dominican Republic confiscated the Trujillo family's property by law in 1962, and his remains lie in a cemetery near MadridMilitary families
  832. 1961Ernest Hemingway's widow gave his Cuban house to Castro's government in 1961 and shipped his papers and paintings out on a shrimp boatLatin America
  833. 1961A Belgian police officer kept Lumumba's tooth after dissolving his body in acid; Belgium returned it in 2022, and the last suspect died before trial in 2026States and spies
  834. 1961Ranch heiress Sarita Kenedy East left her fortune to a foundation controlled by a Trappist monk, and more than 200 people claimed to be her heirsNorth America
  835. 1960Bhopal's heiress left for Pakistan, her sister's line took the palaces, and in 2025 a court reopened Saif Ali Khan's inheritanceIndia and South Asia
  836. 1960Loretta Young hid her daughter by Clark Gable in orphanages, then "adopted" her, and admitted the truth only in a book published after her deathSecret heirs
  837. 1960Fausto Coppi's son was born in Argentina so he could carry the Coppi name, because Italian law made him another man's sonSecret heirs
  838. 1960Eleven weeks after Boris Pasternak died, the Soviet state arrested his companion over his Doctor Zhivago royalties and sent her to a camp for eight yearsLiterature and art
  839. 1960Cuba seized the Havana docks in 1960, a US company won more than $100 million from each of four cruise lines, and the Supreme Court revived its claim in 2026Native nations and islands
  840. 1960Mary Roy's brother told her to leave their father's cottage, she sued, and the Supreme Court gave Kerala's Syrian Christian daughters equal shares back to 1951Probate and trust law
  841. 1960A yardman burned Zora Neale Hurston's belongings after she died in a county welfare home in 1960, and a deputy sheriff put out the fireLiterature and art
  842. 1960Richard Wright died in a Paris clinic in 1960; his daughter and friends said the US government may have had him killedLiterature and art
  843. 1959Cigarette heir Jan Philipp Reemtsma sold his inheritance and was kidnapped for a 30 million mark ransomEuropean families
  844. 1959A Kentucky man adopted his own wife so she could inherit from his mother's trust, and the court refusedSecret heirs
  845. 1959Frank Lloyd Wright's grave in Wisconsin was emptied 26 years after his burial, and his body was cremated for ArizonaLiterature and art
  846. 1959Billie Holiday died under arrest in a hospital bed with 70 cents in the bankMusic and sport
  847. 1959Cuba seized the Arechabala family's Havana Club rum company in 1959, and the family's lapsed US trademark has been in court ever sinceLatin America
  848. 1959Thailand executed Si Quey in 1959 and a hospital museum displayed his embalmed body as a "cannibal" for 60 years before he was crematedScience and medicine
  849. 1959Robert Kaufmann left his fortune to the man he lived with, and two New York juries gave it to his brothersProbate and trust law
  850. 1959Buddy Holly's widow charged Lubbock to use his name, and the city renamed its festival and walk of fameMusic and sport
  851. 1958Baron Ferenc Hatvany came out of hiding in 1945 to find his Budapest bank vaults emptied, and a British panel recommended a looted Constable be returned to his heirsEuropean families
  852. 1958Count Alfred Potocki shipped about 700 crates from Łańcut to Vienna before the Red Army arrived, and the castle became a state museumEuropean families
  853. 1958Jack Warner took control of Warner Bros. in 1956 after his brothers sold out; Harry died two years laterHollywood and TV
  854. 1958Iraq's 23-year-old king and his family were shot in the palace courtyard, and the regent's body was dragged through BaghdadRoyalty
  855. 1958Mahar families inherited village land in return for hereditary service; Ambedkar told them to give it up, and Bombay abolished the watans in 1958India and South Asia
  856. 1958Hungary hanged Imre Nagy in 1958 and buried him face down under a woman's name, and over 200,000 people came to his reburial in 1989Jailed and executed
  857. 1957The Florio family built Sicily's largest business group and lost all of it to the banks and the state by 1935European families
  858. 1957Mexico's Supreme Court annulled Pedro Infante's second marriage six days before he died in a plane crashLatin America
  859. 1957Gabriela Mistral left her South American royalties to the poor children of her village, and Pinochet's government let anyone publish her work in Chile from 1979Latin America
  860. 1957The Aga Khan's will passed over his son Aly Khan and made his 20-year-old grandson imamFame and fortune
  861. 1957Laura Ingalls Wilder left her book royalties to a Missouri library after her daughter's death; the daughter's heir renewed the copyrights, and a 2001 settlement paid the library $875,000Literature and art
  862. 1956Bela Lugosi's widow and son sued Universal over Dracula merchandise and lost in 1979Hollywood and TV
  863. 1956Spain's gold went to Moscow in 1936; when Negrín died, his son gave Franco the receipts, and Moscow said the money was all goneMoney and markets
  864. 1956Taiwan's leading landlord Lin Hsien-tang left for Japan "for treatment" in 1949 and never came back, and the 1953 land-to-the-tiller law paid landlords in bonds and sharesLand and wealth transfer
  865. 1956Jackson Pollock's mistress Ruth Kligman claimed he painted Red, Black & Silver for her weeks before his 1956 crash, and his widow Lee Krasner and the Pollock-Krasner board rejected itLiterature and art
  866. 1956Angela Merkel returned two Emil Nolde paintings to the Berlin museum foundation in April 2019, as a Nationalgalerie show detailed his Nazi loyaltyLiterature and art
  867. 1956Robert Walser was found dead in the snow in 1956 after 23 years in an asylum, and his guardian Carl Seelig controlled the microscripts until 1962Literature and art
  868. 1955The Nazis held Louis de Rothschild hostage in Vienna in 1938 and released him for the family's assetsEuropean families
  869. 1955Calouste Gulbenkian left his oil fortune to a Lisbon foundation and his son Nubar about $2.5 millionEuropean families
  870. 1955Peary and Henson each fathered a son in Greenland, and Henson was moved beside Peary at Arlington in 1988Explorers
  871. 1955Charlie Parker's wife, his partner and his mother fought over his body, and he was buried where he asked not to beMusic and sport
  872. 1955Ann Woodward shot her husband, the owner of Nashua, a grand jury cleared her in 30 minutes, and both her sons later killed themselvesFame and fortune
  873. 1955Einstein gave his Nobel money to his first wife and asked to be cremated in secret, and the pathologist kept his brain for decadesScience and medicine
  874. 1955Albert Einstein's publicity rights ended in 2005, a judge ruled, defeating Hebrew University's suit over a GM ad with his face on a muscled bodyScience and medicine
  875. 1955James Dean died without a will, his father inherited, his wrecked Porsche vanished in 1960, and his estate sued Twitter over @JamesDeanHollywood and TV
  876. 1954The Quandt fortune behind BMW used about 50,000 forced labourers, a 2011 family-funded study foundEuropean families
  877. 1954Diego Rivera locked Frida Kahlo's bathroom after she died, and her clothes and papers stayed sealed for 50 yearsLiterature and art
  878. 1954Hitler paid his field marshals 4,000 Reichsmarks a month and gave Guderian a confiscated Polish estateMilitary families
  879. 1954Edwin Armstrong jumped from his apartment after years of suing RCA over FM radio, and his widow, once Sarnoff's secretary, won the casesScience and medicine
  880. 1953The 12th Duke of Bedford was found shot in 1953, and the son he had cut off opened Woburn Abbey to paying visitors to meet a £4.5 million tax debtEuropean families
  881. 1953Jim Thorpe's widow sold his body to two Pennsylvania towns, which renamed themselves after himMusic and sport
  882. 1953Hank Williams' daughter was born five days after his death, made a ward of the state, and won half his estate 34 years laterMusic and sport
  883. 1953A landowner whose family gave the Viet Minh 700 taels of gold was shot as the land reform's first example in 1953, and her family found her bones in 1990Japan and Southeast Asia
  884. 1953The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953, child-care agencies petitioned for custody of their sons and the boys' trust fund, and the sons have spent 70 years on their mother's caseStates and spies
  885. 1953The CIA gave Army scientist Frank Olson LSD without telling him, he fell from a New York hotel nine days later, and the $750,000 his family accepted later blocked their murder suitStates and spies
  886. 1953Beria was shot half an hour after his verdict in 1953; his son lived as Sergo Gegechkori and died five months after Russia's Supreme Court refused to clear his fatherStates and spies
  887. 1953The Transvaal bought the largest diamond ever found as a birthday gift for Edward VII, the cutter kept the smaller stones as his fee, and South Africans petition for its returnOil and natural resources
  888. 1953Eugene O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona in 1943, and his widow Carlotta released Long Day's Journey Into Night in 1956 against his 25-year banLiterature and art
  889. 1953Dylan Thomas lost the Under Milk Wood manuscript in a Soho pub, his producer found it and sold it for £2,000, and his widow Caitlin lost her suit to get it backLiterature and art
  890. 1952Argentina's military seized Eva Perón's embalmed body and buried it in Milan under a false nameLatin America
  891. 1952The author of Goodnight Moon left her royalties to a neighbour's nine-year-old son, who spent the millionsLiterature and art
  892. 1952A devadasi singer spent her fortune on a temple for the saint Thyagaraja, was barred from singing at his festival, and held her ownIndia and South Asia
  893. 1951Hearst's will locked his company in a trust until every relative alive in 1951 dies, and the company gave his castle to CaliforniaGreat houses
  894. 1951Fritz Thyssen paid for Hitler's rise, lost his fortune to him in 1939, survived the camps and emigrated on his book royaltiesEuropean families
  895. 1951Pétain's property was confiscated in 1945 and his coffin was stolen from Île d'Yeu in 1973Military families
  896. 1951A Pennsylvania judge let the Barnes Foundation move Albert Barnes's art to Philadelphia in 2004, against his indentureFoundations
  897. 1951Doctors took Henrietta Lacks's cells without her knowledge in 1951, and her estate has settled with Thermo Fisher and NovartisScience and medicine
  898. 1951Iraq took the property of the Jews who left in 1951, US troops found their community's books in a flooded secret-police basement in 2003, and the books have stayed in AmericaWar and property
  899. 1950The 10th Duke of Devonshire died in 1950 before his tax plan matured, and his heirs took 17 years to pay 80 percent death dutyGreat houses
  900. 1950Czechoslovakia passed a law to take one family's estate, and the Schwarzenberg heirs have lost every claim to it sinceEuropean families
  901. 1950The Lubavitcher Rebbe's grandson sold books from the movement's library as his inheritance; a federal court ruled the library was never the Rebbe's to leaveJewish law and estates
  902. 1950Calumet Farm passed to a widow for life, then to a grandson-in-law who ran up $127 million in debt and went to prisonNorth America
  903. 1950George Bernard Shaw's will ordered a new 40-letter alphabet; the High Court found the trust not charitable in 1957, and the National Gallery of Ireland received a third of his royalties until 2020Literature and art
  904. 1950George Orwell married Sonia Brownell in a hospital in October 1949 and died in January 1950; his estate's accountant ran his rights until she sued in 1979Literature and art
  905. 1949Margaret Mitchell's estate sued to stop a novel retelling Gone With the Wind from the view of a slave, and ended up funding a Black collegeLiterature and art
  906. 1949In Kind Hearts and Coronets, a disowned daughter's son sets out to kill the eight relatives ahead of him in line and becomes a dukeFiction and film
  907. 1949Landlord Liu Wencai died before land reform reached him, his manor became a museum of his crimes, and in 1988 its "water dungeon" was relabelled an opium storeLand and wealth transfer
  908. 1949Lead Belly's family trust sued his publishers in 2026 over 49 songs it took back by copyright terminationMusic and sport
  909. 1948The government ordered opencast mining up to Wentworth Woodhouse, and the Fitzwilliam earldom ended in 1979European families
  910. 1948US Army papers show Hideki Tojo's ashes were scattered over the Pacific in 1948Military families
  911. 1948Jinnah left his Bombay house to his sister; India took it as evacuee property, and his daughter died with her claim still pendingIndia and South Asia
  912. 1948Yemen's Imam Yahya groomed his son to inherit an office meant to go to the most able; rebels killed him in 1948, and the tribes that won the throne back for the son looted SanaaAsian dynasties
  913. 1948The Smithsonian got the Wright Flyer for $1 on a contract that returns it to the Wright heirs if the museum says anyone flew firstScience and medicine
  914. 1948Iraq hanged its richest Jew, Shafiq Ades, outside his own house in Basra in 1948 and took his estateJewish law and estates
  915. 1948Cecil Harris lay pinned under his tractor for 10 hours and scratched his will into the fenderProbate and trust law
  916. 1948Zelda Fitzgerald died locked in a fifth-floor room when fire destroyed Highland Hospital in 1948; nine women died and no one was chargedLiterature and art
  917. 1947The Fords put 90% of Ford Motor into a foundation and kept the votes, and Henry Ford II quit its board in 1976Foundations
  918. 1947Joan Irvine Smith fought the foundation that controlled her grandfather's Irvine Ranch for 33 years and left with $256 millionFoundations
  919. 1947Bolivia seized the tin king's mines in 1952, and his heir offered the government a 5 million dollar loan for a law that would let him divorceLatin America
  920. 1947The regent who found the 14th Dalai Lama handed power to a rival in 1941, was arrested for plotting to take it back, and died in a Potala cellAsian dynasties
  921. 1947Simón Patiño built a tin fortune from one Bolivian vein, and five years after his death the revolution took his minesBusiness dynasties
  922. 1947Harry Thaw's mother spent the family fortune to free him after he shot Stanford White, and his will left Evelyn Nesbit $10,000Fame and fortune
  923. 1947Evalyn Walsh McLean wore the Hope Diamond through a son's death, a husband's insanity and the Lindbergh hoax, and her estate sold itFame and fortune
  924. 1947The Soviets said Raoul Wallenberg died in a Moscow prison in 1947; Sweden's tax agency declared him dead in 2016, and a Moscow court refused his family the prison recordsStates and spies
  925. 1947Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion and paid every cent, a live TV search for his vault found nothing, and his family sold his pistol for $860,000Money and markets
  926. 1947A colonel took the trousers off the solicitor who wrote himself into a client's will, went to prison, then beat him in the House of Lords without a lawyerProbate and trust law
  927. 1947The Hope Diamond's curse story was sold with the stone in 1911; its owner's will put it in trust for her grandchildren, and her trustees sold it to pay her debtsGhosts and legends
  928. 1947The Collyer brothers died in their inherited Harlem house under more than 100 tons of hoarded goods, and 56 people claimed the estateCities
  929. 1947Aleister Crowley died with £430 and left his writings to his order, and a federal court decided in 1985 which of the rival orders owned themSecret societies and orders
  930. 1947Pierre Bonnard's wife had four unknown nieces; a French court ruled in 1951 that he forged her will, and the family won on appealLiterature and art
  931. 1946W.C. Fields paid his son's mother $20,000 to deny he was the father, and his will's orphan college lost to the wife he never divorcedSecret heirs
  932. 1946William S. Hart left his only son nothing and his ranch to Los Angeles County; the son fought for a decadeHollywood and TV
  933. 1946Thailand's 20-year-old king was found shot in his bed, and three palace servants were executed nine years laterRoyalty
  934. 1946The Nazis forced Max Warburg to give up M.M. Warburg & Co in 1938; his son Eric needed until 1970 to restore the family nameJewish law and estates
  935. 1946Hitler was godfather to Göring's daughter, the city of Cologne gave her a Cranach, and she lost the painting in 1968 and her father's estate in 2015States and spies
  936. 1946Japan's largest landlord told reporters in 1945 he would not regret going from 1,500 chō to 5, and the 1946 law left a resident landlord about oneLand and wealth transfer
  937. 1945Vichy expropriated the Rothschild vineyards at Pauillac, and Philippe de Rothschild's wife died at Ravensbrück before Mouton came back to the familyGreat houses
  938. 1945German troops packed the Amber Room into 27 crates in 1941, and it has been missing since 1945Great houses
  939. 1945The Anne Frank Fonds named Otto Frank a co-author of the diary to extend its copyright past 2016Literature and art
  940. 1945The Hershey school trust voted to sell Hershey Foods to Wrigley for $12.5 billion in 2002, and a Pennsylvania court stopped itFoundations
  941. 1945The Hershey school paid $12 million for a failing golf course, and the attorney general twice demanded reforms of its boardFoundations
  942. 1945Workers in Tokyo dug up the bones of at least 62 people at the old Army Medical School in 1989, and Japan has never identified themScience and medicine
  943. 1945Partisans shot Mussolini, fascists stole his body from an unmarked grave, and the state hid it in a monastery for 11 years before trading it for votesJailed and executed
  944. 1945Hungary's crown guard handed the Holy Crown to the US Army in 1945, it sat in Fort Knox for 33 years, and Carter gave it to a communist governmentHeirlooms and treasure
  945. 1945Hitler willed his property to the Nazi Party, a Munich court gave it to Bavaria, and Bavaria used his copyright to block Mein Kampf for 70 yearsStates and spies
  946. 1945The Gestapo took the Ephrussi palace in Vienna in 1938; the family says a maid hid the netsuke in her mattress, and the Jewish Museum says it cannot be provedJewish law and estates
  947. 1945Anton Webern was shot dead by a US Army cook in Mittersill on 15 September 1945, and the record shows no trialMusic and sport
  948. 1945Béla Bartók's New York estate was in court for 22 years, and the trustee claimed his manuscriptsMusic and sport
  949. 1944Charles Bedaux hosted the Windsor wedding at Candé, died in FBI custody awaiting treason charges, and his widow gave the château to FranceGreat houses
  950. 1944Louis Renault died in custody before trial, and France took his company without paying his heirsEuropean families
  951. 1944Banker Fritz Gutmann was killed at Theresienstadt, and his heirs sued an American collector to get back his DegasEuropean families
  952. 1944Rommel took poison on 14 October 1944 in exchange for a state funeral and pensions for his familyMilitary families
  953. 1944The last emir of Bukhara fled across a river on a raft in 1920 and left three sons behind; two were shot and the third publicly renounced himAsian dynasties
  954. 1944Japan hanged Soviet spy Richard Sorge and Moscow refused to claim him; his Japanese partner moved his body to her own grave plot and tended it until she diedStates and spies
  955. 1944Revolutionaries demolished Reza Shah's mausoleum in 1980 and could not find his body, and a mummified body turned up on the site in 2018Islamic and Persian empires
  956. 1944Glenn Miller vanished over the English Channel; his widow licensed his name for $1, and his children lost it in courtMusic and sport
  957. 1944Armed men took Munch's The Scream and Madonna from Oslo's Munch Museum in 2004, a court ordered two thieves to pay the city 750 million kroner, and police recovered both in 2006Literature and art
  958. 1943Oscar Hartzell sold shares in a $22 billion Sir Francis Drake estate that did not exist, and about 70,000 Midwesterners paidSecret heirs
  959. 1943Credit Suisse demanded a death certificate for a banker killed at Majdanek; his daughter waited until 1998 for his accountJewish law and estates
  960. 1943The US government sealed Nikola Tesla's papers after he died, his nephew took them to Belgrade, and the church and scientists later fought over his ashesScience and medicine
  961. 1943Russia's culture minister demanded Rachmaninoff's remains back from New York, and his descendants said noMusic and sport
  962. 1943Beatrix Potter left more than 4,000 acres and 14 or 15 farms to the National Trust, with a life interest for her husbandLiterature and art
  963. 1942Britain blew up Burmah Oil's installations in 1942, the House of Lords ruled the Crown must pay, and Parliament passed a law backdated to cancel the debtOil and natural resources
  964. 1942A ploughman and his employer kept the Mildenhall Treasure at home for four years, used the dishes, and got a reduced rewardHeirlooms and treasure
  965. 1942Thessaloniki destroyed its 450-year-old Jewish cemetery in December 1942, used the stones to build, and put a university on the landJewish law and estates
  966. 1942Bruno Schulz was shot in the street in Drohobych in November 1942 in a feud between two SS men; in 2001 Yad Vashem cut his murals from a pantry wall and flew them to IsraelLiterature and art
  967. 1942L.M. Montgomery's death certificate said coronary thrombosis; her granddaughter wrote in 2008 that she took her own lifeLiterature and art
  968. 1941Franz Koenigs lost his drawings to a bank five weeks before the German invasion; Hitler bought 528 and the Dutch state has refused his heirs four timesEuropean families
  969. 1941Oklahoma oilman E.W. Marland annulled his adoption of his wife's niece and married her, then lost his company to J.P. Morgan's bankersSecret heirs
  970. 1941James Joyce's grandson destroyed his aunt Lucia's letters and threatened scholars until the copyrights ran out in 2012Literature and art
  971. 1941The Kaiser's heirs claimed thousands of artworks and compensation, dropped the suits over the Nazi question, and settled after 99 yearsRoyalty
  972. 1941Thailand's finance ministry sued its abdicated king for 6.27 million baht in 1939 and won an order freezing everything he ownedJapan and Southeast Asia
  973. 1941Fritz Grünbaum died at Dachau owning about 70 Schieles; his heirs won them back in New York, then one heir sued Christie's over the restJewish law and estates
  974. 1941Rabindranath Tagore's 1913 Nobel gold medal and 49 other items were stolen from the Visva-Bharati museum in March 2004 and have not been recoveredLiterature and art
  975. 1940Jacques Goudstikker died fleeing the Nazis, Göring took his paintings, and the Netherlands returned 202 of them in 2006European families
  976. 1940The Vestey meat brothers left Britain over income tax, set up a Paris trust and bought a peerageEuropean families
  977. 1940Stalin's agents killed Trotsky and members of his family; he sealed his exile papers at Harvard until 1980, and the grandson who survived kept his house as a museumStates and spies
  978. 1940German units emptied the French Masonic headquarters in June 1940, the Red Army took the archives to Moscow, and France got them back in 2001Secret societies and orders
  979. 1940Paul Klee's widow sold his estate for SFr120,000 two days before dying; his son sued the foundation that received it, and the case settled after four yearsLiterature and art
  980. 1940F. Scott Fitzgerald left an estate of about $35,000 in 1940, and the Catholic church refused his burial plot until his daughter petitioned in 1975Literature and art
  981. 1939Sir Henry Pellatt built Casa Loma with Home Bank loans, the bank failed, and Toronto took the castle for unpaid taxesGreat houses
  982. 1939Banker Fritz Mannheimer died ten weeks after his wedding, his bank failed, and Hitler bought his collection from the creditorsEuropean families
  983. 1939The Wittgenstein siblings gave the Reichsbank their Swiss-held fortune in 1939 for "half-Jewish" status, and Vienna paid Paul's heirs €7,400 in 2008Money and markets
  984. 1939Switzerland made bank secrecy a crime in 1934, and the night guard who took bank files from a UBS shredder in 1997 had to seek asylum in the United StatesMoney and markets
  985. 1939The Wertheims lost Berlin's Leipziger Platz store under Nazi laws, Germany gave the land to Karstadt in 1991, and Karstadt paid €88 million in 2007Cities
  986. 1938Atatürk left his İş Bankası shares to his party, and the state took them twiceMilitary families
  987. 1938Robert Johnson died in 1938 with nothing, and a Mississippi court found his heir 62 years laterMusic and sport
  988. 1938Brașov gave Bran Castle to Queen Marie in 1920, her daughter lost it in 1948, and Romania returned it to her grandchildren's generation in 2006European families
  989. 1938Mexico expropriated the foreign oil companies in 1938, crowds brought chickens and jewelry to help pay, and Mexico paid the companies in fullOil and natural resources
  990. 1938Bukharin made his wife memorise his last letter before his arrest, and she carried it through 20 years of camps and exile until he was cleared in 1988Jailed and executed
  991. 1938Comstock heir Clarence Mackay cut his daughter out of his will for marrying Irving Berlin, and after her baby died he took her backOil and natural resources
  992. 1937J.M. Barrie gave Peter Pan to a children's hospital, and Parliament made the hospital's royalty permanentLiterature and art
  993. 1937Brazil's largest industrial group lost its chosen heir in a car race, passed to the founder's twelfth child, and filed for court protection in 1983Business dynasties
  994. 1937George Gershwin died at 38 without a will, and the Gershwin trusts lobbied Congress for 20 more years of copyrightMusic and sport
  995. 1937H. P. Lovecraft's literary executor died in 1951, his papers went to August Derleth, and no court has settled who owns his copyrightsLiterature and art
  996. 1936John Ringling left his Venetian mansion and art museum to Florida and died with $311 in the bank, and the state fought his creditors for ten yearsGreat houses
  997. 1936Lenin's 1918 decree took Sergei Shchukin's 258 paintings, and his heirs' claims in Paris and Los Angeles failedEuropean families
  998. 1936George V's doctor injected him with morphine and cocaine so his death would make the morning papersRoyalty
  999. 1936Henry Wellcome left his drug company to trustees in 1936, and in 1995 they sold it to its rival GlaxoFoundations
  1000. 1936Four states and the United States claimed $37.7 million in death taxes from Hetty Green's son's $36 million estateFame and fortune
  1001. 1936Franco's side shot Blas Infante in 1936, a tribunal fined him 2,000 pesetas in 1940, and his widow paidWar and property
  1002. 1936Franco's forces seized the Masonic temple of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 19 July 1936, used it for interrogations, and Spain moved to declare it a memorial in 2025Secret societies and orders
  1003. 1936Federico García Lorca was shot with three other men in August 1936, and a 2009 dig at the supposed grave in Alfacar found no remainsLiterature and art
  1004. 1936The 1938 Moscow trial charged Yagoda and doctors with murdering Maxim Gorky and his son; 18 defendants were sentenced to be shotLiterature and art
  1005. 1936Robert E. Howard shot himself in June 1936 and his mother died a day or two later; a will naming a friend was reportedly lost, and the Conan rights passed to a nurse's daughterLiterature and art
  1006. 1935Carlos Gardel's will said he was born in Toulouse and left everything to his mother, and his estate passed from her to his agent's family while Uruguay says he was born thereLatin America
  1007. 1935Venezuela confiscated dictator Juan Vicente Gómez's fortune after his death in 1935, after first letting more than 90 relatives leave with moneyLatin America
  1008. 1935The Nazi state forced Hugo Junkers to give up his patents and his company, and he died under house arrest on his 76th birthdayScience and medicine
  1009. 1935Moïse de Camondo left his Paris house to France in memory of his son; the Nazis deported his daughter and grandchildren, and his ex-wife sold her Renoir portraitJewish law and estates
  1010. 1935A US consul bought Chichén Itzá for 200 pesos and shipped the Sacred Cenote's offerings to Harvard; his heirs won the land back in Mexico's Supreme CourtNative nations and islands
  1011. 1935Max Liebermann's widow Martha killed herself in March 1943 as police came to deport her, and in 2025 a Dutch committee advised returning a Liebermann drawing from the Rijksmuseum to her heirsLiterature and art
  1012. 1935Kazimir Malevich's heirs sued Amsterdam over 84 works held since 1958; in April 2008 the city returned five paintingsLiterature and art
  1013. 1935Alban Berg's widow kept the third act of Lulu unfinished for 41 years, and a composer finished it in secret for the publisherMusic and sport
  1014. 1934Hungary seized Baron Herzog's collection of 2,000 artworks in 1944, and US courts ended his heirs' 15-year lawsuit in 2026European families
  1015. 1934Hindenburg's Neudeck estate was put in his son's name, and Hitler's government added tax-free landMilitary families
  1016. 1934A woman married "the world's richest Indian", the Interior Secretary gave away $1.1 million of his oil money, and the courts took it backNative nations and islands
  1017. 1934Göring took over "the Petschek question" in 1938, Flick's companies got the mines, and the Nuremberg court said the seizure was outside its jurisdictionJewish law and estates
  1018. 1933Anti-Treaty IRA men burned Moore Hall in 1923 because a Moore brother backed the Treaty, and the novelist's ashes lie on Castle Island in Lough CarraLand and wealth transfer
  1019. 1932Portugal's last king left his collections to the nation, and Salazar's government put the whole Bragança estate into a state foundation over the claimant's protestGreat houses
  1020. 1932Ivar Kreuger shot himself in Paris in 1932, and auditors found his match empire rested on forged Italian bondsEuropean families
  1021. 1932Tomáš Baťa died in a plane crash, his half-brother took the shoe company, and the family litigated for 15 yearsEuropean families
  1022. 1932A recluse died in a New York hotel with a fortune in cash, 1,103 people claimed it, and the 10 real heirs had never met herSecret heirs
  1023. 1932A tobacco heir was shot at Reynolda, his pregnant widow was indicted for murder, and their son was paid $6.25 millionFame and fortune
  1024. 1932Paul Bern was found shot two months after marrying Jean Harlow, his common-law wife Dorothy Millette drowned days later, and a judge made Harlow executor of his estateHollywood and TV
  1025. 1931The British demanded the Asante Golden Stool in 1900 and never obtained itEgypt and Africa
  1026. 1931John Wendel kept his sisters from marrying to hold the family's Manhattan land together, and more than 2,000 people claimed the last sister's estateCities
  1027. 1931Shanghai's richest landlord left everything to his Eurasian Buddhist widow, his Iraqi relatives sued, and the People's Republic closed the case in 1957Cities
  1028. 1931Lillian Leitzel fell to her death in 1931, and her widower Alfredo Codona shot his third wife and himself in 1937 during a property splitFame and fortune
  1029. 1930A Philadelphia widow left $17 million and no will, and 26,000 people claimed to be her heirsSecret heirs
  1030. 1930Arthur Conan Doyle's heirs charged licence fees for Sherlock Holmes until a court ruled the character was free to useLiterature and art
  1031. 1930Sakichi Toyoda sold his loom patents to a British firm, the money started Toyota, and the loom company went to an adopted son-in-lawScience and medicine
  1032. 1930Henrietta Garrett died in 1930 with $17 million and no will; more than 25,000 people claimed to be her kin, ten went to jail, and three cousins she never met inheritedLand and wealth transfer
  1033. 1930D. H. Lawrence was exhumed in France in 1935 and cremated for a New Mexico shrine, and a scholar reported that the man who carried the ashes said he threw them awayLiterature and art
  1034. 1929The oil heir who carried $100,000 to the Interior Secretary was shot dead in his new mansion five months after moving inGreat houses
  1035. 1928Earl Haig was given £100,000 by Parliament and an estate by public subscription, and his earldom has no heir in 2026Military families
  1036. 1928Thomas Hardy's heart was buried in his first wife's grave and his ashes in Westminster Abbey after his executor overruled his wish; a legend says a cat ate the heartLiterature and art
  1037. 1926Rudolph Valentino's will gave his ex-wife $1, and his body went into a borrowed cryptHollywood and TV
  1038. 1926A Merck grandson handed the family's American shares to the US government in 1917, and the two Merck companies have fought over the name ever sinceScience and medicine
  1039. 1926A shipowner's widow reportedly tore up a will leaving her £1 million, inherited about £5.5 million, and died without a will of her ownShips and railways
  1040. 1926Charles Vance Millar left his estate to the Toronto mother with the most babies in 10 years, and 4 mothers with 9 children each split itProbate and trust law
  1041. 1926Houdini's great-nephew and two authors announced a 2007 plan to exhume his body to test for poisonFame and fortune
  1042. 1925Adele Bloch-Bauer's will asked for her Klimt portraits to go to Austria; the Nazis took them, and her niece won them back in 2006Literature and art
  1043. 1925A judge took 10-year-old Gloria Vanderbilt from her mother and gave her and her trust to her auntFame and fortune
  1044. 1925Siam's 1924 succession law barred princesses, so King Vajiravudh's only child, born as he lay dying, could not inherit his throneJapan and Southeast Asia
  1045. 1925The Hagiwara family kept San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden for 47 years; the 1942 removal orders took it, and the city paid two survivors $5,000 each in 1983War and property
  1046. 1925Max Linder and his wife died in a Paris hotel in 1925, a letter said "He will kill me," and his brother won custody of his daughter and her fortuneFame and fortune
  1047. 1925Sergei Yesenin was found hanged in the Hotel Angleterre in 1925, his heirs went to court for three years, and his secretary died at his graveLiterature and art
  1048. 1924Kafka told Max Brod to burn his papers; Brod saved them, and the fight over them ended in a Swiss bank vault in 2019Literature and art
  1049. 1924When the Bogd Khan died in 1924, Mongolia's government took his seal, declared a republic and banned the search for his reincarnationAsian dynasties
  1050. 1924Lenin's widow opposed embalming him and gave the party his letter asking it to remove Stalin; the party put the body on display and kept the letter from the congress floorRussia and Byzantium
  1051. 1924Hugo Stinnes had a hand in more than 4,000 companies when he died in 1924, and his sons lost most of them within a yearBusiness dynasties
  1052. 1924Baku oil baron Taghiyev lost his mansion to the Bolsheviks in 1920 and died two days after learning his daughter had fled to PersiaOil and natural resources
  1053. 1924Puccini's fortune passed to his son's widow, then her brother, then reportedly a butler, before the son's illegitimate daughter won it in courtMusic and sport
  1054. 1923Nan Britton lost her libel suit over Warren Harding's daughter in 1931, and DNA proved the daughter was his in 2015Secret heirs
  1055. 1923Egypt kept every object from Tutankhamun's tomb and paid the Carnarvon heirs their costs in 1930Egypt and Africa
  1056. 1923Pancho Villa's grave was opened in 1926 and his head taken, and his widows' court fight ended with the government seizing his haciendaLatin America
  1057. 1923Villa's soldiers took Luis Terrazas's son from the British consulate for ransom, and Mexico bought the family's estates for 13.6 million pesos in 1922Land and wealth transfer
  1058. 1922Shackleton died about £40,000 in debt, his widow chose his grave on South Georgia, and his brother went to prison for fraudExplorers
  1059. 1922Sarah Winchester inherited a rifle fortune and built a San Jose mansion; the medium who supposedly ordered it was invented in 1967Ghosts and legends
  1060. 1922Proust's sister-in-law burned his papers after her husband died in 1935, and a perfume heir bought his furniture for 1,500 francsLiterature and art
  1061. 1921Princess Isabel sued Brazil for her Rio palace in 1895, and her heirs lost the case 125 years laterGreat houses
  1062. 1921Ivan Morozov's great-grandson sued Yale and the Met for a Van Gogh and a Cézanne seized by the Bolsheviks, and lost both casesEuropean families
  1063. 1921Oil made each Osage headright worth a fortune, at least 24 Osage were killed in the early 1920s, and Congress stopped non-Osage from inheriting headrights in 1925Native nations and islands
  1064. 1921Pink Chaffin said his dead father led him to a second will hidden in Genesis 27, and a North Carolina court admitted it in 1925Ghosts and legends
  1065. 1921Police raided Dan Cranmer's 1921 potlatch, and the masks surrendered to keep people out of prison went to museums, a collector and an official's own collectionNative nations and islands
  1066. 1921Enrico Caruso's body lay in a glass-topped coffin in Naples for years, and his estate was split by a Naples decree that two New Jersey courts reopenedMusic and sport
  1067. 1920Prince Paolo Borghese lost the family fortune in the Rome building crash, and the state bought the Borghese collection for 3.6 million lireEuropean families
  1068. 1920Modigliani died poor, his partner jumped from a window the next day, and Italian police later closed a Modigliani show for fakesLiterature and art
  1069. 1920The Soviet state sold the Romanov jewels by the kilogram in 1926, while a British antiquarian helped a grand duchess get her jewels out and her daughter sold the tiara to Queen MaryRussia and Byzantium
  1070. 1920The Dodge brothers sued Henry Ford for dividends, sold him their shares for $25 million, and both died within a yearBusiness dynasties
  1071. 1920Roche's founder lost control of his company in the 1919 crisis, and his heirs used a voting pool and a $20.7 billion buyback from Novartis to hold itScience and medicine
  1072. 1919Confucius's 77th-generation heir was made a duke as a baby, and Red Guards later dug up his father and hung the body from a treeAsian dynasties
  1073. 1919Germany paid the last interest on its 1920s reparation loans on 3 October 2010, 92 years after the First World War endedMoney and markets
  1074. 1919Griffith J. Griffith gave Los Angeles a 3,015-acre park, shot his wife and went to prison, and used his will to build the Griffith ObservatoryCities
  1075. 1919Anenecuilco gave Zapata its colonial land titles in 1909; the man he left them to was killed in a land fight with Zapata's sonNorth America
  1076. 1918Russia buried the last tsar's family 80 years after the shooting, the Church has not accepted the bones, and two of the children's remains have been in archive boxes since 2007Russia and Byzantium
  1077. 1918Singapore took the Ong clan's burial hill for a public cemetery, then dug up more than 4,000 of its graves for a highway, and unclaimed remains were to be scattered at seaCities
  1078. 1918After Gustav Klimt died in 1918, the mothers of his children claimed support from his estate and were paid 4,000 to 10,000 crowns eachLiterature and art
  1079. 1917Hawaii's last queen was imprisoned in an upstairs bedroom of her own palace, and the building served as the capitol of the government that removed her until 1969Great houses
  1080. 1917Queen Liliʻuokalani sued the United States for Hawaii's crown lands and lostRoyalty
  1081. 1917The Bolsheviks sold the tsars' Fabergé eggs abroad, and one sold in New York in 1964 as a gold watch turned up with a man who had bought it for scrapRussia and Byzantium
  1082. 1917Henry Flagler's widow left $5 million to her new husband in a codicil signed eight days before she died, and her family dug up her bodyFame and fortune
  1083. 1917Germans gave Count Zeppelin 6 million marks after his airship burned, and his great-grandson has spent ten years trying to take the foundation back from a cityScience and medicine
  1084. 1917Russia repudiated the tsar's bonds, France settled for $400 million in 1997, and the holders' association tried to seize a Russian sailing ship and a cathedralMoney and markets
  1085. 1917The priest of Rennes-le-Château put his buildings in his servant's name, a restaurant owner spread a treasure story in 1956, and Pierre Plantard tied it to an invented secret orderSecret societies and orders
  1086. 1917Scott Joplin died in a state hospital without a will, his papers were lost in a trustee's estate, and his widow's trust won $177,980 in 1977Music and sport
  1087. 1917Rodin gave all his works and reproduction rights to France in 1916, and the Musee Rodin spent 18 years in court over about 1,700 casts it called fakesLiterature and art
  1088. 1917Buffalo Bill's 1913 will gave everything to Louisa; Denver newspaper owners held his $20,000 debt, and Wyoming has claimed his body since 1917Fame and fortune
  1089. 1917Mata Hari's body went unclaimed after her 1917 execution, and the embalmed head kept in a Paris anatomy museum was found missing in 2000Fame and fortune
  1090. 1916King Thibaw handed Burma's crown jewels to a British colonel in 1885, and the Nga Mauk ruby was never seen againJapan and Southeast Asia
  1091. 1916Ishi asked to be cremated by Yahi custom, and the university sent his brain to the Smithsonian, which returned it 84 years laterScience and medicine
  1092. 1916Britain hanged Roger Casement in 1916 and buried him in quicklime, returned him to Dublin in 1965 on condition he stay out of the North, and in October 2026 his supporters applied to move himJailed and executed
  1093. 1916Jack London left nearly his entire estate to his wife Charmian in 1916; she kept the ranch, evicted a biographer, and her 1938 will turned it into a state parkLiterature and art
  1094. 1915Talaat asked the US ambassador for the list of Armenians insured by American companies, and 89 years later New York Life paid $20 million to their heirsWar and property
  1095. 1914George Vanderbilt's widow sold most of Biltmore's land to the United States, and his grandsons split the house from the dairyGreat houses
  1096. 1914Nigeria vested ownership of the looted Benin Bronzes in the Oba of Benin in 2023Egypt and Africa
  1097. 1914Senator Bacon left Macon a park for white people only; when the courts opened it to all, it went back to his heirs and became a strip mallProbate and trust law
  1098. 1914Ambrose Bierce vanished in Mexico in 1913 or 1914, and a priest put a plaque in a Sierra Mojada cemetery in 2004 for the grave a witness describedLiterature and art
  1099. 1913Menelik II's death was kept secret in 1913, and his named heir Lij Iyasu was deposed in 1916 and died a prisonerEgypt and Africa
  1100. 1913Rudolf Diesel vanished from a Channel steamer in 1913 and left his wife a bag of money with papers showing his debtsScience and medicine
  1101. 1913Adolphus Busch's widow stayed in Germany during World War I, and the US Alien Property Custodian took her share of the brewery until she came homeStates and spies
  1102. 1913Under the 1913 Natives Land Act a farmer named Kgobadi was ordered off his land by sunset, and his baby died on the road and was buried at night in a stolen graveLand and wealth transfer
  1103. 1912Scott's last plea raised £76,000: widows were paid by their husbands' rank, and £10,000 founded the Scott Polar Research InstituteExplorers
  1104. 1912Bram Stoker's widow sued over Nosferatu, and a German court ordered every copy of the film destroyedLiterature and art
  1105. 1911Nine Americans won $41.3 million from China on 1911 imperial railway bonds, and the judgment was set aside after Beijing protestedMoney and markets
  1106. 1911Alma Mahler held Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony for decades and first demanded a veto over Deryck Cooke's completionMusic and sport
  1107. 1910Tolstoy signed a secret will in the woods to give his copyrights to the publicLiterature and art
  1108. 1910A duke bought Kylemore Castle with an American heiress's family money, lost it to debts, and later went to prisonGreat houses
  1109. 1910A prince left the family emeralds to his mistress in 1910, and every senior British royal will has been sealed sinceRoyalty
  1110. 1910On Yap, a family stayed rich for generations on a stone coin lying at the bottom of the seaMoney and markets
  1111. 1910Dr Crippen was hanged for killing his wife, and the court refused to let his mistress take the wife's estate through his willProbate and trust law
  1112. 1910Mark Twain fired his secretary Isabel Lyon in 1909 and wrote 429 pages accusing her and her husband, a text kept private until 2015Literature and art
  1113. 1909Leopold II owned the Congo personally, married his 26-year-old mistress five days before he died, and his daughters sued for the moneyRoyalty
  1114. 1909A Bengal prince was cremated in 1909, a holy man claimed to be him, and the Privy Council confirmed it in 1946; he died two days laterIndia and South Asia
  1115. 1909Geronimo's descendants sued Skull and Bones in 2009 for the skull a member's 1918 letter says was taken from his grave, and a federal judge dismissed the caseSecret societies and orders
  1116. 1908Lord Sackville's son by a married Spanish dancer sued for Knole and the peerage, and the court ruled all her children illegitimateSecret heirs
  1117. 1908A Nawab of Dhaka pledged the Daria-i-Noor to the British in 1908, and Bangladesh has not opened the vault to see if it is still thereHeirlooms and treasure
  1118. 1908Cyrus Teed's followers watched his body waiting for him to rise, until the county health officer ordered him buried; a hurricane later took the tombNorth America
  1119. 1907Cassie Chadwick said she was Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter, borrowed against forged Carnegie notes, and broke an Ohio bankSecret heirs
  1120. 1907Ilia Chavchavadze was shot dead on the road to his Saguramo estate in 1907, and the Georgian church made him a saint in 1987Literature and art
  1121. 1906John D. Rockefeller's father lived 50 years as "Dr. Levingston" with a second wife and was buried under the false nameSecret heirs
  1122. 1906Marshall Field's son was shot two months before he died, and his will locked his fortune away for the grandsons until 1943Business dynasties
  1123. 1906Cézanne's 1902 will left everything to his son and nothing to his wife Hortense, and they sold his studio to Vollard for 275,000 francsLiterature and art
  1124. 1905Jane Stanford, sole funder of Stanford University, died of strychnine in 1905 and the university president said it was natural causesFoundations
  1125. 1905The Bishop Museum lent 83 burial objects to a Hawaiian group for one year, the group sealed them in a cave, and a federal judge jailed its leader until they came outNative nations and islands
  1126. 1905Savva Morozov's mother pushed him out of the family mills, he was found shot in Cannes, and his insurance went to a Bolshevik actressBusiness dynasties
  1127. 1905Ernst Abbe gave the Zeiss works to a foundation, and after 1945 a western and an eastern Zeiss sued each other over the name for 17 yearsMoney and markets
  1128. 1905The celibate Harmony Society dwindled to eight members, the US Supreme Court refused the heirs a share in 1902, and the last trustees split the fortune with PennsylvaniaSecret societies and orders
  1129. 1905Jules Verne's son rewrote his posthumous novels, and Verne's lost 1863 novel stayed in a locked safe until his great-grandson forced it open in 1989Literature and art
  1130. 1904Stanley was refused burial beside Livingstone in Westminster Abbey, and his papers were sold to Belgium in four partsExplorers
  1131. 1904Germany sent the heads of Herero and Nama prisoners to Berlin for race research, and the Charité returned 20 skulls to Namibia in 2011Science and medicine
  1132. 1904Three Lemps shot themselves in the family mansion, Prohibition closed the brewery, and the house now sells haunted toursGhosts and legends
  1133. 1904Herzl's testament asked for his children to lie beside him; Israel buried his suicide son and his daughter there 76 years after their deathsJewish law and estates
  1134. 1903Paul Gauguin died in the Marquesas with no will, the colony auctioned his paintings for a few francs, and his widow Mette got about 4,000 francsLiterature and art
  1135. 1902Parliament cancelled the Kaiser's 15 Rhodes Scholarships in 1916, and Zimbabwean officials called for Rhodes's body to be removedEgypt and Africa
  1136. 1902In Brewster's Millions, a man must spend a $1 million inheritance in a year with nothing to show for it in order to inherit $7 millionFiction and film
  1137. 1902A 1953 newspaper said a chimney sweep blocked Émile Zola's flue in 1902, and the Panthéon ceremony for his remains ended with a gunman wounding DreyfusLiterature and art
  1138. 1901Giuseppe Verdi's villa was closed by a Parma court in 2022 over an heirs' fight, then taken by the state for about 7.6 million euros against a 30 million appraisalMusic and sport
  1139. 1900Nietzsche's sister took control of his papers while he was insane, published The Will to Power, and Hitler came to her funeralLiterature and art
  1140. 1900Oscar Wilde died bankrupt in Paris; his friend Robbie Ross bought back the rights and gave the income to Wilde's sonsLiterature and art
  1141. 1900A lawyer and a valet killed William Marsh Rice in 1900 to take the fortune he left to found Rice InstituteFoundations
  1142. 1900The Golden Dawn expelled its founder in 1900, his envoy Aleister Crowley tried to seize the London vault in a mask, and Yeats and the landlord threw him outSecret societies and orders
  1143. 1899Horace Tabor left his wife for Baby Doe, lost his silver fortune in 1893, and Baby Doe was found frozen at his last mineOil and natural resources
  1144. 1899The House of Lords gave the Poulett earldom to the 6th Earl's 15-year-old son over the elder son the Earl disownedEuropean families
  1145. 1899Johann Strauss II gave up Austrian citizenship and his church to remarry, then left his fortune to a music society instead of his familyMusic and sport
  1146. 1898Peary brought six Inuit to New York in 1897, and the museum faked a funeral and kept Minik's father's skeleton until 1993Native nations and islands
  1147. 1898A Wapping butcher's son claimed the Tichborne baronetcy, and a 188-day perjury trial sent him to prison for 14 yearsSecret heirs
  1148. 1898Lewis Carroll's diaries lost four volumes and ten pages before reaching the British Library in 1969; his Alice manuscript sold at Sotheby's in 1928Literature and art
  1149. 1897The last Prince of Condé was found hanged after willing Chantilly to an 8-year-old prince, who later gave it to the Institut de France while in exileGreat houses
  1150. 1897Diamond magnate Barney Barnato went overboard from a mail steamer in 1897, a blackmailer shot his nephew Woolf Joel dead the next year, and his son inherited at twoOil and natural resources
  1151. 1897George Pullman's will cut his twin sons to $3,000 a year for lacking "a sense of responsibility," and his family buried him under steel rails and concreteShips and railways
  1152. 1896Alfred Nobel gave 94 percent of his fortune to prizes, and his relatives and the King of Sweden tried to stop itFoundations
  1153. 1896Baron Maurice de Hirsch left his fortune to his widow, who gave it away and passed the rest to an adopted sonFoundations
  1154. 1896The British Museum bought the Broighter gold boat for £600, and the Crown sued the Museum in 1903 to send it to DublinHeirlooms and treasure
  1155. 1895The Dukes of Hamilton sold Hamilton Palace's collections in 1882 and 1919, then demolished the palace over mining subsidenceEuropean families
  1156. 1895Dutch troops took a quarter tonne of gold from the Lombok palace in 1894, and with it the only manuscript of Majapahit's royal chronicleJapan and Southeast Asia
  1157. 1894A widow inherited a Kobe sugar trader, her manager made it bigger than Mitsui, rioters burned it, and it failed in 1927Business dynasties
  1158. 1894California's last Mexican governor signed what he said was a mortgage, the courts called it a sale, and he lost his last ranch at 90Cities
  1159. 1894Senator James Fair locked his fortune in a trust, a school principal produced a pencil will and a marriage contract, and his children turned on herNorth America
  1160. 1894Gustave Caillebotte left France more than 60 Impressionist works in 1894; the state refused part and hung 38 in 1897Literature and art
  1161. 1893A 10-year-old Sikh maharaja signed away the Koh-i-Noor to Queen Victoria, and other countries still claim itRoyalty
  1162. 1893Bismarck's banker Gerson von Bleichröder left a fortune to his sons; his son's painting went to Göring, and Bavaria returned it in 2017 and bought it back the same dayJewish law and estates
  1163. 1892The 3rd Duke of Sutherland left his fortune to his second wife, and she went to Holloway prison for contemptEuropean families
  1164. 1892Lizzie Borden was acquitted of killing her father and stepmother, inherited his fortune with her sister, and wrote her sister out of her willJailed and executed
  1165. 1892A widow left her inherited fortune to a Lincoln charity home; her family said a planchette and her dead husband's spirit guided her, and Nebraska upheld the will in 1895Ghosts and legends
  1166. 1892Borley Rectory passed from father to son for 64 years, drew ghost hunters for a decade, and burned in 1939 with the insurers suspecting arsonGhosts and legends
  1167. 1892Walt Whitman's brain was removed at his autopsy for a brain club and was destroyed within a yearLiterature and art
  1168. 1891Moltke bought Kreisau with his 1866 war grant; his great-grandnephew was hanged in 1945 and the family lost the estateMilitary families
  1169. 1891Pedro II's heirs still collect 2.5 percent of every land sale in central Petrópolis, 137 years after the empire fellLatin America
  1170. 1891Jacob Waltz died in 1891 and his carer sold maps to his supposed gold mine; searchers have died looking for it sinceGhosts and legends
  1171. 1891Herman Melville's widow tied his unpublished papers in bundles in 1891, and Billy Budd stayed in a breadbox until a biographer opened it in 1919Literature and art
  1172. 1891P.T. Barnum's will paid a grandson to take the Barnum name; sources give the sum as $25,000 or a share of the estateFame and fortune
  1173. 1890Richard Burton's widow burned his manuscript of The Scented Garden and his diaries after he diedLiterature and art
  1174. 1890Van Gogh's brother died six months after him, and Theo's widow built the reputation from the paintings she inheritedLiterature and art
  1175. 1890William Waldorf Astor built a hotel beside his aunt's house over who was "Mrs. Astor", and her son built a taller one on hersBusiness dynasties
  1176. 1890The Dominican landlords evicted José Rizal's family from Calamba in 1890, and the United States bought the friar estates in 1903Japan and Southeast Asia
  1177. 1890Louis Le Prince filmed moving pictures in 1888, vanished from a train in 1890, and his son died after testifying against EdisonScience and medicine
  1178. 1890Joseph Merrick's manager stole his savings, the London Hospital took him in, and after his death it kept his skeleton while his flesh went to an unmarked graveScience and medicine
  1179. 1890A widow at 19 promised to guard her family's two great bronze cauldrons, hid them through seven Japanese raids, and gave them to the stateHeirlooms and treasure
  1180. 1890Schliemann smuggled Priam's Treasure out of the Ottoman Empire and gave it to Berlin, the Red Army took it in 1945, and Moscow kept it secret for 50 yearsWar and property
  1181. 1889Austria's crown prince shot his 17-year-old lover and himself at Mayerling, and the throne passed to the man killed at SarajevoRoyalty
  1182. 1889Antonio Meucci could not pay $10 to renew his telephone caveat, Bell got the patent, and Meucci died before the courts ruledScience and medicine
  1183. 1889Father Damien was buried on Molokai where he had served leprosy patients, Belgium took the body in 1936, and Hawaii got back his right hand in 1995Science and medicine
  1184. 1888John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, sold it off in pieces while addicted to morphine, and died poor in 1888, leaving his widow a pauperScience and medicine
  1185. 1888The Nobel brothers built Russia's largest oil company in Baku; Ludvig's son fled the Bolsheviks disguised as a peasant and sold half the shares to Standard OilOil and natural resources
  1186. 1887Carlsberg's founder gave his brewery to a foundation after a feud with his son, who built a rival brewery beside itFoundations
  1187. 1886Bavaria deposed Ludwig II as insane over his castle debts, he died in a lake the day after his arrest, and Neuschwanstein opened to paying visitors within weeksGreat houses
  1188. 1886Emily Dickinson's poems were edited by her brother's mistress, and her sister sued the mistress for a strip of landLiterature and art
  1189. 1885Glenveagh's builder evicted 244 people in three days, a later owner vanished in a storm, and the last owner gave the castle to IrelandGreat houses
  1190. 1885A Georgia planter left his estate to his daughter by an enslaved girl, and his white relatives lost their challenge in 1887Secret heirs
  1191. 1885Grant lost his savings in the Grant & Ward fraud and wrote memoirs that paid his widow about $450,000Military families
  1192. 1885Kitchener had the Mahdi's tomb destroyed in 1898 and his skull taken, and Parliament debated it before the skull was buried at Wadi HalfaEgypt and Africa
  1193. 1885Sarah Althea Hill produced a marriage contract and a will from San Francisco's richest man, federal judges ruled them forged, and her husband was shot dead attacking a Supreme Court justiceCities
  1194. 1885Victor Hugo left 50,000 francs to the poor and asked for their hearse; France gave him a state funeral that drew more than two million peopleLiterature and art
  1195. 1885Jumbo the elephant was killed by a train in 1885; his skeleton, hide, heart and ashes went to four different ownersFame and fortune
  1196. 1884The last Kamehameha princess left her lands to a school, and a judge removed its trustees for self-dealing 115 years laterRoyalty
  1197. 1884A 1997 essay called "Broken Trust" led a Hawaii court to remove the Bishop Estate trustees, who were paid up to $900,000 a yearFoundations
  1198. 1883France seized Chambord in 1915 because its owner served Austria, while his half-brothers, who fought for the Allies, sued him for a bigger shareGreat houses
  1199. 1883Emperor Tự Đức's will called his heir unfit, and his regents crowned four emperors in just over a year and poisoned twoJapan and Southeast Asia
  1200. 1882A 16-year-old poisoned his grandfather to stop him changing his will, and New York's highest court took the farm from him in 1889Probate and trust law
  1201. 1882Robert Lincoln had his mother declared insane the day after detectives saw $56,000 in bonds sewn into her petticoatsNorth America
  1202. 1880Japanese scientists dug up more than 1,600 Ainu remains for study, and Ainu groups sued universities to bring them homeJapan and Southeast Asia
  1203. 1880Edwin Drake drilled the first US oil well in 1859, lost his savings by 1866, and lived on a Pennsylvania state pensionOil and natural resources
  1204. 1880Gold was found on John Sutter's land in 1848, his son built Sacramento on it against his wishes, and he died in a Washington hotel waiting for Congress to pay himOil and natural resources
  1205. 1879A widow said the Duke of Portland had faked his own death as a London shopkeeper, and the coffin was opened to settle itSecret heirs
  1206. 1879Thérèse Humbert borrowed for 20 years against an inheritance from an American millionaire who never existed, and the safe held almost nothingGhosts and legends
  1207. 1877Cornelius Vanderbilt left nearly all of $100 million to one son, and the son he passed over argued spiritualism had unhinged himBusiness dynasties
  1208. 1877Argentina confiscated Rosas's property and sentenced him to death; he died a tenant farmer in England and was reburied in 1989Military families
  1209. 1877Nepal's Rana prime ministers passed the office brother to brother by a roll; in 1934 the ruler struck off the sons of low-caste mothers, and their sons joined the party that opposed itIndia and South Asia
  1210. 1877Caroline Norton's husband claimed her book earnings and her inheritance from her mother, and her campaign changed English property lawProbate and trust law
  1211. 1877The church claimed $999,000 of Brigham Young's estate, his heirs sued, and the three apostles who were his executors went to the penitentiaryNorth America
  1212. 1877Gustave Courbet was billed 323,000 francs to rebuild the Vendôme Column and died in Swiss exile in 1877Literature and art
  1213. 1876Santa Anna sold La Mesilla to the United States for $10 million, mortgaged his estates from exile, and Illinois keeps his legMilitary families
  1214. 1876Thieves stole A. T. Stewart's body from his New York vault, and his widow paid $20,000 for a satchel of bonesBusiness dynasties
  1215. 1875Cixi made her sister's son emperor, an official killed himself to object to the adoption, and the emperor died of arsenic in 1908Asian dynasties
  1216. 1875Isaac Singer left a sewing-machine fortune to children by five women, and a former partner claimed to be his widowFame and fortune
  1217. 1874Two Hawaiian kings died without naming heirs, the 1874 election ended in a riot that killed a legislator, and King Lunalilo left his lands to a home for poor HawaiiansNative nations and islands
  1218. 1874James Addison Reavis forged a Spanish barony covering 12 million acres of Arizona, presented a ranch girl as its heiress, and went to prisonNorth America
  1219. 1873Livingstone's heart was buried in Zambia, his body was carried 1,000 miles to Westminster Abbey, and his son died in a Confederate prison under a false nameExplorers
  1220. 1873The Native Land Court declared Ōrākei inalienable, the Crown took or bought almost all of it, and 800 police and soldiers ended a 506-day occupation with 222 arrestsNative nations and islands
  1221. 1873Johns Hopkins left $7 million in railroad stock to found a hospital, the stock stopped paying, and records found in 2020 showed he had owned slavesScience and medicine
  1222. 1873The Army hanged Captain Jack, shipped his head to Washington in a barrel marked "specimens of natural history," and exiled his people to OklahomaJailed and executed
  1223. 1873Trustees holding a dead man's bank shares for his daughters were made personally liable when the City of Glasgow Bank failedMoney and markets
  1224. 1870Dickens left £1,000 to the actress he hid for 12 years, and burned 20 years of letters in his gardenLiterature and art
  1225. 1870Eliza Lynch buried Paraguay's dictator and their son in 1870, was expelled when she came back for his lands, and Paraguay voted in 2025 to move her bones to its Pantheon of HeroesLatin America
  1226. 1870Joseph Davis sold his plantations to the man he had enslaved, and his brother Jefferson Davis sued the family for Brierfield and wonNorth America
  1227. 1868Tewodros II shot himself at Maqdala in 1868, Britain auctioned his treasury and took his son, and in 2023 Buckingham Palace refused to return the son's remainsEgypt and Africa
  1228. 1868William Morton patented ether anaesthesia, never collected a royalty, and died in debt while his rivals died by suicide and in an asylumScience and medicine
  1229. 1868Eilley Bowers took mining claims for unpaid board, became one of the first Comstock millionaires, and lost her mansion at auctionOil and natural resources
  1230. 1867Juárez refused to hand over Emperor Maximilian's body after the 1867 execution, and his widow's fortune went home to Belgium with her under her brother's controlLatin America
  1231. 1867Maximilian made the two-year-old grandson of Mexico's first emperor a prince and his ward, and the boy died a Georgetown language teacher with no childrenLatin America
  1232. 1866Bombay Khoja dissidents sued the first Aga Khan for control of the community's funds, and a British judge ruled in 1866 that he was their hereditary imamIslamic and Persian empires
  1233. 1865Hetty Robinson produced a will page giving her all of her aunt's $2 million, and a Harvard mathematician testified the signature was tracedFame and fortune
  1234. 1865John Banks believed devils and a dead man were pursuing him, left his cottages to his niece, and the court upheld the willProbate and trust law
  1235. 1864David Sassoon's sons split his firm in two, his daughter-in-law Flora was pushed out, and his great-grandson Victor lost ShanghaiBusiness dynasties
  1236. 1863Khedive Ismail sold Egypt's Suez Canal shares to Britain for £4 million in 1875, and the Ottoman sultan deposed him four years laterMoney and markets
  1237. 1862Uriah Levy willed Monticello to the United States, the Confederacy auctioned it, and New York's highest court voided the giftGreat houses
  1238. 1862Samuel Colt left $15 million, and the "nephew" in his will was the son of his brother, who died in his cell on his execution dayScience and medicine
  1239. 1862A British officer shot the last Mughal emperor's sons in 1857, and in 2025 India's Supreme Court threw out his great-grandson's widow's claim to the Red FortWar and property
  1240. 1861The 2nd Duke of Buckingham owed £1.46 million, fled his creditors, and Christie's sold the contents of Stowe in 1848European families
  1241. 1860Charles Goodyear patented vulcanized rubber, spent the profits in court, and died $200,000 in debt on the way to his dying daughterScience and medicine
  1242. 1860In Great Expectations, Pip's secret fortune comes from a transported convict, and the Crown takes it when the convict is condemnedFiction and film
  1243. 1860Napoleon annulled his brother's Baltimore marriage, and Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte's son lost his claim to the Bonaparte inheritance in a Paris courtNorth America
  1244. 1860Julia Pastrana's husband sold her embalmed body after she died in 1860, and it was exhibited, stolen and stored in Oslo until Mexico buried it in 2013Fame and fortune
  1245. 1859Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy's baronetcy fund pays only an heir who gives up his own name, and every holder since 1859 has taken hisBusiness dynasties
  1246. 1859The British refused the last Peshwa's adopted son his father's pension, and after 1857 dug his treasure out of the wells at BithurIndia and South Asia
  1247. 1858Maniram Dewan, the first Indian to plant tea commercially in Assam, was hanged in 1858, and the British auctioned his tea gardensOil and natural resources
  1248. 1857The Lee family lost Arlington over a $92.07 tax, the Army buried soldiers on it, and the Supreme Court awarded $150,000Military families
  1249. 1857Insurers paid for the SS Central America's gold in 1857 and claimed it again when it was found in 1988; the finder spent ten years jailed over 500 missing coinsHeirlooms and treasure
  1250. 1856The 17th Earl of Shrewsbury left his estates to the Duke of Norfolk's baby son; a distant cousin won the earldom and Alton TowersEuropean families
  1251. 1856Sayyid Said died at sea in 1856, his sons split Oman and Zanzibar, and his daughter Salme was refused her inheritanceEgypt and Africa
  1252. 1855Prince Diponegoro was arrested at peace talks in 1830, and the kris the Dutch returned in 2020 had been missing for decadesJapan and Southeast Asia
  1253. 1854A violin dealer was found dead on a farm with 144 Italian instruments, and his heirs sold the unplayed "Messiah" StradivariHeirlooms and treasure
  1254. 1853The East India Company refused the Raja of Jhansi's deathbed adoption, took the state, and kept the boy's inheritance in trust for goodIndia and South Asia
  1255. 1853One wave took a Manchester family off the wreck of the Dalhousie, and their estates went to strangers because no one could say who died firstShips and railways
  1256. 1852Belgium bought out the Duke of Wellington's "perpetual" Waterloo rent in 1988 and kept a right to take back the landMilitary families
  1257. 1852Parliament bought Wellington an estate, and the 7th Duke gave Apsley House to the nation in 1947 while keeping a family flatMilitary families
  1258. 1852In Dickens's Bleak House, the Jarndyce will case runs for generations until the legal costs have swallowed the estateFiction and film
  1259. 1852Gogol burned the second part of Dead Souls nine days before he died; in 1931 his coffin was opened, and legend says the skull was missingLiterature and art
  1260. 1851Begum Samru's heir was declared insane on his wife's petition, and after his death she contested his will leaving £200,000 to an Indian collegeIndia and South Asia
  1261. 1851Audubon's widow sold the Birds of America copper plates in 1870 and buyers melted most of them for scrapLiterature and art
  1262. 1850Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson's daughter was ruled illegitimate, and a Kentucky court gave his estate to his brothersSecret heirs
  1263. 1850John McDonogh left two cities a fortune for free schools, his heirs said Louisiana law voided the gift, and New Orleans pulled down his statue in 2020North America
  1264. 1850Margaret Fuller, her husband and their son drowned 100 yards from Fire Island in 1850, and her manuscript history of the Roman Republic was lostLiterature and art
  1265. 1849Edgar Allan Poe's self-appointed literary executor was his enemy, who wrote his obituary under a false name and rewrote his lettersLiterature and art
  1266. 1849Chopin's sister smuggled his heart into Warsaw, an SS officer took it in 1944, and scientists examined it in 2014 without opening the jarFame and fortune
  1267. 1847Kenesary Khan was beheaded in 1847 and his skull sent to Omsk as a trophy; in 2021 Putin promised to return itAsian dynasties
  1268. 1847In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff takes both families' estates through a mortgage, a marriage and a dying boy's will, and a lawyer showed in 1926 the law holds upFiction and film
  1269. 1847The Navy declared Franklin's crews dead in 1854 while his wife paid for the search, and the wrecks found 160 years later belong partly to the InuitShips and railways
  1270. 1845Karl Wilhelm Naundorff sued the Bourbons as the lost son of Louis XVI, and DNA from the boy's heart ended the claim in 2000Secret heirs
  1271. 1844In The Count of Monte Cristo, a cardinal poisoned for his money left his heir only a breviary, and the will hidden in it passed to a prisonerFiction and film
  1272. 1842Mexico seized the Jesuit mission fund for California in 1842, and the claim ran 125 years through the first case at The HagueLasting legacies
  1273. 1842A Bellary liquor contractor died without a will, his brother claimed the estate as a Hindu joint family, and the Privy Council asked how the family livedIndia and South Asia
  1274. 1842Families who had inherited unpaid Mississippi bonds for 90 years gave them to the Prince of Monaco to sue, and the Supreme Court said a foreign state cannotMoney and markets
  1275. 1840The Church refused Paganini burial, and his embalmed body was moved from cellar to cellar for 36 yearsMusic and sport
  1276. 1840Beau Brummell spent his inheritance on clothes and cards, fled London by night, and died in a paupers' asylum in CaenFame and fortune
  1277. 1839Stephen Van Rensselaer III's will ordered $400,000 in back rents collected, and his tenants answered with the Anti-Rent WarNorth America
  1278. 1839A banker's nephews fought ten years over his jewels, and the heir who got the Hope Diamond could sell it only with the court's permissionHeirlooms and treasure
  1279. 1838The Maryland Jesuits sold 272 people for $115,000 in 1838 to pay Georgetown's debts, and in 2021 the order pledged $100 million to their descendantsSecret societies and orders
  1280. 1835Raffles made Hussein sultan without the regalia, and in 1897 a court ruled his grandsons' palace land belonged to the CrownJapan and Southeast Asia
  1281. 1834A house painter's daughter claimed to be a royal princess, and a jury ruled her proofs forged in 1866 without hearing the Crown's full replySecret heirs
  1282. 1834Pedro I left his heart to Porto, the city council and a church brotherhood fought over where to keep it, and Brazil borrowed it in 2022Latin America
  1283. 1834The heiress to the land around New Orleans's main square was shot four times by her father-in-law over her fortune, survived, and built the Pontalba BuildingsCities
  1284. 1833Settlers cut off Yagan's head for a £30 reward, it was shown in London and buried in a Liverpool grave, and Noongar elders buried it in the Swan Valley in 2010Native nations and islands
  1285. 1833Nicéphore Niépce died before photography paid, his partner named it the daguerreotype, and France gave Niépce's son the smaller pensionScience and medicine
  1286. 1833The Korean tale of Heungbu and Nolbu says the elder brother took the whole inheritance and threw the younger out, and a swallow reversed their fortunesGhosts and legends
  1287. 1833A rumour said Kaspar Hauser was the stolen heir to the throne of Baden; he was stabbed to death in 1833, and a 2024 DNA study ruled out the Baden lineGhosts and legends
  1288. 1832Walter Scott owed £130,000 when his printer failed, refused bankruptcy, and wrote until he died to pay itLiterature and art
  1289. 1832Jeremy Bentham willed his body to be dissected and displayed, and students stole his head in 1975Lasting legacies
  1290. 1832The British deposed the last king of Kandy, barred his family from the throne forever, and kept his throne at Windsor until 1934India and South Asia
  1291. 1832Heirs of a Mexican land grant raided the Tierra Amarilla courthouse in 1967 to arrest the district attorneyNorth America
  1292. 1831Stephen Girard left $7.5 million for "poor white male orphans", and courts fought over the word "white" until 1968Foundations
  1293. 1830Simón Bolívar's will left only the Aroa copper mines, his sisters sold them in 1832, and Hugo Chávez had his bones dug up in 2010Latin America
  1294. 1830Hawaiʻi's young king inherited the chiefs' sandalwood debt, and the governor who sailed to cut more sandalwood never came backOil and natural resources
  1295. 1830Thomas Lawrence died in debt in 1830 and the nation refused his Old Master drawings for £18,000, so a dealer who was his main creditor took themLiterature and art
  1296. 1829A duke's illegitimate son left his fortune to the United States, which used it to found the SmithsonianSecret heirs
  1297. 1829A Tehran mob killed Russia's envoy in 1829, and the Shah paid for it with a diamond carved with the names of three kingsHeirlooms and treasure
  1298. 1828Dingane and Mhlangana killed their half-brother Shaka in 1828, and their brother Mpande took the Zulu throne with Boer help in 1840Egypt and Africa
  1299. 1828Goya's grave in Bordeaux was opened in 1888 and his skull was missing; he was reburied in Madrid in 1919 without itLiterature and art
  1300. 1827Lady Jane Douglas said she gave birth to twins in Paris at 50, and the Duke of Hamilton sued to prove her son was a stolen childSecret heirs
  1301. 1827Beethoven took his nephew from the boy's mother in court; the nephew shot himself, then inherited everythingMusic and sport
  1302. 1827Rose Hall's heir died in debt, his widow sold her rights for £200, and a novel later made her the "White Witch" who killed three husbandsGhosts and legends
  1303. 1827Jamaican legend says the mistress of Rose Hall murdered her husbands; the records say her husband died in debt and she sold her claim for £200Ghosts and legends
  1304. 1827George Hudson inherited £30,000 from a great-uncle in "suspicious circumstances," became the Railway King, and died with less than £200Ships and railways
  1305. 1826Thomas Jefferson's will freed his two youngest sons by Sally Hemings, and his debts sent 130 enslaved people to auctionSecret heirs
  1306. 1826Worrall held Fisher's power of attorney, said Fisher had sailed for England, and sold his property; Fisher was in a grave on Worrall's landGhosts and legends
  1307. 1826Masons took William Morgan from a New York jail in 1826 to stop his exposé, and a stranger's body was buried in his nameSecret societies and orders
  1308. 1826The Sultan abolished the Bektashi order in 1826 and gave its lodges away, Atatürk closed the rest in 1925, and in 2024 Albania proposed a sovereign state for its leaderSecret societies and orders
  1309. 1825France made Haiti pay 150 million francs in 1825 to compensate its former slaveholders, and Haitians paid on the debt until 1947Native nations and islands
  1310. 1825Alexander I sealed his brother's renunciation of the throne in envelopes, Russia swore allegiance to the wrong heir, and the guards revoltedRussia and Byzantium
  1311. 1825France refused to take back Jacques-Louis David's body in 1825, so he lies in a Brussels cemetery under an obeliskLiterature and art
  1312. 1824Byron's friends tore up and burned his memoirs in his publisher's fireplace four weeks after he diedLiterature and art
  1313. 1822Shelley's father would fund his widow only if she published no biography, and she kept the remains of his heart in her deskLiterature and art
  1314. 1822The Ottoman state killed Ali Pasha of Ioannina in 1822 and confiscated more than 950 farmsMilitary families
  1315. 1822An 1885 pamphlet says a buried treasure in Virginia belongs to 30 men and their heirs, named in a cipher nobody has solvedGhosts and legends
  1316. 1821Napoleon's will left 10,000 francs to the man who tried to shoot the Duke of WellingtonRoyalty
  1317. 1821The peerage records Lord Glamis's first son as born and dead on 21 October 1821; a legend says he lived, hidden in the castle, and each heir was told the secretGhosts and legends
  1318. 1821Keats's letters to Fanny Brawne were published in 1878 over objections and sold at Sotheby's in 1885 for £543 17sLiterature and art
  1319. 1820Haiti's King Henry shot himself, rebels bayoneted his 16-year-old heir ten days later, and the queen took her daughters into exile in PisaNative nations and islands
  1320. 1820Settlers seized Demasduit to recover stolen property and killed her husband; their remains sat in Edinburgh until 2020Native nations and islands
  1321. 1819Soviet soldiers emptied Blücher's mausoleum in 1945, and his family lost the Silesian estateMilitary families
  1322. 1817Bounty mutineers' descendants argued in 2004 that burning the ship in 1790 put Pitcairn outside British law, and the Privy Council rejected it in 2006Explorers
  1323. 1817Kelly Clarkson bought Jane Austen's ring for 152,450 pounds in 2012, and Britain barred export until a museum raised the same sumLiterature and art
  1324. 1815France passed a law in 2002 to return Sarah Baartman's remains to South AfricaEgypt and Africa
  1325. 1815A Highland prophecy says the last Seaforth chief would be deaf and outlive his sons, Lord Seaforth's death in 1815 matched it, and historians say the seer may never have existedGhosts and legends
  1326. 1814Patrick Sellar burned houses in Strathnaver for the Sutherland estate, a jury acquitted him of culpable homicide in 1816, and the duke's statue still stands over GolspieLand and wealth transfer
  1327. 1814The manuscript of Sade's 120 Days of Sodom was smuggled into Switzerland in 1982, sold for 7 million euros in 2014, and bought by France for 4.55 million euros in 2021Literature and art
  1328. 1813Myra Clark Gaines sued for 51 years over her father's lost will and the New Orleans land sold from his estate, and her heirs collected after she diedCities
  1329. 1812William Clark became court guardian of Sacagawea's two children in 1813 and freed York only years after the expeditionExplorers
  1330. 1812Mayer Amschel Rothschild's 1812 will shut his daughters and sons-in-law out of the bank; the Frankfurt house closed in 1901 for lack of a male heirJewish law and estates
  1331. 1811John Knill's will pays ten girls to dance round his empty tomb in St Ives every five years, and they danced again in July 2026Lasting legacies
  1332. 1810The Earl of Berkeley's eldest son was ruled illegitimate in 1811 after the church register entry for a secret 1785 marriage proved forgedSecret heirs
  1333. 1809Thomas Paine's bones were dug up by an admirer, shipped to England and lostMixed archive
  1334. 1809Meriwether Lewis died insolvent with his drafts refused by the War Department, and 198 relatives have not been allowed to exhume his bodyExplorers
  1335. 1809Phrenologists stole Haydn's head after burial, and it was reunited with his body 145 years laterMusic and sport
  1336. 1807Zheng Yi's widow took command of his pirate fleets, married his adopted heir, and surrendered to the Qing in 1810 keeping her plunderShips and railways
  1337. 1807The last Stuart heir lost his fortune to the French, lived on a pension from George III, and left the Stuart jewels to the Prince of WalesLand and wealth transfer
  1338. 1806The Revolution guillotined Nicolas Leblanc's patron, seized his soda works and published his patent, and the state paid his heirs 49 years after his suicideScience and medicine
  1339. 1805Nelson left Emma Hamilton to the nation; Parliament paid his brother and Emma died in debt in CalaisMilitary families
  1340. 1805Weimar buried a skull as Friedrich Schiller's in 1827; DNA tests in 2008 showed it and the skeleton were not hisLiterature and art
  1341. 1804A Spanish frigate blew up in 1804 with Captain Alvear's wife and seven children aboard, and in 2007 his descendants sued for its silverHeirlooms and treasure
  1342. 1804Bavaria banned the Illuminati in 1785 and published their seized papers, and a duke's will sent the rest to Sweden to keep them secretSecret societies and orders
  1343. 1803Russia's richest count married his serf actress in secret, she died weeks after their son's birth, and the boy inherited about 150,000 serfsRussia and Byzantium
  1344. 1801Benedict Arnold was paid £6,315 for changing sides and died in debt; his widow paid the debtsMilitary families
  1345. 1801A sea captain's son willed his Manhattan farm to retired sailors, a Loyalist's son sued as heir to the Supreme Court, and the ground rents housed 1,000 sailorsCities
  1346. 1800Georgia's last king asked Russia for protection, Russia abolished his dynasty, and his heirs were suing each other over the royal name in 2019Russia and Byzantium
  1347. 1800When the last Jesuit in Canada died in 1800 the Crown took the order's estates, and 88 years later the Pope divided the compensationNorth America
  1348. 1799Washington's will freed 123 people, his heir sold 54 more, and the family sold Mount Vernon for $200,000Military families
  1349. 1799The British army broke up Tipu Sultan's gold throne to divide as prize money; his sword sold for £14 million in 2023 while descendants pulled rickshawsIndia and South Asia
  1350. 1799China's new emperor arrested his father's favourite five days after the old emperor died, let him hang himself, and seized a fortune put at up to 800 million taelsJailed and executed
  1351. 1798William Jennens died with an unsigned will in his pocket, and claimants fought over his fortune until 1915European families
  1352. 1798Napoleon took Malta from the Knights in three days in 1798, his flagship blew up with the island's treasure by legend, and Malta gave the Order part of its old fort back in 2001Secret societies and orders
  1353. 1797Peter Thellusson locked his fortune away for three generations, and Parliament changed the law to stop anyone copying himProbate and trust law
  1354. 1797Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill collection was sold off over 24 days in 1842 after heirs spent the family fortuneLiterature and art
  1355. 1796Chica da Silva, born enslaved, made a will naming 14 children as heirs and divided enslaved people among themLatin America
  1356. 1796Catherine the Great tried to pass over her son Paul for the throne, and Paul made a law that no ruler could choose an heir againRussia and Byzantium
  1357. 1796Burma took Ayutthaya's former king prisoner in 1767, and in 2013 a Thai team dug up the tomb said to hold his ashesJapan and Southeast Asia
  1358. 1796Robert Burns's widow died in 1834, and local men opened his tomb at night to cast his skull for a phrenologistLiterature and art
  1359. 1795A doctor stole the heart of the boy king Louis XVII, and DNA in 2000 ended 200 years of impostorsRoyalty
  1360. 1794The Revolution guillotined Lavoisier and seized his notebooks, and his widow fought until she got back the property and nearly all his papersJailed and executed
  1361. 1793The Revolution auctioned Versailles's furniture in 17,000 lots, and a top expert was convicted in 2025 of forging royal chairs for the buy-back marketGreat houses
  1362. 1793Legend says a monk cursed the family given Battle Abbey's lands to end by fire and water; in 1793 Cowdray burned and its young owner drowned in the Rhine within weeksGhosts and legends
  1363. 1792Portugal's 1792 sentence declared Tiradentes's children and grandchildren infamous, and Brazil later paid pensions to people who said they descended from himLatin America
  1364. 1792Gia Long dug up the Tây Sơn emperors in 1802, pounded their bones and locked their skulls in a prisonJapan and Southeast Asia
  1365. 1791Mozart's widow passed off a Requiem finished by his student as his own and sold it twiceMusic and sport
  1366. 1790Benjamin Franklin left Boston and Philadelphia £1,000 each for 200 years, and his heirs, a school and the state fought over itLasting legacies
  1367. 1788The House of Lords convicted the Duchess of Kingston of bigamy, and she left England with the Duke's fortuneEuropean families
  1368. 1783Charles Byrne arranged to be buried at sea to escape the anatomists, and John Hunter got his body and displayed his skeleton for 200 yearsScience and medicine
  1369. 1782Kalaniʻōpuʻu left Hawaiʻi Island to his son and the war god to his nephew Kamehameha, and the chiefs who got no land started the war that made Kamehameha kingNative nations and islands
  1370. 1782General Chakri took Taksin's throne in 1782 while Taksin's son and heir was away at war, and dug up Taksin's body two years laterJapan and Southeast Asia
  1371. 1781Virginia confiscated Lord Fairfax's Northern Neck, and his heir's land claim reached the Supreme Court twiceNorth America
  1372. 1781A Cuzco chief sued for four years to be recognised as the last Inca's heir, then led the 1780 rebellion with the case still undecidedNative nations and islands
  1373. 1779Captain Cook's body was returned in pieces, and his widow outlived all six children and destroyed his letters before she died in 1835Explorers
  1374. 1779Hawaiʻi's ruling chief put his feather cloak on Captain Cook in 1779, and it took 237 years and a New Zealand museum to bring it homeHeirlooms and treasure
  1375. 1778The future Rama I took the Emerald Buddha from conquered Vientiane, and it has stayed in Bangkok for two centuriesJapan and Southeast Asia
  1376. 1778Voltaire was refused a Paris burial in 1778, buried in secret, moved to the Panthéon in 1791 with his heart kept apart, and a legend says his bones were thrown away in 1814Literature and art
  1377. 1776John Harrison solved longitude at sea, the Board of Longitude withheld the £20,000 prize, and his son took the case to the kingScience and medicine
  1378. 1775A Bengali official accused Warren Hastings of bribery, was charged weeks later with forging a dead banker's bond, and was hanged under an English statuteJailed and executed
  1379. 1775The Pope suppressed the Jesuits in 1773 and their Superior General died a prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo, declaring the Society innocentSecret societies and orders
  1380. 1774Ivan VI's brothers and sisters were born in prison, held at Kholmogory for 36 years, and sent to Denmark in 1780 on a Russian pensionRussia and Byzantium
  1381. 1773Raghunathrao's men killed the 17-year-old Peshwa in his palace, his widow bore a son who took the throne back, and Pune says the boy still cries for his uncleGhosts and legends
  1382. 1771Lord Baltimore was acquitted of rape in 1768, left Maryland to his illegitimate son in 1771, and the son lost it to the RevolutionNorth America
  1383. 1770William Beckford inherited a Jamaican sugar fortune at 10, built Fonthill Abbey, and sold it before its tower fellFame and fortune
  1384. 1767Spain opened sealed orders in every Jesuit town on one night in 1767, seized the order's property, and the Pope's cannon turned the exiles' ships awaySecret societies and orders
  1385. 1764Jamaica granted Cudjoe's Maroons 1,500 acres by treaty in 1739, then shipped them to Nova Scotia in 1796 and auctioned the landNative nations and islands
  1386. 1764Russia's infant emperor Ivan VI was deposed at 15 months, held prisoner for 23 years, and killed by his guards under standing orders in 1764Russia and Byzantium
  1387. 1764Jean-Marie Leclair was found stabbed three times at his Paris door in October 1764, and his ex-wife sold his belongings and unpublished musicMusic and sport
  1388. 1763The Jagat Seths financed the British at Plassey; six years later the Nawab had the two heads of the bank killed and their bodies thrown from a fortIndia and South Asia
  1389. 1762King Yeongjo locked his heir in a rice chest until he died, and the heir's son became king and moved the body into a new fortressAsian dynasties
  1390. 1760An uncle shipped his 12-year-old nephew to America as a servant to take the Anglesey titles, and a Dublin jury found for the nephew in 1743Secret heirs
  1391. 1760Kent inherited his dead lover's money, and her "ghost" accused him of poisoning her; a London jury convicted the ghost's handlers in 1762Ghosts and legends
  1392. 1757Admiral John Byng was shot under the Articles of War, his family kept his estate, and no pardon has been grantedMilitary families
  1393. 1747Nader Shah's Indian jewels cost his blind grandson his life under torture, and a deposed shah took them into the Russian legationIslamic and Persian empires
  1394. 1741Okiku broke one of ten heirloom dishes, was killed and thrown into a well, and Himeji Castle still shows the wellGhosts and legends
  1395. 1741Antonio Vivaldi was buried in Vienna for 19 florins 45 kreuzer, and his manuscripts were sold off, then found at a school in 1926Music and sport
  1396. 1738Descendants of a 1640s settler sued Trinity Church for downtown Manhattan, and courts ruled the church's 230 years of possession beat their claimSecret heirs
  1397. 1738Württemberg hanged Joseph Süß Oppenheimer in a cage in 1738 and auctioned his property months before the verdictJewish law and estates
  1398. 1737The last Medici left the Florentine Diamond to Tuscany, the Habsburgs took it to Vienna, and it surfaced in a Quebec bank vault in 2025Heirlooms and treasure
  1399. 1736Parliament confiscated South Sea director Edward Gibbon's £106,543 in 1721 and left him £10,000; he rebuilt the fortune and willed it past his sonMoney and markets
  1400. 1727Moulay Ismail of Morocco died in 1727 with hundreds of sons, and his army made and unmade sultans for thirty yearsEgypt and Africa
  1401. 1727Isaac Newton died without a will, and his heirs held his alchemy and theology papers for 209 years before selling them for £9,000Science and medicine
  1402. 1726Dorothy Walpole married the man her father forbade, died of smallpox at Raynham in 1726, and became the Brown Lady photographed on its stairs in 1936Ghosts and legends
  1403. 1724Thomas Guy sold his South Sea stock at the top of the 1720 bubble and left the profit to found Guy's HospitalScience and medicine
  1404. 1722Marlborough's £5,000 Post Office pension was paid to his heirs for 178 years, and Blenheim's builders went unpaid in 1712Military families
  1405. 1722The Kangxi Emperor deposed his heir twice, and the son who followed him hid the next heir's name behind a palace plaqueAsian dynasties
  1406. 1721Edward Colston's charities carried his name for 300 years, until protesters threw his statue in Bristol harbourLasting legacies
  1407. 1718William Penn went to debtors' prison while he owned Pennsylvania, and his heirs later traded 24 million acres for £130,000 and a £4,000 British annuityNorth America
  1408. 1718Peter the Great had his son tortured to death, changed the law so he could pick any heir, and died without naming oneRoyalty
  1409. 1716The child shogun died in 1716 and the Tokugawa main line ended, so a branch lord whose three elder brothers had died took the titleJapan and Southeast Asia
  1410. 1716The Earl of Derwentwater was beheaded in 1716, Parliament gave his estates to Greenwich Hospital, and in 1868 a woman calling herself his heir moved into the ruined castleJailed and executed
  1411. 1715Louis XIV's will gave power to his illegitimate son, and the Paris Parlement annulled it the day after he diedRoyalty
  1412. 1714The Ottomans beheaded Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu and his four sons in Istanbul in 1714 after four months of torture over his fortuneRussia and Byzantium
  1413. 1710Christopher Codrington willed his Barbados plantations to a Church of England missionary society, which held enslaved people on them from 1710 to 1836Native nations and islands
  1414. 1708The galleon San José sank off Cartagena in 1708 with nearly 600 people, and Colombia, Spain, a US salvage company and a Bolivian people all claim its cargoHeirlooms and treasure
  1415. 1707Aurangzeb was buried under a plain stone as he willed, and his sons fought for the throne; one said "a throne or a bier"India and South Asia
  1416. 1705The shogunate confiscated Osaka's richest merchant house in 1705 for living beyond its stationBusiness dynasties
  1417. 1704Danjūrō I was stabbed to death in his dressing room by a rival actor, and his 15-year-old son took the name that is now in its 13th generationFame and fortune
  1418. 1703The Habsburg state owed Samuel Oppenheimer millions when he died in 1703; it declared his firm bankrupt and his estate was auctioned in 1763Jewish law and estates
  1419. 1703Robert Hooke said he would endow the Royal Society, died without a will, and cousins he barely knew took the moneyScience and medicine
  1420. 1701The shogunate confiscated Lord Asano's 53,000-koku domain the day he drew his sword, and his retainers waited 21 months to take revengeJapan and Southeast Asia
  1421. 1701Captain Kidd buried treasure on Gardiners Island to bargain for a pardon, and the governor who had backed his voyage dug it upShips and railways
  1422. 1700Spain's childless Charles II left his whole empire to a French prince in his will, and Europe went to war for 13 yearsRoyalty
  1423. 1694Mitsui's 1722 house code barred any branch from dividing or selling its share, and the US occupation took the families' property in 1946Business dynasties
  1424. 1693The Sabarna Roy Choudhury family sold three villages to the East India Company in 1698, and their descendants won a 2003 ruling that Job Charnock did not found KolkataCities
  1425. 1692Salem pressed Giles Corey to death under stones for refusing a jury trial, and his land went to his sons-in-law under a will he had already signedJailed and executed
  1426. 1688Henry Morgan left his plantations and 131 enslaved people to his wife and nephews, and four years later his grave went under the seaShips and railways
  1427. 1683The Chamberlen family kept the obstetric forceps secret for over a century, and their instruments were found hidden in the family house two centuries laterScience and medicine
  1428. 1682Tibet's regent hid the Fifth Dalai Lama's death for 15 years; a Mongol khan later deposed the Sixth and put his own candidate in the PotalaAsian dynasties
  1429. 1680Louis XIV jailed Fouquet for life 19 days after his party at Vaux-le-Vicomte, and in 2019 robbers tied up its 90-year-old owner with his own necktiesGreat houses
  1430. 1680Pierre-Paul Riquet spent his fortune on the Canal du Midi, died eight months before it opened, and left his heirs the canal and its debtsScience and medicine
  1431. 1677A Falun copper miner vanished in 1677, his body came out of the mine 42 years later, his old fiancée named him, and he was put on showOil and natural resources
  1432. 1677The Earl of Arundel's heir went insane in Padua, his younger brothers fought over the family settlement, and the case created the rule against perpetuitiesProbate and trust law
  1433. 1676Plymouth put Metacom's head on a pole for about 20 years and sold his wife and nine-year-old son into slaveryNative nations and islands
  1434. 1675Vermeer died with 11 children and debts; his widow paid creditors in paintings and petitioned for bankruptcyLiterature and art
  1435. 1673Molière died in 1673 after collapsing in his own play; priests refused him last rites, and Louis XIV allowed a night burialLiterature and art
  1436. 1666Mughal prince Aurangzeb jailed his father for eight years and executed his brother to take the throneRoyalty
  1437. 1665Elisabetta Sirani died at 27 in Bologna in 1665; her father charged the maid with poisoning her and then withdrew the chargeLiterature and art
  1438. 1664A Sikh guru disinherited his elder son for changing one verse for Aurangzeb, and rival claimants sat at Bakala waiting to be namedIndia and South Asia
  1439. 1662Koxinga ordered his heir and his own wife killed over a child born to a wet nurse, and died before his generals obeyedAsian dynasties
  1440. 1661France sold its crown jewels in 1887 to stop a king returning; the Louvre bought one back for €6.72 million, and thieves took it in eight minutes in 2025Heirlooms and treasure
  1441. 1658England dug up Oliver Cromwell, hanged his corpse and put his head on a pole, and collectors sold the head for 300 years until a college buried it in secret in 1960Jailed and executed
  1442. 1651Bhutan's founder died in 1651, and his officials kept the death secret for 54 years while issuing orders in his nameAsian dynasties
  1443. 1648A Dutch water board still pays interest on dike bonds sold in 1638 and 1648, and Yale collected 12 years of it in 2015Money and markets
  1444. 1648The last male of the Ottoman house would not leave his room when told he was sultan, and eight years later his mother agreed to his depositionIslamic and Persian empires
  1445. 1642Saskia's will let Rembrandt use their son's inheritance only if he never remarried, and he lived unmarried and went bankruptLasting legacies
  1446. 1642The Church refused Galileo a tomb for 95 years, and when his body was moved in 1737 admirers cut off three fingers and a toothScience and medicine
  1447. 1641Legend: Domenichino died in Naples in April 1641 and was said to have been poisoned by rival painters; the one early biographer cited blames his relativesLiterature and art
  1448. 1636Oiwa's shrine says she and her adopted-heir husband restored the Tamiya fortunes; the 1825 play has him betray her for a richer matchGhosts and legends
  1449. 1635Champlain named the Virgin Mary as his heir in 1635; his cousin sued in Paris and the will was annulled in 1639Explorers
  1450. 1632The House of Lords ruled the Earl of Banbury's sons were not his, and the Knollys family lost the earldom after 152 years of claimsEuropean families
  1451. 1629Shah Abbas had one son killed and two blinded, and died with no son able to ruleIslamic and Persian empires
  1452. 1627Asaf Khan crowned a Mughal prince to hold the throne for Shah Jahan, and Shah Jahan had him imprisoned and killedIndia and South Asia
  1453. 1622Mel Fisher lost his son and daughter-in-law hunting the Atocha, found its main treasure ten years to the day later, and beat Florida in the Supreme CourtHeirlooms and treasure
  1454. 1621The Dutch East India Company executed 44 Banda chiefs in 1621 and gave the nutmeg groves to Dutch planters, and one planter family says it has held its grove for 13 generationsOil and natural resources
  1455. 1620Burton Agnes Hall has passed by inheritance since 1610, and its builder's daughter is said to be bricked into a wallGhosts and legends
  1456. 1618James I gave Walter Raleigh's Sherborne estate to his favourite over a missing phrase in a trust deed, and Raleigh's widow kept his embalmed head for 29 yearsExplorers
  1457. 1617Pocahontas's son inherited Virginia land, and Virginia's 1924 race law made an exception that kept families claiming descent from her legally whiteNative nations and islands
  1458. 1616Shakespeare left his wife his "second best bed" and struck his new son-in-law out of the willLiterature and art
  1459. 1616Spain announced in March 2015 that it had found Cervantes among bones of 15 to 17 people in a Madrid convent, with no DNA to confirm itLiterature and art
  1460. 1613Tokugawa Ieyasu's mine magistrate died rich in 1613, and the shogunate made his seven sons kill themselves and seized everything he ownedOil and natural resources
  1461. 1611England's richest commoner left his fortune to a hospital, and his nephew and Francis Bacon tried to break the willLasting legacies
  1462. 1608King Gwanghae's officials killed his eight-year-old half-brother in exile, and the boy's mother gave her name to the coup that deposed himAsian dynasties
  1463. 1605Siberia's last khan lost his capital to Cossacks in 1582 and his family to Moscow in 1598; his descendants served the tsars as Princes SibirskyAsian dynasties
  1464. 1601Tycho Brahe's heirs were never paid for his observations, so they took them back from Kepler and won the right to censor his booksScience and medicine
  1465. 1599In Shakespeare's Hamlet, an uncle kills the king, marries the widow and is chosen king over the son, and the crown ends with a foreign princeFiction and film
  1466. 1598Hideyoshi took over Nobunaga's house by backing a two-year-old heir, and after he died Tokugawa Ieyasu did the same to his own five-year-old sonJapan and Southeast Asia
  1467. 1598Beatrice Cenci and her family killed her father at his castle, Rome beheaded them, and most of the Cenci fortune went to the pope's nephewJailed and executed
  1468. 1596Francis Drake promised his estates to his wife, then signed them to his brother 2 days before dying at sea, and the brother won the lawsuitsExplorers
  1469. 1596The Inquisition burned the heir to Nuevo León's governorship with his mother and three sisters in 1596, and his stolen memoir went back to Mexico in 2017Latin America
  1470. 1595Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III had his 19 brothers strangled on the day he took the throneRoyalty
  1471. 1595Hideyoshi's adopted heir was forced to kill himself after a son was born, and 39 of his wives, children and servants were beheaded in KyotoJailed and executed
  1472. 1593Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in a Deptford house on 30 May 1593 by a man later pardoned in 28 days, and the inquest record was found in 1925Literature and art
  1473. 1592Their mother produced a letter naming the younger son, Hideyoshi removed the elder as head of the Honganji, and Ieyasu gave the elder land for a rival temple in KyotoJapan and Southeast Asia
  1474. 1591Hideyoshi ordered his tea master to kill himself in 1591, and the Sen family won back the name that three tea houses still carryLasting legacies
  1475. 1591Tsarevich Dmitry died at Uglich in 1591, a man using his name took the throne in 1605, and Moscow hanged his widow's small son in 1614Russia and Byzantium
  1476. 1583Gaelic law gave Gráinne O'Malley nothing from two husbands, so she sailed to Elizabeth I and won a pension from her sons' landsShips and railways
  1477. 1581Ivan the Terrible struck his heir on the head in November 1581, and his dynasty ended with his surviving son in 1598Russia and Byzantium
  1478. 1579Thomas Gresham left London a free college, and Parliament sold the building for a tax office in 1768Lasting legacies
  1479. 1569Gracia Nasi's sister Brianda sued her in Venice for half the Mendes fortune and denounced her as a secret JewJewish law and estates
  1480. 1568On Luther's advice the last Grand Master in Prussia dropped his vows in 1525, made the Order's state his hereditary duchy, and marriedSecret societies and orders
  1481. 1564Michelangelo's nephew smuggled his body out of Rome to Florence in a bale of goods in March 1564, ahead of the pope's tomb planLiterature and art
  1482. 1562Süleyman paid the Shah of Persia to hand back his son Bayezid, who was strangled in Qazvin with his four sonsIslamic and Persian empires
  1483. 1560An impostor lived as Martin Guerre for three years, took his wife and land, and was hanged when the real Martin walked into courtSecret heirs
  1484. 1560An Inca princess was married to the captain who captured her uncle, their daughter got a Spanish marquisate with the Inca estate of Yucay, and Inca claimants fought for it after the line died outNative nations and islands
  1485. 1560Malinche's daughter sued her father's widow for the encomienda of Xilotepec, citing her mother's service to the Crown in the conquestLatin America
  1486. 1560Burma's king offered a fortune for the Buddha's tooth, Goa's archbishop ground it to powder, and two new teeth appeared within six yearsHeirlooms and treasure
  1487. 1559Chenonceau was taken for a royal debt, taken from a king's mistress by his widow, and auctioned to a bank after its owner's ruinGreat houses
  1488. 1558England made Conn O'Neill's son by a blacksmith's wife his heir, and Conn's son Shane had the heir killedMedieval Europe
  1489. 1554The Popol Vuh says twin boys found their dead father's ballgame gear hidden in the roof, and it led them to the lords of the underworld who had killed himNative nations and islands
  1490. 1553Pedro de Valdivia's wife waited 27 years in Spain, learned on her voyage that he was dead, and the governor married to his former mistress did not pay her pensionLatin America
  1491. 1553Süleyman had his eldest son Mustafa strangled in the imperial tent in 1553 after his grand vizier produced a letter in the prince's name to the ShahIslamic and Persian empires
  1492. 1552A Nahua healer's 1552 herbal was sent to Spain, passed through a royal pharmacist and a cardinal to the Vatican, and a pope returned it to Mexico in 1990Science and medicine
  1493. 1550Pedrarias's grandsons killed the bishop of Nicaragua and raided Panama in 1550 to recover their father's lost wealthExplorers
  1494. 1547Henry VIII's will was signed with a stamp, not his hand, and its validity was disputed for 20 yearsRoyalty
  1495. 1547Cortés's heir was tried for treason, Mexico seized and sold the estate, and Lucas Alamán hid his bones from 1823 to 1946Explorers
  1496. 1547Andrea Doria's chosen heir was shot at a Genoa gate in the Fieschi coup, the coup's leader drowned in the harbour, and the admiral's fortune passed to an eight-year-oldShips and railways
  1497. 1546Charles V gave the Welser bank Venezuela for its loans, and a Spanish governor had the head of the firm's son killed there in 1546Business dynasties
  1498. 1542De Soto's body was sunk in the Mississippi, and his widow governed Cuba and fought his business partner over the estate until 1546 to 1550Explorers
  1499. 1541Pizarro's daughter and heir married her imprisoned uncle, his skull was found in a lead box in 1977, and Spain reissued his marquisate in 2019Explorers
  1500. 1541Pedro de Alvarado's widow took over his governorship of Guatemala and died in a mudflow two days laterExplorers
  1501. 1540Ethiopia's emperors held their brothers and sons on Amba Geshen for life until Ahmad ibn Ibrahim's army took the mountain in 1540Egypt and Africa
  1502. 1539The Inquisition burned a lord of Texcoco in 1539 after his own relatives testified against him, and the map drawn for the fight over his land is in the Library of CongressNative nations and islands
  1503. 1538Diego de Almagro willed his governorship of New Toledo to his mestizo son, Pizarro ignored the will, and the son's followers killed PizarroLatin America
  1504. 1537James V burned Lady Glamis in 1537, took Glamis Castle and its silver, and the legend says she still kneels in the chapelGhosts and legends
  1505. 1537Robert Aske's rebels demanded the repeal of the law that stopped landowners leaving land by will; Aske was hanged in chains, and Henry VIII gave way in 1540Probate and trust law
  1506. 1537A 1636 chronicle says the heir of Guatavita fasted six years in a cave and was covered in gold dust to take his uncle's lordship, and the rite gave the world El DoradoNative nations and islands
  1507. 1535Henry VIII beheaded Thomas More and took the family's property, and his daughter bribed a man for his head, which a Canterbury parish voted in 2025 to dig upJailed and executed
  1508. 1530Babur's son Kamran held his infant nephew Akbar on the walls of Kabul under fire, and Humayun had Kamran blindedIndia and South Asia
  1509. 1527Atahualpa's captains hanged Huáscar's wives and children on the Cuzco road, burned a dead king's mummy, and killed Huáscar so Pizarro could not free himNative nations and islands
  1510. 1526Elcano was granted 500 ducats a year for the first circumnavigation, was never paid, and left church bequests payable only from what the King owed himExplorers
  1511. 1526Count Stephan Schlick minted the first thalers from his silver mine, vanished at Mohács in 1526, and the new king took the mint from his familyOil and natural resources
  1512. 1525Jakob Fugger paid for Charles V's election, and his heirs lost much of the fortune when the Spanish crown stopped payingEuropean families
  1513. 1525Jakob Fugger fixed the Fuggerei's rent at one guilder a year in 1521, and the rent has not changed in 505 yearsLasting legacies
  1514. 1524Vasco da Gama was ordered out of his home town of Sines in 1507 and asked to leave Portugal before the King made him a count in 1519Explorers
  1515. 1523The Knights of St John surrendered Rhodes in 1522, sailed away with 4,000 islanders, and rented Malta from the Emperor for a falcon a yearSecret societies and orders
  1516. 1521Magellan left a hereditary governorship to his son, but his wife and sons died, and his brother-in-law was still claiming the estate in 1540Explorers
  1517. 1520Spain and then Mexico paid Moctezuma's heirs for Tacuba lands until a 1934 decree, and a Spanish dukedom still carries his nameNative nations and islands
  1518. 1519Pedrarias Dávila had Balboa, his son-in-law by proxy, beheaded at Acla in 1519 for treasonExplorers
  1519. 1519Leonardo da Vinci's legitimate half-brothers cut him out of their father's estate, and his will still left them money and landSecret heirs
  1520. 1518Tradition says Hindus and Muslims fought over Kabir's body and found only flowers under the sheetFame and fortune
  1521. 1517The Prophet's mantle and relics passed from dynasty to dynasty as proof of title, and the Ottomans shipped them from Cairo to Istanbul in 1517Islamic and Persian empires
  1522. 1510The eunuch who ran the Ming government was searched in front of the emperor, who found millions in silver and false sealsMoney and markets
  1523. 1509Ivan III crowned his grandson Dmitry as heir in 1498, then made his son Vasily heir and kept the grandson under guard until he died in 1509Russia and Byzantium
  1524. 1508Isaac Abravanel lost an inherited fortune in Portugal, offered Spain 30,000 ducats to stop the expulsion, and lost everything again in NaplesJewish law and estates
  1525. 1506Columbus's 1502 will disappeared while his descendants fought over the Veragua estate from 1578 to a final ruling in 1793Explorers
  1526. 1506Columbus's heirs sued the Spanish Crown for 28 years over his promised tenth and viceroyalty, and settled for a dukedom and 10,000 ducats a yearExplorers
  1527. 1506Spain and the Dominican Republic both claim Columbus's body; a 2006 DNA test matched the Seville bones, and Santo Domingo refused testingExplorers
  1528. 1504Isabella of Castile's will made her daughter Joanna queen, and Joanna's father and son kept her locked in Tordesillas for 46 yearsMedieval Europe
  1529. 1503Pope Alexander VI built a state in central Italy for his son Cesare Borgia, and Cesare lost it after his father's deathMedieval Europe
  1530. 1502The last Byzantine emperor's nephew signed his imperial rights over to the King of France in 1494 for 4,400 ducats a yearRussia and Byzantium
  1531. 1500Hawaiian tradition says Līloa left the kingdom to his son Hākau and the gods to his low-born son ʻUmi, and ʻUmi killed Hākau and took the islandNative nations and islands
  1532. 1500The Inca chose a 13-year-old girl for sacrifice a year before her death, fed her elite food, and gave her coca and alcohol until she died on LlullaillacoNative nations and islands
  1533. 1495Mehmed II's younger son lost the throne to his brother and spent 13 years as a paid captive of the Knights of Rhodes, the Pope and the King of FranceIslamic and Persian empires
  1534. 1492Lorenzo de' Medici took 53,643 florins from his cousins' inheritance, and two years after his death Florence seized the insolvent Medici bankMedieval Europe
  1535. 1490A childless shogun adopted his brother as heir in 1464, then his wife bore a son, and the quarrel burned Kyoto for 11 yearsJapan and Southeast Asia
  1536. 1487Queen Charlotte of Cyprus lost her throne to her father's illegitimate son and signed her crowns of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia over to SavoyMedieval Europe
  1537. 1485Richard III's bones were found under a car park, and his distant relatives sued the government over where to bury himRoyalty
  1538. 1485Malory says Uther's heir was raised in secret, the lords refused the boy who pulled the sword, and the common people made him kingGhosts and legends
  1539. 1483Parliament declared Edward IV's sons illegitimate, they vanished in the Tower, and two child skeletons found in 1674 have never been DNA-testedMedieval Europe
  1540. 1481A Turkish court ruled in 2020 that Mehmed II's endowment deed still bound Hagia Sophia as a mosque, while an Armenian foundation could not recover its confiscated Istanbul innCities
  1541. 1478Florence seized the Pazzi bank's property the day after the cathedral murder and ordered the family's name and arms erased foreverBusiness dynasties
  1542. 1477Charles the Bold died at Nancy, the King of France seized Burgundy from his 19-year-old heiress, and her marriage gave the Netherlands to the HabsburgsMedieval Europe
  1543. 1476Vlad III Dracula's head was sent to the sultan, and the grave at Snagov opened in 1933 held no bodyRussia and Byzantium
  1544. 1476Perchta of Rožmberk was married off for money in 1449, refused her dying husband's plea for forgiveness, and the legend made her the White LadyGhosts and legends
  1545. 1475Colleoni left Venice 100,000 ducats for a statue of himself in Piazza San Marco; Venice took the money and put the statue in front of the Scuola di San MarcoCities
  1546. 1472The chronicles say Nezahualcóyotl had his bride's betrothed killed in battle, executed their son for treason, and named a 7-year-old heir on his deathbedNative nations and islands
  1547. 1471The dead Inca kings kept their palaces, servants and estates, and the Spanish seized their mummies in 1559 and lost them in a Lima hospitalNative nations and islands
  1548. 1467The Teutonic Knights could not pay their mercenaries, so the mercenaries sold the Order's capital, Marienburg, to the King of Poland in 1457Secret societies and orders
  1549. 1459John Paston claimed Sir John Fastolf's lands under a deathbed spoken will, and the Duke of Norfolk besieged Caister Castle to take themMedieval Europe
  1550. 1457Danjong's uncle took his throne, and three Joseon records give three accounts of how the 16-year-old died in exileAsian dynasties
  1551. 1456Jacques Coeur financed Charles VII's war, then the king charged him with poisoning the royal mistress and confiscated everythingMedieval Europe
  1552. 1455Gutenberg's investor sued him in 1455 while the Bible was being printed, and Soviet officers carried one of the Bibles to Moscow in 1945Heirlooms and treasure
  1553. 1450Kyoto Imperial University took bones from a Ryukyuan royal tomb, descendants sued for them, and the university gave them to the village in 2025 on condition they never be buriedJapan and Southeast Asia
  1554. 1450The Gest of Robyn Hode says a knight pledged his lands to an abbot for £400 and Robin paid the debt; a 1598 play made Robin an earl robbed by his uncleGhosts and legends
  1555. 1449Ulugh Beg kept back his son's share of the treasury, and the son defeated him, had him sentenced, and let the emirs kill him on the road to MeccaIslamic and Persian empires
  1556. 1443Zeami lost his son and the leadership of his Noh troupe to the shogun's favourite, and was exiled to Sado at about 72Fame and fortune
  1557. 1441Sejo dug up Queen Hyeondeok's tomb after her son's fall; the legend says her coffin was thrown into the sea, and her rank came back 56 years laterGhosts and legends
  1558. 1440Gilles de Rais sold his castles to the Duke of Brittany, seized a priest in church, and was hanged; his heirs then claimed the lands backJailed and executed
  1559. 1439A lady-in-waiting stole the Holy Crown of Hungary in 1440 so a baby born hours later could be crowned kingMedieval Europe
  1560. 1438Sarmiento records that Inca Viracocha named his illegitimate son Urco heir, fled the Chanca attack, and died stripped of his property after his other sons killed UrcoNative nations and islands
  1561. 1431Joan of Arc's mother sued to clear her daughter's name, and in 1456 the church declared the 1431 trial nullJailed and executed
  1562. 1430Polish lords stopped the crown sent for Vytautas in 1430, he died uncrowned, and his grave in Vilnius Cathedral has never been foundMedieval Europe
  1563. 1428A Highland family kept St Fillan's crozier for 500 years, took it to Canada, and sold it back to Scotland for $500Lasting legacies
  1564. 1426A Hanseatic merchant was jailed for debt in Bruges for years, died weeks after release, and his widow was sued out of her houseBusiness dynasties
  1565. 1426Tezozómoc named one son heir; another son took the throne and killed him, and the cities he had ruled destroyed AzcapotzalcoNative nations and islands
  1566. 1425Moscow's grand prince was blinded by his cousin in 1446, after his mother tore a disputed gold belt from another cousin at his weddingRussia and Byzantium
  1567. 1424Japan's Southern Court gave up the sacred regalia in 1392 on a promise to share the throne, the promise was broken, and loyalists stole the jewel back in 1443Japan and Southeast Asia
  1568. 1424Two princes of Ayutthaya killed each other on elephants in 1424, and looters robbed their crypt in 1957Japan and Southeast Asia
  1569. 1423An emperor gave Nuremberg the crown jewels "for permanent custody" in 1423; Vienna took them in 1800, Hitler took them back, and an American found them walled in a bunkerHeirlooms and treasure
  1570. 1423Richard Whittington left no children and his fortune to London; his executors rebuilt Newgate prison and founded almshouses that still operateCities
  1571. 1418Nicolas Flamel left his property to his Paris parish church, a 1612 book made him an alchemist, and treasure hunters ransacked his house for goldCities
  1572. 1410The merchant of Prato rewrote his will five weeks before he died and left 100,000 florins to the poor, under the town's controlBusiness dynasties
  1573. 1409France's grand master was beheaded and hung at Montfaucon; his son won back his name and body, then died at AgincourtMoney and markets
  1574. 1407A royal in-law took Vietnam's throne from his own grandson in 1400, and China invaded claiming to restore the true heirJapan and Southeast Asia
  1575. 1406Two heirs of Majapahit went to war, 170 Ming soldiers died in the crossfire, and China billed the winner 60,000 liang of goldJapan and Southeast Asia
  1576. 1405Soviet scientists opened Timur's tomb on 19 June 1941 over the objections of Samarkand's clerics, and the keeper who read out its warning was ordered arrestedIslamic and Persian empires
  1577. 1405Timur's will named a grandson in Kandahar, but another grandson took Samarkand and the treasury firstIslamic and Persian empires
  1578. 1401Hamburg beheaded the pirate Störtebeker, legend put his gold in a church spire, and a skull said to be his was stolen from the city museum in 2010Ships and railways
  1579. 1398The Yongle Emperor took his nephew's throne in 1402, and the deposed emperor's two-year-old son was held for 55 yearsAsian dynasties
  1580. 1393The last king of Armenia was ransomed from Cairo, made lord of Madrid for life, and his title passed to the kings of CyprusRussia and Byzantium
  1581. 1379The History of Ming says a rich man paid for a third of Nanjing's walls, offered to pay the emperor's army, and was exiled to YunnanBusiness dynasties
  1582. 1374Venice gave Petrarch a house for his library, the library went to his enemies' heirs and then to France, and the skull in his tomb is a woman'sFame and fortune
  1583. 1362Tradition says Pedro the Cruel took the "Black Prince's Ruby" from a Granadan sultan he killed with his own lance; it is a spinel in the front of Britain's crownHeirlooms and treasure
  1584. 1361Plague estates paid for Sultan Hasan's Cairo mosque, a minaret fell and killed about 300, and the sultan was murdered and never buried in his tombCities
  1585. 1355Venice beheaded Doge Marino Faliero in 1355, seized his palace, painted a black shroud over his portrait, and later voided his widow's willCities
  1586. 1349A Jewish moneylender's silver lay under his Erfurt cellar from the 1349 massacre until archaeologists found it in 1998Cities
  1587. 1343Edward III did not repay the Bardi and Peruzzi, and both Florentine banks failed in the 1340sEuropean families
  1588. 1343King Robert's will left Naples to Joanna, her husband was strangled, and she sold the city of Avignon to the pope while the murder was examinedRoyalty
  1589. 1340The sultan had his viceroy of Syria arrested, killed and stripped of his fortune; three years later the viceroy's grandson was sultan and his body came home to DamascusMoney and markets
  1590. 1331Serbia's King Milutin ordered his son blinded, and that son was later deposed by his own son and died in prison at Zvečan in 1331Russia and Byzantium
  1591. 1330Edward III hanged Roger Mortimer without a trial and took his lands, and Mortimer's grandson won them back in 1354Jailed and executed
  1592. 1330Korean thieves stole a Buddha from a Japanese island temple, a Korean temple claimed pirates had stolen it first, and Korea's Supreme Court sent it backHeirlooms and treasure
  1593. 1328France kept two kings' daughters off the throne, passed over Edward III, and later cited a Frankish land rule to justify itMedieval Europe
  1594. 1324Marco Polo's son-in-law kept his daughter's third of the Polo estate, and she won it back in court 42 years laterExplorers
  1595. 1324Mansa Musa said he took Mali's throne because his predecessor sailed into the Atlantic and never came backEgypt and Africa
  1596. 1321Florence demanded Dante's bones for 200 years; friars took them out of the tomb, and a worker found them in 1865Literature and art
  1597. 1316Malik Kafur read out a will that made a six-year-old sultan of Delhi, blinded the heirs, and was beheaded 35 days laterIndia and South Asia
  1598. 1315Philip IV's treasurer was hanged on the Montfaucon gallows he had built, and the king who let him hang left legacies to his childrenMoney and markets
  1599. 1314Philip IV arrested every Templar in France in one morning, the pope gave their property to the Hospitallers, and the Hospitallers paid the king 200,000 livresMedieval Europe
  1600. 1308One Templar said under torture in 1308 that he saw a brother leading 50 horses and heard of 18 galleys, and that is the only medieval source for a Templar treasure fleetSecret societies and orders
  1601. 1300In the Yuan play The Chalk Circle, a wife poisons her husband and claims his concubine's son to take the fortune, and Judge Bao tests the two mothersFiction and film
  1602. 1297A Colonna cardinal kept his brothers' lands, the pope razed Palestrina in the fight, and a Colonna seized the pope at AnagniCities
  1603. 1296Edward I took Scotland's coronation stone in 1296; four students took it back on Christmas Day 1950 and broke it in twoHeirlooms and treasure
  1604. 1290Sultan Qalawun built Cairo's great hospital with forced labour after a vow in a Damascus hospital funded by a captured European king's ransomScience and medicine
  1605. 1275A widowed nun rode from Kyoto to Kamakura in 1279 to sue her stepson for her son's estate, and her son's family still owns the archive she fought forJapan and Southeast Asia
  1606. 1275Nun Abutsu travelled to Kamakura in 1279 to claim her son's inheritance, died waiting, and the case ended 30 years laterProbate and trust law
  1607. 1268Conradin, the last legitimate Staufer, willed his lands to his Bavarian uncles and was beheaded in Naples at 16Land and wealth transfer
  1608. 1259When Möngke died at a siege, two of his brothers were proclaimed Great Khan in the same year and fought for four yearsAsian dynasties
  1609. 1258Hulagu took Baghdad and killed the last Abbasid caliph in 1258, chroniclers gave seven different deaths, and a surviving kinsman was made caliph in CairoWar and property
  1610. 1256The last lord of Alamut surrendered to the Mongols in 1256, the Persian historian Juvayni burned the castle's library, and the imam was killed on his way home from the KhanSecret societies and orders
  1611. 1250The Völsunga saga says Fafnir killed his father for a cursed gold hoard and refused his brother any shareMedieval Europe
  1612. 1250Six men leased Spiro's burial mound for $300 from the guardian of the heirs, tunnelled in, sold the grave goods worldwide, and tried to blow up the restNative nations and islands
  1613. 1249Shajar al-Durr hid the death of Sultan al-Salih Ayyub in 1249, became sultan after his heir was killed, and was beaten to death in 1257Egypt and Africa
  1614. 1248Ögedei named a grandson as heir, two widows put other men on the throne, and Möngke executed the grandson's mother for sorceryAsian dynasties
  1615. 1247The Pararaton says a smith cursed the kris that killed him, and that it killed three rulers of Singhasari in turnJapan and Southeast Asia
  1616. 1246The last Babenberg duke died without sons in 1246, his widowed sister of about 47 married a 19-year-old Ottokar and handed him her title deeds, and he divorced herLand and wealth transfer
  1617. 1244Henry III took a third of David of Oxford's estate in 1244 and held his widow Licoricia in the Tower until it was settledJewish law and estates
  1618. 1238A bankrupt emperor of Constantinople pawned the Crown of Thorns to Venetian lenders, and a fire chaplain carried it out of burning Notre-DameHeirlooms and treasure
  1619. 1236Sultan Iltutmish named his daughter Razia heir over his sons; the nobles crowned a son, and the people of Delhi put her on the throneIndia and South Asia
  1620. 1229Monks scraped Archimedes off the page in 1229, a Paris family kept the book in a damp cellar, and a judge let them sell it hours before a church's claim could stop itHeirlooms and treasure
  1621. 1227Genghis Khan's sons fought over the eldest son's birth before he named a successor, and his grave was never recordedAsian dynasties
  1622. 1226Vietnam's only reigning empress was made to hand the throne to her child husband in 1225, and the chronicle says the Lý clan was buried alive in 1232Japan and Southeast Asia
  1623. 1224The Sundiata epic says the king wanted his crippled son to rule, the council crowned his half-brother, and the exiled son came back to found MaliGhosts and legends
  1624. 1222The Church gave Raymond VI's county to the crusade leader and refused his body burial, and his granddaughter's childless marriage handed Toulouse to FranceWar and property
  1625. 1220Mapungubwe's royal dead were dug up in 1933 and reburied on their hill in 2007, but the gold rhinoceros stayed in a university museumEgypt and Africa
  1626. 1219The shogun's nephew killed him on the shrine steps in 1219 to avenge his father, and the Minamoto line of shoguns ended that nightJapan and Southeast Asia
  1627. 1213Georgia's King George III had no son and crowned his daughter Tamar co-ruler, and the place of her grave is still disputedRussia and Byzantium
  1628. 1205Venice took four bronze horses from Constantinople in 1204, Napoleon took them and Veronese's Wedding at Cana in 1797, and in 1815 only the horses went homeWar and property
  1629. 1200The Nibelungenlied says Hagen sank a widow's bridal treasure in the Rhine, and she had her brother beheaded trying to learn whereGhosts and legends
  1630. 1199Richard I's nephew Arthur disappeared in his uncle King John's prison, and Arthur's sister was held for 39 years until she diedMedieval Europe
  1631. 1193A waqf fed Maghrebi pilgrims in Jerusalem for 774 years, and its quarter was bulldozed in one night in June 1967Lasting legacies
  1632. 1193Saladin left a gold ingot and 47 silver dirhams, not enough for his grave, and his brother took the empire from his sonsIslamic and Persian empires
  1633. 1189The Ōshū Fujiwara grew rich on northern gold, the fourth lord turned on the fugitive his father told him to protect, his own vassal beheaded him, and his head lies in the family's gold hallOil and natural resources
  1634. 1187Two Muslim families have opened the Church of the Holy Sepulchre every day for centuries, and dispute which of them came firstLasting legacies
  1635. 1186When Aaron of Lincoln died in 1186, Henry II took his whole estate and set up a separate exchequer to collect his debtsJewish law and estates
  1636. 1185A six-year-old emperor drowned at Dan-no-ura in 1185 in his grandmother's arms, and the sacred sword went down with himJapan and Southeast Asia
  1637. 1176The Tale of the Soga Brothers says a guardian took his ward's estate, the ward killed the guardian's son, and the son's boys killed him 17 years laterGhosts and legends
  1638. 1164Emperor Sutoku lost the throne to his brothers, died in exile, and was brought home as a spirit in 1868Ghosts and legends
  1639. 1156A retired emperor and his brother went to war over the throne in 1156, and the winning side made a son behead his own fatherJapan and Southeast Asia
  1640. 1150Tradition says a dying Lady Tichborne crawled round 23 acres for a bread dole and cursed the family if it ever stoppedLasting legacies
  1641. 1143Rahere founded St Bartholomew's Hospital after a vow in Rome, Henry VIII seized its income in 1539, and the City of London saved it weeks before the king diedScience and medicine
  1642. 1142Song China killed its leading general on a charge its chancellor admitted might not exist, held his family 20 years, then restored his name and reburied himJailed and executed
  1643. 1142The Haudenosaunee Great Law vests the chiefs' titles in the women of each family, who can take back the antlersNative nations and islands
  1644. 1138Bolesław III had his half-brother blinded, then split Poland among his sons in 1138, and the country stayed divided for about two centuriesMedieval Europe
  1645. 1138Yemen's Queen Arwa ruled for half a century and left her jewels by will to a boy imam who had vanished in CairoAsian dynasties
  1646. 1137Eleanor inherited Aquitaine at about 13, took it back when France annulled her marriage, and married the future king of England eight weeks laterMedieval Europe
  1647. 1136A bishop's son ran England's oldest almshouse for decades on an income Trollope turned into The WardenLasting legacies
  1648. 1135Henry I's barons swore to make his daughter queen, and his nephew Stephen took the crown within weeks of his deathMedieval Europe
  1649. 1135The Jurchens took two Song emperors north in 1127; a 1142 treaty brought home the father's coffin and left the son, a crowned emperor, in captivity until he diedWar and property
  1650. 1134Tradition says conjoined twins left Biddenden 20 acres for bread and cheese, and the rector sued to take the landLasting legacies
  1651. 1129Li Qingzhao lost her late husband's collection to war and thieves, then reported her second husband to the courts and went to jail for itFame and fortune
  1652. 1124Hasan-i Sabbah had both his sons executed and left Alamut to a lieutenant from another castleSecret societies and orders
  1653. 1115Matilda of Tuscany gave her lands to the papacy, a historian says the surviving deed is a forgery, and the emperor took the lands the year after she diedMedieval Europe
  1654. 1115The Mixtec codices record that Lord Eight Deer killed his wife's father to take Tilantongo, and that the boy he spared later killed him and married his daughterNative nations and islands
  1655. 1100Wuhsha the broker was thrown out of synagogue on Yom Kippur for her son by a lover, and her will gave the lover "not one penny"Jewish law and estates
  1656. 1099El Cid's widow carried his body out of Valencia, and his bones were moved five times between 1102 and 1921Medieval Europe
  1657. 1097The princes of Rus' agreed at Liubech in 1097 that each would keep his father's lands, and two of them then blinded a thirdRussia and Byzantium
  1658. 1094The vizier al-Afdal put al-Musta'li on the Fatimid throne in 1094 over his elder brother Nizar, and the Ismailis splitEgypt and Africa
  1659. 1087William the Conqueror's funeral stopped when a man said the church stood on his father's stolen landMedieval Europe
  1660. 1066Joseph ibn Naghrela inherited his father's place as vizier of Granada and was killed in the massacre of 1066Jewish law and estates
  1661. 1066Domesday shows Count Alan holding 33 of the 40 estates of Edith the Fair, and in 1094 Archbishop Anselm wrote to her daughter, King Harold's daughter, who had left Wilton Abbey with AlanLand and wealth transfer
  1662. 1063Al-Bakri wrote that Ghana's king took every gold nugget and his heir was his sister's son, and in 1063 a nephew took the throne over the dead king's Muslim sonOil and natural resources
  1663. 1052Fan Zhongyan's 1050 clan trust fed every member a daily rice ration, and within a few years his son had to ask the emperor to let courts enforce itAsian dynasties
  1664. 1050At Cahokia a man and woman were buried on 10,000 shell beads, and the same mound held 53 young women who had been strangledNative nations and islands
  1665. 1041Empress Zoe adopted Michael V as her heir, he exiled her, and the people of Constantinople had him blinded in 1042Russia and Byzantium
  1666. 1030Mahmud of Ghazni left his throne to one son; the other blinded him, and the blind brother's son later killed the victorIndia and South Asia
  1667. 1030Britain carried gates from Mahmud of Ghazni's tomb to India in 1842 as the stolen gates of Somnath; they were Afghan cedar and are still in Agra FortWar and property
  1668. 1025Basil II left 200,000 pounds of gold and no son; his successors spent it, and the gold coin was debased to almost nothing by the 1080sRussia and Byzantium
  1669. 1021Sitt al-Mulk set aside the Fatimid heir after the caliph al-Hakim disappeared in 1021 and put his son al-Zahir on the throneEgypt and Africa
  1670. 1020Tradition says Sultan Mahmud's gold for the Shahnameh reached Ferdowsi's town as his coffin left it, and his daughter refused itFame and fortune
  1671. 1015The Primary Chronicle says Sviatopolk had his brothers Borys and Hlib killed in 1015, and Yaroslav buried them as saints after taking KyivRussia and Byzantium
  1672. 1011The saga says Freydís Eiríksdóttir had her partners killed in Vinland, axed their five women herself and sailed home in their larger shipExplorers
  1673. 1010The Shahnameh says King Faridun gave Iran to his youngest son, and the two elder sons killed him and sent his head to their fatherGhosts and legends
  1674. 1003Kalhana's chronicle says Queen Didda of Kashmir killed three grandsons on the throne and chose her heir with a heap of applesIndia and South Asia
  1675. 1000Beowulf says a dying king won a dragon's hoard with no son to leave it to, and his people buried the gold with himGhosts and legends
  1676. 995An emperor gave Japan's oldest medical book to one physician family, and the author's descendants spent centuries trying to get it backScience and medicine
  1677. 976Song records say the founder's mother made him leave the throne to his brother, and on the night he died the messenger fetched the brother instead of the sonAsian dynasties
  1678. 972Sviatoslav split Rus' among three sons, and within eight years one had died in battle with his brother and another was killed on the third brother's ordersRussia and Byzantium
  1679. 969The Chola heir Aditya Karikala was murdered, and his brother Rajaraja seized the killers' lands and their relatives' lands years laterIndia and South Asia
  1680. 944Qarmatian raiders took the Black Stone from Mecca in 930 and held it for about 20 years before dropping it in a mosque in KufaHeirlooms and treasure
  1681. 940Masakado fought his uncles for land, called himself the new emperor, and his head mound in Tokyo moved the Finance MinistryGhosts and legends
  1682. 937China's Heirloom Seal passed to every usurper for 1,100 years, and the last Later Tang emperor carried it into the fireHeirlooms and treasure
  1683. 935Egil's saga says a queen's men cut the court ropes to stop Egil's inheritance suit, and Egil later won the land by biting a man's throat outMedieval Europe
  1684. 930Aleppo's Jews were told their 1,000-year-old Bible was burned in 1947; it reached Israel in 1957, and the community sued for itHeirlooms and treasure
  1685. 926The Liao History says Abaoji's widow cut off her right hand and put it in his coffin instead of following him into deathAsian dynasties
  1686. 912Leo VI married his mistress as his fourth wife to make their son legitimate, and the patriarch who refused was forced outRussia and Byzantium
  1687. 903Japan's court exiled Michizane on a rival's charge, then restored his offices and made him Chancellor 90 years after his deathGhosts and legends
  1688. 900The Laguna Copperplate of 900 AD cleared the children of Namwaran of a debt in gold, and warned anyone who later said it was unpaidJapan and Southeast Asia
  1689. 899Alfred the Great's will answered his nephews' claim to their father's land, and one nephew rose against Alfred's sonProbate and trust law
  1690. 879Two detectorists sold a Viking-age hoard with coins showing Alfred the Great beside Ceolwulf II of Mercia, and about 270 coins are still missingHeirlooms and treasure
  1691. 850Jain tradition says Bahubali beat his elder brother for the kingdom, gave it up, and stood a year in meditation troubled that he stood on his brother's landIndia and South Asia
  1692. 842Tibetan Buddhist histories say a monk shot Emperor Langdarma in 842; his two sons by different queens split the empireAsian dynasties
  1693. 841Jang Bogo ruled the seas between China, Korea and Japan, tried to make his daughter a queen, and was stabbed over wine by an envoy who said he had fled the courtShips and railways
  1694. 840Louis the Pious's sons deposed him twice and fought a battle at Fontenoy, and the Treaty of Verdun split the empire into the lands that became France and GermanyMedieval Europe
  1695. 828The Bukhtishu physicians served the caliphs for six generations: one was sentenced to death, one died in exile, and one great-grandson was disinherited by his stepfatherScience and medicine
  1696. 814Charlemagne's 811 division left two-thirds of his treasure to 21 archbishoprics and a silver table engraved with Constantinople to St Peter'sMedieval Europe
  1697. 803Harun al-Rashid had his vizier Ja'far killed in one night in 803, hung his body in Baghdad, and took the Barmakid fortuneJailed and executed
  1698. 800Pueblo Bonito's richest crypt held one maternal line for 330 years, and scientists sequenced it without asking the Pueblo tribesNative nations and islands
  1699. 797Empress Irene had her son Constantine VI blinded in the room where he was born and ruled Byzantium alone from 797Russia and Byzantium
  1700. 790Bonampak's king had his heir presented on the painted walls of his temple, and the heir never ruledNative nations and islands
  1701. 756An empress gave her dead husband's treasures to a temple in 756, took back two swords, and they were found under the Great BuddhaLasting legacies
  1702. 750Looters had dug all around it, but the Wari tomb at Castillo de Huarmey held 58 noblewomen and their queens, untouchedPrehistory
  1703. 742Yaxchilan had no recorded king for ten years after Shield Jaguar died, and the son of his foreign second wife took the throneNative nations and islands
  1704. 722The last Sogdian king of Panjikent claimed the throne of Samarkand, was captured on Mount Mugh in 722 and executed; his archive survived in the castle ruinsAsian dynasties
  1705. 718A Japanese inn passed father to son for 46 generations since 718, and the heir's death put a daughter in line for the first timeLasting legacies
  1706. 711Justinian II lost his throne and his nose in 695, took Constantinople back in 705, and was killed with his son in 711Russia and Byzantium
  1707. 705Wu Zetian deposed one son, had another forced to kill himself, made herself emperor, and was buried as an empress in her husband's sealed tombAsian dynasties
  1708. 683Pakal took Palenque's throne at 12 after an enemy sacked the city and the king died, and his son cut three rulers out of the official king listNative nations and islands
  1709. 680Mu'awiya made his son Yazid heir to the caliphate; Muhammad's grandson al-Husayn refused to swear and was killed at Karbala with most of his family's menScripture and the ancient world
  1710. 671Emperor Tenji passed over his brother for his son in 671, and the brother raised an army, won the throne and had the official history written by his own sonJapan and Southeast Asia
  1711. 660The exilarch Bostanai married a Persian princess; after his death his other sons claimed her and her children as slavesJewish law and estates
  1712. 656Tradition says Caliph Uthman was killed while reading this Quran; Russia took it as a trophy, and Lenin gave it backHeirlooms and treasure
  1713. 649A Tang emperor sent an agent in disguise to take Wang Xizhi's Orchid Pavilion Preface from an old monk, and took it into his tombFame and fortune
  1714. 645Prince Naka no Ōe cut down Soga no Iruka at court in 645, Iruka's father burned the court histories as he died, and a 646 edict abolished private estatesLand and wealth transfer
  1715. 634Full brothers left with nothing asked the caliph Umar to treat their father as a donkey, and he changed his rulingProbate and trust law
  1716. 632Jabir, with only sisters to inherit, asked Muhammad how to leave his estate; the last verse revealed answered him, and the caliph Umar said he never fully understood itScripture and the ancient world
  1717. 632While Muhammad's family prepared his body, a meeting in a Medina courtyard chose Abu Bakr as successor over the people of Medina's own candidateScripture and the ancient world
  1718. 632Fatima asked Abu Bakr for her inheritance from Muhammad; he refused, she did not speak to him again, and caliphs returned and seized the land of Fadak for 200 yearsScripture and the ancient world
  1719. 628Persia's crown prince overthrew his father to stop a half-brother's succession, executed him, killed his brothers, and died of plague within monthsIslamic and Persian empires
  1720. 626Li Shimin killed his two brothers at the Xuanwu Gate, executed their ten sons and had the throne from his father within two monthsAsian dynasties
  1721. 625Sa'd ibn al-Rabi' was killed at Uhud and his brother took everything; his widow brought their two daughters to Muhammad, and the Koran's inheritance verse followedScripture and the ancient world
  1722. 624A 1939 inquest ruled the Sutton Hoo ship burial was Edith Pretty's property, and she gave it to the nationMedieval Europe
  1723. 615The Koran says a servant of God holed a poor family's ship and rebuilt a stranger's wall for free, to save the ship from a king and two orphans' treasure from a townScripture and the ancient world
  1724. 610The Quran says a servant of God rebuilt a wall in an inhospitable town so two orphans could recover their father's buried treasureScripture and the ancient world
  1725. 578The Kongō family built temples for 40 generations from 578, and lost the company to debt in 2006Lasting legacies
  1726. 567Avar family trees show widows taken by their husband's son or brother, and one male line that vanished from its own cemeteryPrehistory
  1727. 524Clovis's sons sent their mother scissors and a sword, then killed two of their dead brother's sons and split his kingdomMedieval Europe
  1728. 524Theodoric had Boethius clubbed to death and seized his estates, and the king's daughter gave them back to his sonsJailed and executed
  1729. 520The exilarch Mar Zutra II ruled a Jewish state at Mahoza for seven years and was crucified on its bridge; his son was born the same dayJewish law and estates
  1730. 473The Culavamsa says Kassapa walled up his father alive after the king showed him a reservoir as his only treasureIndia and South Asia
  1731. 450The Lady of Cao was buried with war clubs and a crown, the first Moche woman found with a ruler's emblems, with a teenage girl beside herNative nations and islands
  1732. 439Melania the Younger sold estates across the Roman West and freed 8,000 slaves, and a later account says opponents tried to have her estates seizedGreece and Rome
  1733. 425Rome stripped the last patriarch of the house of Hillel, let no son succeed him, and took the patriarch's tax for the imperial treasuryJewish law and estates
  1734. 400Archaeologists flew the Ukok princess to Novosibirsk in 1993, the Altai people blamed her removal for an earthquake, and she came home to a museum mausoleum in 2012Prehistory
  1735. 314A Sogdian merchant's wife left in Dunhuang wrote that she would rather be a dog's wife than his; her daughter added that the family's debts had made them servantsAsian dynasties
  1736. 300The Markandeya Purana says King Harishchandra gave the whole earth to a Brahmin sage, then sold his wife, his son and himself to pay the feeIndia and South Asia
  1737. 267Palmyra's ruler and his heir were murdered in 267, and his widow Zenobia ruled for her own son; one Roman history says she was in on the plotAsian dynasties
  1738. 250Looters emptied a Moche tomb at Sipán in 1987, police shot their leader, and the archaeologist called in found the Lord of Sipán untouched below itNative nations and islands
  1739. 220The Talmud says a dying man left everything to his one true son out of ten, and a rabbi found him by telling the sons to beat their father's graveJewish law and estates
  1740. 211Severus left Rome to two sons, their mother stopped them dividing the empire, and Caracalla had his brother killed in her armsGreece and Rome
  1741. 208Cao Cao had his physician Hua Tuo put to death, and Hua Tuo burned his book of methods in prison when the jailer would not take itScience and medicine
  1742. 193The Praetorian Guard sold the Roman Empire to Didius Julianus for 25,000 sesterces a soldier, and he lasted 66 daysGreece and Rome
  1743. 193The praetorian guard killed the emperor Pertinax and sold the empire to the highest bidder for 25,000 sesterces a soldierGreece and Rome
  1744. 192The Hou Han Shu says Cai Yong begged to be mutilated so he could finish his history, died in prison, and his ransomed daughter rewrote 400 of his 4,000 books from memoryLiterature and art
  1745. 177A father found a treasure in his Athens house and willed every citizen a mina a year; his son paid it by collecting their grandfathers' debtsGreece and Rome
  1746. 177Herodes Atticus paid out his father's legacy to Athens by deducting debts, gave his son only his mother's property, and the Athenians took his body from MarathonGreece and Rome
  1747. 158Apuleius married a rich widow, her family charged him with winning her by magic, and he read her will aloud in court to show her son was the heirGreece and Rome
  1748. 136Hadrian forced his 90-year-old brother-in-law and the man's 18-year-old grandson to die, and the old man prayed Hadrian would long for death and not be able to dieGreece and Rome
  1749. 132Babatha hid her lawsuits over her son's guardianship and her dead husband's orchards in a cave during the Bar Kokhba revoltJewish law and estates
  1750. 108An orator ruined two brothers' father, made them his heirs, and the fortune passed down a chain of adoptions to Marcus Aurelius's motherGreece and Rome
  1751. 106Cassius Dio says Dacia's king buried his gold under a diverted river and killed the diggers, and a companion told the Romans where it wasOil and natural resources
  1752. 104Pliny says an 80-year-old father disinherited his daughter 11 days after remarrying, and 180 judges in four panels split two against twoGreece and Rome
  1753. 100Pliny tells of an Athens house let cheap because of its ghost; the philosopher who took it found a chained skeleton in the yardGhosts and legends
  1754. 92Ban Gu died in a magistrate's prison with the Book of Han unfinished, and the emperor ordered his sister Ban Zhao to complete itLiterature and art
  1755. 80Christian tradition says the body of Luke "the beloved physician" was moved from Thebes to Constantinople and Padua, and an emperor took the head to PragueScience and medicine
  1756. 70Rome carried the Temple treasures in triumph, the Vandals took them to Carthage, and Procopius says Justinian sent them to Jerusalem because a Jew warned they brought down every palace that held themWar and property
  1757. 70The Talmud says Kalba Savua disinherited his daughter for marrying the shepherd Akiva, then gave him half his fortuneJewish law and estates
  1758. 69A senator was accused of biting the severed head of Galba's heir, and years later he swore on his son's life to get into the heir's widow's willGreece and Rome
  1759. 66Petronius's will listed Nero's sex partners by name, and Pliny says he smashed a 300,000-sesterce basin to keep it from NeroGreece and Rome
  1760. 65Seneca offered Nero his 300-million-sesterce fortune, was refused, and three years later was ordered to die and denied the tablets to write his willJailed and executed
  1761. 60King Prasutagus left half his kingdom to Nero to protect his daughters, and Tacitus says Roman officers flogged his widow Boudica and raped his daughtersGreece and Rome
  1762. 54Claudius's will was never read in public, and Nero poisoned Claudius's son Britannicus four months after taking the throneGreece and Rome
  1763. 54Pliny says six men owned half of Roman Africa when Nero had them killed, and Suetonius says Nero seized the estates of anyone whose will left him too littleGreece and Rome
  1764. 41Suetonius says Caligula ignored Tiberius's will, killed his co-heir, and haunted the gardens he inherited until his sisters reburied himGhosts and legends
  1765. 40Cleopatra's grandson Ptolemy inherited Mauretania from his father Juba, and Caligula summoned him to Rome and had him killedEgypt and Africa
  1766. 33Tacitus says Tiberius had Spain's richest man thrown from the Tarpeian Rock and kept his gold and copper mines for himselfOil and natural resources
  1767. 30Luke's parable of the prodigal son: a younger son took his inheritance while his father lived, spent it, came home, and the elder son objectedScripture and the ancient world
  1768. 30The Gospel of John says soldiers diced for the executed Jesus's seamless robe, and three churches claim to have itScripture and the ancient world
  1769. 29Livia left Galba 50 million sesterces in figures, and her son Tiberius read it as 500,000 and paid nothingGreece and Rome
  1770. 25Suetonius says Tiberius frightened a man worth 400 million sesterces into suicide to inherit, and Caligula sent poisoned sweets to men who named him heirGreece and Rome
  1771. 23The Han shu records that Wang Mang took the throne from a Han child, declared all land the "king's fields", repealed it three years later, and his head was kept for 272 yearsLand and wealth transfer
  1772. 14Augustus's will, read to the Senate by the Vestal Virgins, barred his daughter and granddaughter from his tombGreece and Rome
  1773. 1A nomad chief and five women were buried with 20,000 gold objects in Afghanistan; keyholders hid the hoard for 14 years, and in 2021 it went out of sight againIndia and South Asia
  1774. 1On the Xiongnu frontier the great tombs were built for women, each flanked by commoner men in simple gravesPrehistory
  1775. 2 BCEA slave woman sent from Rome persuaded the Parthian king to send his four sons to Rome, then her son killed him and married herIslamic and Persian empires
  1776. 4 BCEHerod the Great executed three sons, changed his will in his last days, and died five days after the last execution; Augustus split his kingdom among the survivorsScripture and the ancient world
  1777. 19 BCEVirgil asked for the Aeneid to be burned, and Augustus ordered it publishedGreece and Rome
  1778. 27 BCESepticia married an old man to spite her sons and left them nothing, and Augustus gave them her estateProbate and trust law
  1779. 30 BCEMark Antony gave Cleopatra's children kingdoms in 34 BC, and after 30 BC Octavian killed Caesarion and gave the others to his sister to raiseEgypt and Africa
  1780. 30 BCECleopatra filled her tomb with treasure and torchwood so Octavian could not take it from her, and the tomb has never been foundEgypt and Africa
  1781. 30 BCEPliny says Cleopatra drank one of the two greatest pearls she inherited from eastern kings, and Rome cut the other in half for a statue of VenusHeirlooms and treasure
  1782. 30 BCEHorace's Tiresias tells Ulysses to court rich old men's wills, and Petronius's Eumolpus wills his body to be eaten by his heirsGreece and Rome
  1783. 41 BCECleopatra's sister Arsinoe IV fought Caesar, walked in chains in his triumph and was killed at a temple on Antony's orders, and the skeleton said to be hers was a boy'sEgypt and Africa
  1784. 43 BCERome's triumvirs ordered the 1,400 richest women to value their property for a war tax, and Hortensia's speech cut the list to 400Greece and Rome
  1785. 43 BCEOctavian traded Cicero to Antony for the proscription list, and Antony's wife pierced the dead orator's tongue with her hairpinsGreece and Rome
  1786. 43 BCEClodius burned Cicero's house and built a shrine to Liberty on the site, and Cicero's son was consul the year Antony's statues came downGreece and Rome
  1787. 44 BCEJulius Caesar's will, opened after his murder, made Octavian his son and gave every Roman 300 sestercesGreece and Rome
  1788. 48 BCEPompey's son held the sea, feasted Antony aboard his flagship, called it the only family house Antony had left him, and refused to cut the cablesGreece and Rome
  1789. 49 BCEA Roman husband's funeral inscription says relatives tried to void his wife's father's will after her parents were murdered, and she stopped themGreece and Rome
  1790. 50 BCECato gave his pregnant wife Marcia to the orator Hortensius, and took her back as Hortensius's rich widowGreece and Rome
  1791. 51 BCEPtolemy XII's will named Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII joint heirs under Roman protection, and the heirs went to warEgypt and Africa
  1792. 55 BCEBerenice IV took her father's throne, had one husband strangled within days, and was executed when Rome restored her father for 10,000 talentsEgypt and Africa
  1793. 59 BCELiu He was emperor for 27 days, was removed for 1,127 offences, and his gold-filled tomb was found after tomb robbers dug into itAsian dynasties
  1794. 74 BCENicomedes IV left Bithynia to Rome, Mithridates said the queen had borne him a son, and Mithridates invadedGreece and Rome
  1795. 75 BCEPublius Annius Asellus left everything to his only daughter, and the praetor Verres wrote an edict to take it from herProbate and trust law
  1796. 80 BCESulla sent Ptolemy XI to marry Queen Berenice III, he had her killed within three weeks, the Alexandrians killed him, and Rome produced a will leaving Egypt to RomeEgypt and Africa
  1797. 81 BCESulla's freedman bought a murdered man's estate of 6 million sesterces for 2,000, and the son was charged with killing his fatherWar and property
  1798. 87 BCEEmperor Wu chose his youngest son as heir and had the boy's mother put to death, according to a supplement to the ShijiAsian dynasties
  1799. 91 BCEA Roman soldier came home from war to find that his father, told he was dead, had willed the family estate to othersProbate and trust law
  1800. 93 BCEA Roman wrote his will for a son who was never born, and Rome's two leading lawyers fought over whether the words or the intention ruledProbate and trust law
  1801. 96 BCEPtolemy VIII willed Cyrene to Rome in 155 BC, and his son Ptolemy Apion's will handed it over in 96 BCEgypt and Africa
  1802. 130 BCEPtolemy VIII married his sister Cleopatra II and then her daughter, and when his sister held Alexandria against him he sent her their son's head, hands and feetEgypt and Africa
  1803. 133 BCEKing Attalus III left his kingdom to Rome in his will, and a man claiming to be a royal bastard fought Rome for itRoyalty
  1804. 133 BCETiberius Gracchus tried to enforce a 500-iugera cap on public land, senators clubbed him to death, and his brother's head was filled with lead for a rewardLand and wealth transfer
  1805. 140 BCEAn iron magnate swore his widowed daughter would get not one coin after she eloped, then gave her 100 servants and a million cash when she sold wine in his townOil and natural resources
  1806. 157 BCEEmperor Wen gave his favourite a copper mountain and the right to mint coins; the next emperor took everything, and he died owning nothingMoney and markets
  1807. 175 BCESecond Maccabees says a king's minister came to seize the widows' and orphans' deposits in the Jerusalem Temple; a stele pieced together in 2005 and 2006 names the minister and a royal order on temple fundsScripture and the ancient world
  1808. 176 BCEThe Shiji says a physician with five daughters and no son was sentenced to mutilation, and his youngest daughter's petition ended the punishmentScience and medicine
  1809. 204 BCECourtiers hid Ptolemy IV's death, killed his queen, read out a will naming themselves regents, and the Alexandrian crowd killed them and their familyEgypt and Africa
  1810. 204 BCEFrench soldiers found the Rosetta Stone in 1799, General Menou claimed it as his own, and Britain took it under the 1801 surrenderEgypt and Africa
  1811. 210 BCEThe Shiji says the First Emperor's chancellor and his seal-keeper forged his last letter, and his eldest son killed himself on the forged orderAsian dynasties
  1812. 235 BCESima Qian writes that a merchant bought a hostage prince the throne of Qin, then drank poison when the new king turned on himBusiness dynasties
  1813. 241 BCESpartan king Agis IV gave his estate and 600 talents to a land division, and was strangled with his mother and grandmother before any land was dividedLand and wealth transfer
  1814. 269 BCEArsinoe II married her half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos to protect her sons, he had two of them killed in her arms, and she then married her full brotherEgypt and Africa
  1815. 270 BCEEpicurus willed his Garden to his school for ever, and two centuries later a Roman exile owned the ruins of his house and planned to pull it downGreece and Rome
  1816. 287 BCETheophrastus left the Lyceum garden to ten men in common, Athens briefly banned unlicensed schools on pain of death, and Sulla's army wrecked the siteGreece and Rome
  1817. 318 BCEAthens executed Phocion at about 80, banned his burial in Attica, and Plutarch says his wife buried his bones under her hearthGreece and Rome
  1818. 322 BCEAristotle's heirs hid his library in a trench to keep it from the kings of Pergamum, and Sulla carried it to RomeLasting legacies
  1819. 323 BCEAlexander the Great left his empire "to the strongest", and his general Ptolemy hijacked his bodyGreece and Rome
  1820. 335 BCEAlexander razed Thebes and sold its people into slavery, but spared the house and descendants of the poet PindarGreece and Rome
  1821. 343 BCEThe last native pharaoh fled the Persians and never used his sarcophagus, and the British took it from Alexandria in 1801 as the tomb of AlexanderEgypt and Africa
  1822. 345 BCEA merchant died owing money on a Black Sea wine voyage, and his brother, a pupil of Isocrates, told the Athenian court he was not the heirShips and railways
  1823. 347 BCEPlato's will left two farms and three minae to a boy, the Academy went to his nephew, and the nephew was carried to class paralysed until he took his own lifeGreece and Rome
  1824. 350 BCEClaimants to Hagnias's estate in Athens produced a forged will, lost, and then took the estate by three or four votesProbate and trust law
  1825. 370 BCEThe freed-slave banker Pasion willed his widow and his bank to his own freed slave Phormio; his son Apollodorus sued and was finedGreece and Rome
  1826. 376 BCEDemosthenes's guardians handed back the house, 14 slaves and 30 minae of a 14-talent estate, and he sued them at 20Greece and Rome
  1827. 376 BCEA 96-year-old Athenian moved into his brothel, tried to make a former prostitute's son his heir, and lay dead for two days while his house was emptiedGreece and Rome
  1828. 400 BCEThe Mahabharata says the blind elder brother lost the throne, and his cousin staked the kingdom, his brothers, himself and his wife at diceIndia and South Asia
  1829. 400 BCEThe Mahabharata says Bhishma gave up the Kuru throne and vowed never to marry so his father could wed, and the line ran out of heirsIndia and South Asia
  1830. 400 BCEThe Mahabharata says King Yayati passed over four sons who refused to take his old age, and made the youngest his heirIndia and South Asia
  1831. 401 BCECyrus the Younger's mother argued he was born to a reigning king; his elder brother got the throne, killed him at Cunaxa and cut off his head and handScripture and the ancient world
  1832. 404 BCEAthens's Thirty Tyrants arrested rich foreign residents for their money, took Polemarchus's 700 shields and 120 slaves, and made him drink hemlockWar and property
  1833. 406 BCECicero says Sophocles' son sued to take his estate on the ground that he was senile, and Sophocles read his new play to the courtGreece and Rome
  1834. 413 BCENicias rented 1,000 slaves into Athens's silver mines, Syracuse executed him, the Thirty killed his son, and his nephew went to court to keep the family landOil and natural resources
  1835. 415 BCEAthens condemned Alcibiades, auctioned his property item by item on marble slabs, ordered priests to curse him, then gave the property backJailed and executed
  1836. 456 BCELegend: Aeschylus died at Gela in 456 or 455 BC when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his headLiterature and art
  1837. 459 BCEAthens condemned Themistocles for treason, Persia gave him three cities, and his relatives buried his bones in Attica in secretGreece and Rome
  1838. 474 BCEThe Book of Esther says the king hanged Haman on his own gallows and gave his house to Queen Esther the same dayJailed and executed
  1839. 480 BCEThe Pali canon says eight peoples demanded the Buddha's ashes; one share, found in 1898, was pulled from auction in 2025India and South Asia
  1840. 480 BCEThe Vix grave held the largest metal vessel of the ancient world, buried with a woman, and some scholars questioned whether the body was a woman'sPrehistory
  1841. 486 BCEDarius passed over his eldest son for Xerxes, grandson of Cyrus, on an argument supplied by an exiled Spartan kingIslamic and Persian empires
  1842. 490 BCEPythagoras's daughter Damo would not sell his writings for any price, and Plato is said to have paid 100 minae for Pythagorean booksGreece and Rome
  1843. 508 BCEA Babylonian business house split its father's estate on one clay tablet, and its records stop when Babylon revolted against XerxesBusiness dynasties
  1844. 522 BCECambyses killed his brother Bardiya in secret; a man ruled Persia under the dead brother's name until Darius killed him and took the throneScripture and the ancient world
  1845. 525 BCEA boy king of Sidon cursed anyone who moved his coffin; in 1855 it was dug up, fought over and shipped to the LouvreAsian dynasties
  1846. 530 BCEDNA showed the Celtic prince of Hochdorf was the uncle of the prince of Asperg, through his sister, and power passed down the mother's linePrehistory
  1847. 530 BCEAlexander found Cyrus the Great's tomb robbed and the body thrown out, and tortured its hereditary guards, who named no oneIslamic and Persian empires
  1848. 539 BCEBabylon took the Temple vessels; Daniel says Belshazzar drank from them the night he was killed, and Ezra says Cyrus returned 5,400War and property
  1849. 543 BCEZheng's minister was killed in the sheep market, his rivals died on the days his ghost named, and Zichan gave his son office to stop the hauntingGhosts and legends
  1850. 583 BCEThe Zuo zhuan and the Shiji give two accounts of how Jin destroyed the Zhao clan and gave its lands back to the one surviving boyGhosts and legends
  1851. 587 BCEHerodotus says Periander killed his wife, lost his heir over it, and stripped the women of Corinth to get her ghost to say where a deposit wasGhosts and legends
  1852. 594 BCEPlutarch says Solon's friends borrowed to buy estates before his debt cancellation, and Solon cleared his name by writing off five talents owed to himLand and wealth transfer
  1853. 660 BCEThe Kojiki says the Sun Goddess sent her grandson to rule Japan with a mirror, a jewel and a sword, and the law still passes them with the throneJapan and Southeast Asia
  1854. 681 BCESennacherib named his younger son Esarhaddon heir; his elder sons killed him, and Esarhaddon then bound the empire by oath to his own chosen heirScripture and the ancient world
  1855. 687 BCEThe Bible says King Hezekiah showed Babylon's envoys his treasury, and Isaiah told him his heirs would lose it; Babylonian tablets record rations for a captive king of JudahScripture and the ancient world
  1856. 690 BCEThe Han Feizi says two kings cut off Bian He's feet for calling a stone jade, and the Shiji says Qin later offered 15 cities for the discOil and natural resources
  1857. 750 BCEGeoffrey of Monmouth says King Leir split Britain between two flattering daughters, who took all of it and cut his household from 60 knights to oneGhosts and legends
  1858. 750 BCEThe Ramayana says a queen used two old promises to disinherit the heir, and his brother ruled for 14 years in the name of his sandalsIndia and South Asia
  1859. 750 BCEGenesis says Jacob bought Esau's birthright for a bowl of stew and took his blind father's blessing in disguiseScripture and the ancient world
  1860. 750 BCEGenesis says Abraham paid 400 shekels for a family tomb at Hebron; the Talmud says Esau blocked Jacob's burial there and was killed at the caveScripture and the ancient world
  1861. 750 BCEGenesis says the dying Jacob took the firstborn's double share from Reuben and gave it to Joseph's sons, putting the younger firstScripture and the ancient world
  1862. 753 BCELivy says Amulius broke his father's will, took the throne of Alba Longa, and made his niece a Vestal virgin so his brother would have no heirsGreece and Rome
  1863. 814 BCEKing Pygmalion of Tyre killed his sister's husband for his buried gold, and she sailed away with it after dumping sacks of sand into the seaScripture and the ancient world
  1864. 860 BCEKings says Naboth refused to sell King Ahab "the inheritance of my fathers," and Queen Jezebel had him and his sons killed for itScripture and the ancient world
  1865. 950 BCEThe Kebra Nagast says Menelik I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, took the Ark to Aksum and that only his male line may rule EthiopiaEgypt and Africa
  1866. 970 BCEKings says Solomon's mother and the prophet Nathan had the dying David name Solomon over his elder brother Adonijah, who was later executedScripture and the ancient world
  1867. 1000 BCEThe Abd el-Rassul brothers sold royal mummies from a hidden tomb for a decade, until the eldest confessed in 1881Egypt and Africa
  1868. 1090 BCEThe Adoption Papyrus says an Egyptian stable master adopted his wife as his daughter to keep his estate from his siblings, and the widow freed and adopted their slave's childrenEgypt and Africa
  1869. 1100 BCEJudges says Gilead's sons drove their half-brother Jephthah out of the inheritance, then made him their chief, and his vow cost him his only daughterScripture and the ancient world
  1870. 1100 BCEThe tribe of Dan lost the coastal land the lot gave it, stole a household's gods and priest, and burned the town of Laish to take a new inheritanceScripture and the ancient world
  1871. 1110 BCEEight thieves confessed to stripping the gold from the mummies of king Sobekemsaf and queen Nubkhas, and an inquiry under Ramesses IX recorded itEgypt and Africa
  1872. 1144 BCENaunakhte of Deir el-Medina cut the children who did not support her out of her willEgypt and Africa
  1873. 1147 BCEAn Egyptian papyrus says the gods argued for 80 years over whether the dead king Osiris's throne went to his son Horus or his brother SethGhosts and legends
  1874. 1157 BCEQueen Tiye plotted to put her son Pentawere on the throne of Ramesses III, and a 2012 CT scan found the king's throat had been cutEgypt and Africa
  1875. 1180 BCEThe Odyssey says 108 suitors ate through Odysseus's estate while he was away, and planned to kill his son and divide his propertyGreece and Rome
  1876. 1192 BCEChancellor Bay put a boy king on the throne and was given a tomb among the kings, and a potsherd records that the king had him killedEgypt and Africa
  1877. 1200 BCEJoseph made Israel swear to carry his bones out of Egypt; Exodus says Moses took them, and his reputed tomb in Nablus was smashed in 2022Scripture and the ancient world
  1878. 1200 BCEFu Hao led the Shang king's armies, the oracle said her childbirth was "not good" because she had a girl, and hers is the only Shang royal tomb found intactPrehistory
  1879. 1213 BCERamesses II outlived his first three crown princes, his thirteenth son succeeded him, and his sons' tomb KV5 has more than 130 roomsEgypt and Africa
  1880. 1250 BCEThe plays say Oedipus's sons agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years, then killed each other, and the new king forbade burial of one of themGreece and Rome
  1881. 1250 BCEA king of Ugarit divorced his Hittite-born queen, made their son choose between his mother and the throne, then had her killedAsian dynasties
  1882. 1250 BCETheseus forgot to change his black sail, his father Aegeus threw himself down from the Acropolis, and Theseus became king of AthensGreece and Rome
  1883. 1261 BCEMes sued to recover land granted to his ancestor Neshi under Ahmose I, after a court ruled against his mother on a false registerEgypt and Africa
  1884. 1279 BCESeti I's empty sarcophagus was sold to the architect John Soane in 1824, and Soane obtained an Act of Parliament so his son could not inherit itEgypt and Africa
  1885. 1291 BCEA mummy sold in Luxor around 1860 spent over a century in a Niagara Falls curiosity museum before it was identified as Ramesses I and sent homeEgypt and Africa
  1886. 1319 BCEAy had himself painted burying Tutankhamun and took the throne, and Horemheb then erased Ay and dated his own reign from Amenhotep IIIEgypt and Africa
  1887. 1323 BCEDNA tests in 2010 found that Tutankhamun's parents were brother and sister, and that the two stillborn girls buried in his tomb were his daughtersEgypt and Africa
  1888. 1323 BCEHoward Carter's team cut Tutankhamun's body apart to free it from his coffin in 1925, and Carter's published account left it outEgypt and Africa
  1889. 1327 BCEThe Deeds of Suppiluliuma say a widowed Egyptian queen asked the Hittite king for a son to marry, and the prince Zannanza died on the wayEgypt and Africa
  1890. 1336 BCEA king's coffin in tomb KV55 had its gold face hacked off and its names cut out, and the gold from its base turned up in a Munich museumEgypt and Africa
  1891. 1340 BCEThe Nefertiti bust left Egypt in 1913 listed as a plaster princess, and Berlin has kept it through a century of Egyptian demandsEgypt and Africa
  1892. 1353 BCEAmenhotep III promised the king of Mittani solid-gold statues for his daughter, and after Amenhotep died his son sent gold-plated woodEgypt and Africa
  1893. 1370 BCEThe Egtved girl was buried at 16 to 18 with a child's cremated bones, and scientists still disagree on whether she came from Germany or from EgtvedPrehistory
  1894. 1400 BCEGenesis says Rachel stole her father's household gods as Jacob fled, and Jacob unknowingly swore death on the thiefScripture and the ancient world
  1895. 1400 BCEThe Book of Joshua says Achan hid silver and gold from Jericho in his tent, and Israel stoned him in the Valley of Achor with his sons and daughters presentScripture and the ancient world
  1896. 1450 BCENuzi law kept land inside the family, so the landowner Tehip-tilla had himself adopted by seller after sellerScripture and the ancient world
  1897. 1458 BCEHatshepsut took the throne from her stepson Thutmose III, who had her statues smashed and her images erased two decades after her deathEgypt and Africa
  1898. 1500 BCEAfter four reigns of Hittite princes killing each other, King Telipinu wrote the order of succession into law and spared the men who had plotted against himScripture and the ancient world
  1899. 1550 BCEDNA showed a woman in Mycenae's royal Grave Circle B was buried beside her brother, by right of birth, not as a wifePrehistory
  1900. 1555 BCEKing Seqenenre Tao died with his hands tied and his skull broken by Hyksos weapons, and his sons finished his warEgypt and Africa
  1901. 1600 BCETreasure hunters sold the Nebra sky disc for 32,000 marks, and the museum director who posed as a buyer had the dealers arrested in a Basel hotelPrehistory
  1902. 1650 BCEA woman in a silver diadem was buried under the council hall of La Almoloya, and most of the grave's wealth was hers, not the man's buried with herPrehistory
  1903. 1750 BCEGenesis says Sarah demanded that Hagar's son "shall not be heir with my son," and Abraham sent mother and child into the desertScripture and the ancient world
  1904. 1750 BCEGenesis says the Philistines filled Abraham's wells with earth after he died, and Isaac dug them out and gave them back his father's namesScripture and the ancient world
  1905. 1800 BCEAround 1800 BC an Egyptian priest left everything to his wife and named a guardian for his son, in one of the oldest wills knownLasting legacies
  1906. 1800 BCEAt Mokrin a rich mother's teenage son was buried with nothing, and a poor mother's son was buried with an axePrehistory
  1907. 1962 BCEAmenemhat I was attacked by his own guards after supper, and his son raced back from a war in Libya to take the throneEgypt and Africa
  1908. 2000 BCEBronze Age farmsteads in Germany's Lech valley kept a rich core family and poor unrelated dependants side by side for 700 yearsPrehistory
  1909. 2180 BCEHerodotus says Queen Nitocris drowned the men who killed her brother the king at a banquet, and a modern scholar argues she never existedEgypt and Africa
  1910. 2300 BCEA man from the Alps was buried near Stonehenge with Britain's oldest gold; the younger man beside him shared a rare foot bone, but DNA rules out father and sonPrehistory
  1911. 2550 BCEQueen Puabi of Ur was buried in gold, and the attendants Woolley said drank poison were killed with blows to the headPrehistory
  1912. 2580 BCEThe hidden tomb of Khufu's mother Hetepheres held her organs in a sealed chest, but her sealed sarcophagus was empty when it was opened in 1927Egypt and Africa
  1913. 2600 BCEAt Eulau a mother, father and two sons killed in a raid were buried facing each other, the oldest family proven by DNAPrehistory
  1914. 2776 BCEFifteen members of one family were killed with blows to the head at Koszyce, and the fathers who were missing from the grave appear to have buried themPrehistory
  1915. 2950 BCEMerneith ruled for her young son Den, was buried at Abydos in a king's tomb ringed by servants' graves, and later king lists left her outEgypt and Africa
  1916. 3000 BCEThe man buried in the inner chamber of Newgrange was the son of a brother and sister or a parent and childPrehistory
  1917. 3300 BCETwo hikers found Ötzi in 1991, a survey put him 92 metres inside Italy, and the finders fought South Tyrol in court until 2010 over the rewardPrehistory
  1918. 3700 BCEAncient DNA from a Cotswold tomb shows five generations of one man's family, buried by father's line, with his sons by four women in separate halvesPrehistory
  1919. 4340 BCEAt Varna on the Black Sea, one old man was buried with a third of all the gold in a 6,000-year-old cemetery, and the richest graves held no bodiesPrehistory
  1920. 4500 BCEOne founding father's bones were carried to Gurgy and reburied, and his descendants over seven generations lie around him, with almost no adult daughtersPrehistory
  1921. 5950 BCEÇatalhöyük buried its dead under the house floor along the mother's line, and baby girls got five times the grave gifts of boysPrehistory
  1922. 6800 BCEThe infant buried with the shaman of Bad Dürrenberg was not her son but a descendant four or five generations down, added to her grave decades laterPrehistory
  1923. 7000 BCEScientists and five tribes fought for 20 years over a skeleton about 9,000 years old, a court gave it to the scientists, and Congress gave it to the tribesNative nations and islands
  1924. 8600 BCENevada held Spirit Cave Man for decades against his tribe, a judge called it arbitrary, and the tribe agreed to DNA to prove he was theirsNative nations and islands
  1925. 10700 BCEConstruction workers found the Clovis child on the Anzick family ranch in 1968, the family's geneticist sequenced him, and six tribes reburied him in 2014Prehistory
  1926. 16700 BCEThe Red Lady of El Mirón was buried behind an engraved rock, then her skull and long bones were taken away and the rest re-painted redPrehistory
  1927. 32000 BCETwo disabled boys at Sungir were buried head to head with 10,000 ivory beads, and DNA showed they were not brothersPrehistory
  1928. 40000 BCEMungo Man and Mungo Lady, Australia's oldest known people, came home after decades in Canberra, and their reburial split the three nations who own themPrehistory
  1929. Hermès heir Nicolas Puech planned to adopt his gardener, then said his $15 billion in shares was gone2015 to 2026
  1930. Five daughters of Zelophehad asked Moses for their dead father's land, and the ruling made daughters heirs when there are no sonsJewish law and estates