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300
First Forensics
Fingerprints are used on clay tablets for business transactions in ancient Babylon. -
600
Measuring Volume of Strange Objects
Archimedes talks about being able to prove the crown was not made of gold using density and buoyancy. -
1235
Learning to Find Murder Weapons
A murder was committed using a sickle. All those in the village who owned a sickle were made to bring them out and lay them in the sun. Eventually flies gathered on one particular sickle, identifying it as the murder weapon. -
1248
Medicine in Murder
The Chinese book His Duan Yu describes how to distinguish drowning from strangulation. The first recorded application of medicine to help solve crimes. -
1302
First Medical Autopsy
Bartolomeo da Varignana performed one of the first medicolegal autopsies in the case of a suspected murder of a nobleman. -
1447
Using Teeth
The missing teeth of the French Duke of Burgundy are used to identify remains. -
First Microscope
The first microscope is developed. -
First Lie Detector
Erasistratus, an ancient Greek physician, discovers that his patients' pulse rates increase when they are telling lies. Allegedly the first lie detection test. -
Using Physical Matching
John Toms of Lancaster, England is convicted of murder on the basis of a torn wad of paper found in a pistol matching a remaining piece in his pocket. One of the first documented uses of physical matching. -
Bullet Comparison
Henry Goddard of Scotland Yard first uses bullet comparison to catch a murderer. The comparison was based in a visible flaw in the bullet, traced back to a mold. -
Detecting Sperm
H. Baynard publishes the first reliable procedures for the microscopic detection of sperm. -
Using Body Temperature to Determine Time of Death
Taylor and Wilkes write a paper on the determination of time since death from fall in body temperature, introducing many current concepts. -
Photographing Evidence
The first advocation of the use of photography for the identification of criminals and the documentation of evidence and crime scenes. -
Using Fingerprints to determine Crime
Henry Faulds of Scotland publishes a paper suggesting fingerprints at the scene of a crime could identify the offender. Faulds uses fingerprints to eliminate an innocent suspect and indicate a perpetrator in a Tokyo burglary. -
Finger Printing Criminals
The NY States Prison system begins the first systematic use of fingerprints in the US for criminal identification. -
Telling Weapons Apart
Charles E. Waite is the first to catalog manufacturing data about weapons. -
Portable Polygraph
John Larson and Leonard Keeler design the portable polygraph. -
FBI Crime Lab
The FBI crime laboratory is created. -
Using Dental Records
Dental records are compared with teeth from corpses. -
Tape lifting Evidence
Max Frei-Sulzer develops the tape lift method of collecting trace evidence. -
Breathalyzer Test
RF Borkenstein invents the Breathalyzer for field sobriety testing. -
Body Cooling After Death Discoveries
De Saram publishes measurements of temperature I cases obtained from executed prisoners. The papers are considered landmarks in the determination of time since death from body cooling. -
Testing for Firearm Discharge
Harrison and Gilroy introduce a qualitative colorimetric chemical test to detect the presence of barium, antimony, and lead on the hands of individuals who fired a firearm. -
Using Forensic Science to Solve crimes
The Federal Rules of Evidence are enacted as a congressional statute, based on the relevancy standard in which scientific evidence that is deemed more prejudicial than probative may not be admitted. -
Finger Print Scanning System
The FBI introduces the beginnings of its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) with the first computerized scans of fingerprints. -
Starting DNA Recognition
American geneticists discover a region of DNA that does not hold any genetic information and is extremely variable between individuals. Starting our path on DNA recognition. -
Using DNA to Catch a Criminal
DNA is used for the first time to solve a crime. DNA profiling is used to identify Colin Pitchfork as the murderer of two young girls in the English Midlands. -
DNA Profiling in Court
DNA profiling is introduced for the first time in a US criminal court. -
Shell Casings as Evidence
The FBI helps develop Drugfire, an automated imaging system to compare marks left on cartridge cases and shell casings. -
FBI Uses DNA
An FBI DNA database, NIDIS, is put into practice. -
Footwear Detection Intelligence
The Forensic Science Service launches the UK's first online footwear coding and detection management system, Footwear Intelligence Technology.
