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1200 BCE
Prehistoric
Ancient artifacts were found with similar friction to ridge skin. -
200 BCE
China
There were Chinese records that had details about using handprints for burglary investigations. -
1400
Persia
There was a book made called "Jaamehol-Tawarikh" which includes comments about the practice of identifying people from their fingerprints. -
1600s
In the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London" paper, Dr. Nehemiah Grew was the first European to publish friction ridge skin observations. -
Bidloo
Dutch anatomist Govard Bidloo's book, "Anatomy of the Human Body" had descriptions of friction ridge skin details. -
Mayer
German anatomist Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer wrote the book "Anatomical Copper-plates with Appropriate Explanations" containing drawings of friction ridge skin patterns and he was also the first person to state that friction ridge skin is unique. -
Purkinje
He published a thesis discussing 9 different fingerprint patterns. -
Welcker
He studied friction ridge skin permanence by printing his own right hand. -
Herschel
On a whim, and without thought toward personal identification, Herschel had Rajyadhar Konai impress his hand print on a contract. -
Coulier
There were observations made that fingerprints can be developed on paper by iodine fuming and Coulier explained how fingerprints could be preserved. -
Taylor
Taylor proposed that finger and palm prints left on any object might be used to solve crimes. -
Faulds
Fingerprints were recognized as a method of classification. Faulds is credited with the first latent print identification. -
Thompson
Thompson used his own thumb print on a document to prevent forgery. This was the first use of fingerprints in the US. -
Bertillon
Bertillon developed a new system of classification called anthropometry. -
Mark Twain
In one of his books a murderer was identified using fingerprints. -
Galton
Galton began his observations of fingerprints as a means of identification in the 1880's. -
Vucetich
Vucetich began his first fingerprint files based on Galton pattern types. -
Alvarez & Galton
A woman who murdered her two sons and slit her own throat was identified from her bloody print left on a door post. -
Hodgson
Hodgson gave a lecture about fingerprints at the Sydney School of Arts and used a special diagram in the lecture. -
India's Fingerprint Pioneers
The Council of the Governor General of India approved a committee report that fingerprints should be used for the classification of criminal records. -
E.R. Henry
Henry wrote a book called "The Classification and Use of Fingerprints." -
1901
Fingerprints are starting to be used by the Scottish police. -
1902
Dr. Henry Pelouze de Forest pioneered the first American use of fingerprints. -
1903
Prisons in New York and Kansas started using fingerprints. -
1904
The use of fingerprints in America began at the St. Louis Police Department. -
1905
US Army starts using fingerprints. -
1907
US Navy starts using fingerprints. -
1908
U.S. Marine Corps begins using fingerprints. -
1910
First American textbook on fingerprints was written. -
1914
The idea of INTERPOL was born. -
Edmond Locard
Locard wrote that if twelve different points were the same between two fingerprints, it would be a positive identification. -
1923
US Department of Justice Fingerprint Repository Returns to Washington, DC. -
1924
FBI's Identification Division is formed. -
1940s
The FBI processed over 100 million fingerprint cards in files maintained manually. -
1960's
The FBI's Latent Print Unit completed 9,668 latent print cases from local, state and federal American law enforcement. -
1973
The International Association for Identification Standardization Committee stated that every fingerprint is unique and can't be the same as another. -
1974
The Fingerprint Society was founded. -
1977
The world's first certification program for fingerprint experts was established. -
1995
The Neurim Declaration was issued. -
2012
INTERPOL's Automated Fingerprint Identification System repository exceeds 150,000 sets of fingerprints. -
2015
The International Association for Identification celebrated it's 100th Anniversary. -
America's Largest Database
The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Biometric Identity Management contains over 120 million persons' fingerprints. -
World's Largest Database
The Unique Identification Authority of India is the world's largest fingerprint system using fingerprint, face and iris biometric records.
