-
Jan 1, 1248
First Forensic Science Book
First forensic science manual published by the Chinese. This was the first known record of medical knowledge being used to solve criminal cases. -
Physical evidence used in criminal case
First recorded instance of physical matching of evidence leading to a murder conviction (John Toms, England). Evidence was a torn edge of newspaper in a pistol that matched newspaper in his pocket. -
Investigating Poisoning
German chemist Valentin Ross developed a method of detecting arsenic in a victim's stomach, thus advancing the investigation of poison deaths. -
Criminal features reduced to numerical measurements
Anthropometry, a system using various measurements of physical features and bones, used throughout the US and Europe. Using the system, a criminal's information could be reduced to a set of numbers. -
Fingerprint ID Used in Crime
Juan Vucetich, an Argentinean police officer, is the first to use fingerprints as evidence in a murder investigation. He created a system of fingerprint identification, which he termed dactyloscopy. -
Hair now used in forensics
Victor Balthazard and Marcelle Lambert publish first study on hair, including microscopic studies from most animals. First legal case ever involving hair also took place following this study. -
Guns Are Unique
Victor Balthazard realizes that tools used to make gun barrels never leave the same markings, and individual gun barrels leave identifying grooves on each bullet fired through it. He developed several methods of matching bullets to guns via photography. -
Lie Detection
Prototype polygraph, which was invented by John Larson in 1921, developed for use in police stations. -
Voice Recordings Used as Evidence
A sound spectrograph discovered to be able to record voices. Voiceprints began to be used in investigations and as court evidence from recordings of phones, answering machines, or tape recorders. -
First National Crime System
FBI established the National Crime Information Center, a computerized national filing system on wanted people, stolen vehicles, weapons, etc. -
Dental Matching System
Japanese researchers develop a dental x-ray matching system. This system can automatically match dental x-rays in a database, and makes a positive match in less than 4 seconds.