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44 BCE
Julius Caesar
After the assassination of the emperor of Rome, Julius Caesar, an autopsy was performed on him and it was found that out of the 23 wounds caused upon him, only 1 was fatal. -
400
Determination of the Cause of Death
Germanic and Slavic societies made it a law that medical experts are the one to determine the cause of death. -
Jan 11, 1248
First Forensic Science Book
The first forensic science book was published by the Chinese and was the first record of medical knowledge being used to solve criminal cases. -
Physical Evidence Used in Criminal Case
The first recorded instance when a physical evidence lead to a murder case. It was in England with John Toms where the evidence was a torn edge of newspaper in a pistol that matched newspaper in his pocket. -
Period: to
First Uses of Photos in Identification
Sand Francisco was the first city in the U.S. to use photography for criminal identification. -
Fingerprint ID Used in Crime
An Argentinean police officer, Juan Vucetich, is the first to use fingerprints in as evidence in a murder investigation. His system of fingerprint identification is called dactyloscopy. -
Forensics Schooling
First school of forensic science founded by Rodolphe Archibald Reiss, in Switzerland. -
Crime Labs Built
First police crime lab established in Los Angeles. -
Lie Detection
John Larson invented a prototype polygraph in use for police stations. -
4 Second Dental Match
A dental matching x-ray system was developed by Japanese researchers that can automatically match dental x-rays in a database in 4 seconds with it being positive.