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Julius Caesar was assassinated. A physician performed an autopsy and determined that of the 23 wounds, only one was fatal. -
Fingerprints were first used to figure out identity. Arabic merchants would take a debtors fingerprint and attach it to the bill. -
The first forensic science manual published by the Chinese. This manual was the first known record of medical knowledge being applied to forensic science. -
The first pathology report was published. -
First recorded instance of physical evidence leading to a murder conviction. The evidence was a torn piece of newspaper in a pistol that matched the newspaper in his pocket. -
James Marsh uses chemical processes to determine arsenic as cause of death. The Marsh Test, as it was known, was the first use of toxicology in a jury trial. -
San Francisco uses photography for criminal identification. (Now called a mugshot). -
Henry Frauds and William James Herschel publish paper describing the uniqueness of fingerprints, their findings were then adapted to court. Francis Galton created the classification of fingerprints. -
The coroners act was created. This enacted the policy that coroners were to determine causes of unnatural deaths. -
Anthropometry, a system using various types of measurements of physical feature and bones, could reduce criminal information to a set of numbers was created. -
Juan Vucetich is the first to use fingerprints as evidence in a murder investigation. He invented a method of fingerprint identification known as dactyloscopy. -
Human blood grouping is adapted for use on bloodstains by Dieter Dax Richter. -
The first school of forensic science was founded in Switzerland. It was founded by Rodolphe Archibald. -
Victor Balthazard published a study on hair. Evidence including hair was used in court shortly after, leading to a confession of murder in one case. -
Victor Balthazard figured out that gun barrels leave unique individual markings on each bullet fired. He developed methods to match bullets to guns. -
A prototype polygraph was invented by John Larson. Although it was not 100% accurate, this did still help in identifying guilty criminals. -
Officer Rex Welsh established one of the first modern crime laboratories in the united states. -
The Frye Standard was established in the Frye v. United States case. It states that expert testimony based on scientific principles or procedures is admissible but only after a principle or procedure has gained acceptance in its specified field -
The FBI establishes its own crime lab, now one of the foremost crime labs in the world. -
A sound spectrograph was discovered to be able to record voices. Voice recordings began to be used in investigations and as court evidence. -
FBI establishes the national crime information center, a electronic filing system in which stolen vehicles, wanted criminals, etc were kept. -
Gunshot residue can now link a suspect to a crime scene and show how close and far the suspect was in relation to the gun. -
An auto fingerprint system is now implemented by Canadian police. Fingerprints found at a crime scene can be compared to stored data of fingerprints on a computer. Essentially a database. -
Alec Jeffreys developed DNA fingerprinting – a technique to compare these differences and produce a pattern that's unique to an individual. This revolutionized the way crimes were solved, by making it possible to routinely analyze biological samples. -
Tommy Lee Andrews was convicted of sexual assaults by the use of DNA profiling. Andrews was released in 2021. -
The Innocence Project was founded with the intent to use newly developed methods to exonerate people that were wrongfully convicted -
Developed in the Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. It states that a testimony from an expert witness such as a clinical psychologist is admissible in court if it is reliable and valid, even if it is not generally accepted in the field. -
National Academy of Sciences announces DNA evidence is reliable. DNA can now be universally trusted in forensic science. -
The FBI established fingerprint system that cuts down fingerprint inquiry response from two weeks to two hours. -
Technology speeds up DNA profiling time from 6-8 weeks to between 1-2 days. -
Britain's forensic science service develops an online footwear coding and detection system -
Scientist developed a way to see finger print residues on metal even after being removed or wiped away. -
Michigan State University developed software that automatically matches hand drawn facial sketches to mugshots stored in databases. -
Research team creates dental x ray matching system. This can match to dental x rays in databases. -
The Innocence Project announces partnership with the FBI to review criminal cases that used DNA analysis techniques to determine if the suspect was guilty. -
Members of the commission will work to improve the practice of forensic science by developing guidance of the the intersections between forensic science and the criminal justice system. -
A research paper found that people with extraordinary recognition skills may be suited for a job in nation security. -
Forensic scientists proposed a series of changes to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to allow new technologies to be unleashed on the problem. -
A new technique could link the patchy, limited DNA information held in forensic databases to the rich DNA libraries held by family tree-building websites, raising further questions about genetic privacy. -
Stains at crime scenes can sometimes be hard to identify, but the unique combination of bacteria they contain may help. This will allow forensic scientist to identify with greater accuracy and precision. -
Forensic pathologists rule that George Floyd died from cardiopulmonary arrest. -
A single fingerprint can distinguish whether someone has recently touched cocaine or actually ingested it. This test can be completed in less than 2 minutes, far quicker than blood tests, and could be used for forensic investigations or drug testing. -
Skin cells and their DNA varies between individuals, but new data shows that some groups of people have higher variability in their cell deposits.