-
Archaeologists have found fingerprints pressed into the clay tablet contracts of Babylonians.
-
Dr. Nehemiah wrote a paper describing the patterns he saw on human hands under the microscope, including the presence of ridges.
-
Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer followed Dr. Nehemiah's work by stating that "the arrangements of skin ridges is never duplicated in two persons."
-
Sir Francis Galton verified that fingerprints do not change with age.
-
Jan Evangelist Purkyn described nine distinct fingerprint patterns, including loops, spirals, circles, and double whorls.
-
Sir William Herschel began collecting fingerprints and found that patterns were unique to each person and could not be altered by age.
-
Alphonse Bertillon, an assistant clerk in the records office at the police station in Paris, created a system called Bertillonage, to identify criminals.
-
Bertillonage was used for the first time to identify a repeating offender.
-
Galton and Sir E. R. Henry developed the classification system for fingerprints that is still in use today in the US and Europe.
-
Bertillon was credited with solving the first murder using fingerprints.
