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44 BCE
Death of an Emperor
Julius Caesar is assassinated. Physician performed an autopsy, determined that out of the 23 wounds found on the body , only one of them was fatal. -
400
Cause of Death
Germanic and slavic societies made law that medical experts must be the ones to determine cause of death in crimes. -
600
The first Fingerprints
Fingerprints first used to determine identity. Arabic merchants would take a debtor's fingerprint and attach it to the bill. -
1302
First Autopsy
The first legally ordered autopsies were performed from 1302 in Bologna. Da Varignana examined the bodies of people who had died in suspicious circumstances to determine the cause of death. -
Polarized light microscope
William Nichol invented the polarizing light microscope -
Detecting poison
In 1832 chemistry was first used as evidence in a case of arsenic poisoning by sampling the lining of a victims stomach.The new science of toxicology was born and arsenic lost its appeal as the perfect murder weapon -
Photos used for crime scene investigation
San Francisco becomes the first city in the united states to use photos in murder court -
Fingerprints found to be unique
Galton's system identified the following patterns: plain arch, tented arch, simple loop, central pocket loop, double loop, lateral pocket loop, plain whorl, and accidental. -
Blood types
Human ABO blood types were discovered in 1900 and were soon used to determine whether blood present at a crime scene matched a suspect or victim. -
Hair 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. -
Crime experts build lab
FBI establishes its own crime laboratory, now one of the foremost crime labs in the world. This same year , a legal Medicine at Harvard was established. -
Lie Detector
Prototype polygraph, which was invented by John Larson in 1921, developed for use in police stations. -
Footwear detection system
Britains Forensic Science service develops online footwear coding and detection system. This helps police identify footwear marks quickly.