Major Developments in Forensic Science History By Murtiza Jan 1, 700 Chinese used fingerprints to establish identity of documents and clay sculptures Jan 1, 1000 Roman courts determined that bloody palm prints were used to frame a man in his brother’s murder Jan 1, 1149 King Richard of England introduced the idea of the coroner to investigate questionable death http://www.slidefinder.net/c/chapter_one_introduction_forensics_science/20521788 Jan 1, 1200 A murder in China is solved when flies were attracted to invisible blood residue on a sword of a man in the community Jan 1, 1598 Fidelus was first to practice forensic medicine in Italy Jan 1, 1670 Anton Van Leeuwenhoek constructed the first high-powered microscope http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonie_van_Leeuwenhoek Jan 1, 1748 John Toms convicted of murder on basis of torn edge of wad of paper in pistol matching a piece of paper in his pocket Jan 1, 1776 Paul Revere identified the body of General Joseph Warren based on the false teeth he had made for him http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/facts-on-paul-revere.html Jan 1, 1859 Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen developed the science of spectroscopy. Jan 1, 1864 Crime scene photography developed Jan 1, 1879 Alphonse Bertillon developed a system to identify people using particular body measurements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Bertillon Jan 1, 1896 Edward Henry developed first classification system for fingerprint identification Jan 1, 1900 Karl Landsteiner identified human blood groups Jan 1, 1904 Edmond Locard formulated his famous principle, “Every contact leaves a trace.” Jan 1, 1922 Francis Aston developed the mass spectrometer. Jan 1, 1959 James Watson and Francis Crick discover the DNA double helix Jan 1, 1977 AFIS developed by FBI, fully automated in 1996 Jan 1, 1984 Jeffreys developed and used first DNA tests to be applied to a criminal case http://www.newenglandinnocence.org/knowledge-center/resources/dna/
