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Jan 1, 700
Ancient Babylonians Use Fingerprints
The Ancient Babylonians use fingerprints for criminal records and business transactions. -
Jan 1, 1248
"His Duan Yu", or "Washing Away of Wrongs", by Song Ci
This Chinese book is the first written recording of the use of medicine to solve crime. It describes how to tell a drowning from a strangulation; and describes the use of insects to detect blood. -
Jan 1, 1302
Bartolomeo da Varignana's Performs First Autopsy
Bartolomeo da Varignana performs the first medico-legal autopsy in Bologna, Italy. -
Jan 1, 1447
Investigation of the Late Duke
The French Duke of Burgundy is killed, and missing teeth are used to identify him. -
The Discovery of Adipocere
Sir Thomas Browne discovers adipocere, a wax-like substance that is formed by the body fats of corpses. -
The Trial & Conviction of John Toms
In Lancaster, England; John Toms was tried and convicted for the murder of Edward Culshaw. The pistol wad was found in Culshaw's headwound, and matched a torn newspaper found in John Tom's pocket, thus marking the first known instance of matching evidence. -
Eugène François Vidocq forms the Sûreté Nationale
After being recruited as an informant for the French police, Vidocq establishes the Sûreté Nationale, the first civilian police and later, the first detective force. -
Mathiew Orfila founded modern Toxicology
Spanish-born French chemist Mathieu Orfila publishes the Treatise of General Toxicology. He later performs the first Marsh test in the 1840 LaFarge poisoning case. -
Jan Evangelista Purkyně Publishes a Thesis on Fingerprints
Jan Evangelista Purkyně publishes a thesis describing 9 configuration groups of fingerprints. However he does not recognize their individualizing potential and continues on to more advanced discoveries in physiology and anatomy. -
James Marsh First Uses Toxicology in a Jury Trial
Scottish chemist James Marsh is called in to a murder trial, and performs a standard test. However when he presented it in court the resulting arsenic had dissolved and the suspect was aqquitted due to reasonable doubt. He develops a much better test, which he publishes in The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal in 1836. -
Jean Stas Identifies Vegetable Poisons
Jean Servais Stas, a chemist, first successfully identifies vegetable poisons in body tissue; after giving evidence in the Belgian Court that Count Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé had poisoned his brother using nicotine extracted from tobacco leaves. -
Schönbein creates the first Test for Blood
The German scientist Christian Friedrich Schönbein first discovered the ability of hemoglobin to oxidize hydrogen peroxide, which causes it to foam. This is the first presumptive test for blood. -
Virchow Studies Hair
The first reported use of forensic hair-comparison is by pathologist Rudolph Virchow, who recognized its uses and limitations. -
Hans Gross publishes Criminal Investigation
Criminal Jurist and examining Magistrate Hans Gross publishes the Handbook for Coroners, Police Officials, Military Policemen, thus marking the birth of the criminalistics field. -
Karl Landsteiner Identifies Different Blood Groups
Karl Landsteinder indentifies the blood groups A, B, and O; and this is later adapted for blood stains by Austrian forensic scientist Max Richter. -
The FBI is Established
President Theodore Roosevelt establishes the Federal Bureau of Investigation. -
Max Frei-Sulzer Develops the use of Tape to Collect Trace Evidence
Max Frei-Sulzer develops a method of using tape to pick up trace evidence. -
Kirk Publishes Crime Investigation: Physical Evidence and the Police Laboratory Interscience
Paul Kirk publishes Crime Investigation, one of the first comprehensive criminalists and crime investigation books. -
Culliford publishes The Examination and Typing of Bloodstains in the Crime Laboratory
After his 1966 succes in developing the immunoelectrophoretic technique for haptoglobin typing in bloodstains with colleague Brian Wraxall; Brian J. Culliford of the Britsh Metropolitan Police Laboratory continued to work with bloodstains, and publishes this collection of his progress 5 years later. -
First Use Of DNA in Solving A Crime
Sir Alec Jeffreys used DNA profiling, which he developed in 1984, to identify Colin Pitchfork as the murderer of two young girls. In the process he also exonerated an innocent suspect. -
First Use of DNA Profiling in the US Criminal Court
Based on an RFLP analysis by Lifecodes, Tommy Lee Andrews was convicted of a series of sexual assault in Florida.
In the same year takes place New York vs. Castro, in which the admissibility of DNA was seriously challenged. This prompted a series of certification, accreditation, and standardization in the forensic and DNA community. -
Drugfire is Established
The FBI contracted with Mnemonic Systems to create Drugfire, an automated imaging system made to compare marks on shell casings and cartidge casings. During this year, Thomas Caskey of Baylor University of Texas publishes the first paper suggesting short tandem repeats for forenic science. -
The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence is published, Ware Sentenced
Because of public concern of the statistical interpretation of forensic DNA evidence; the National Research Council Committee on Forensic DNA formed a second incarnation (NRC II) published The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence. Also in this year the FBI introduced the AFIS fingerprint database. meanwhile in Tennessee, mitochondrial DNA typing was used for the first time in an American court. -
NIDIS is Established
The FBI establishes a new DNA database, which enabled interstate cooperation in solving crimes. -
IAFIS and the Memorandum of Understanding
The FBI upgraded its computerized fingerprint database and added the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System. The FBI then signs the Memorandum of Understanding with the ATF, that allowed NIBIN to facilitate the the exchange of firearms data between Drugfire and IBIS.
