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44 BCE
First Medical Autopsy
The first recorded autopsy occurs when Antistius examines Julius Caesar's body after his assassination, determining which of the 23 stab wounds proved fatal. It was one wound to the chest that ruptured Caesar's aorta. -
300
First Forensics
The establishment of a forensic science curricula in 1902 by Swiss Professor R. A. Reiss at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, was one of the first steps towards establishing forensic science as an academic discipline. -
Jan 1, 750
First Lie Detector
The first polygraph was created in 1921, when a California-based policeman and physiologist John A. Larson devised an apparatus to simultaneously measure continuous changes in blood pressure, heart rate and respiration rate in order to aid in the detection of deception -
Jan 28, 1248
Medicine in Murder
Medicine murder means the killing of a human being in order to excise body parts to use as medicine or for magical purposes in witchcraft. The extent is unknown, and non-fatal organ theft and removal is more widely reported than murder. -
First Microscope invented
In the late 16th century several Dutch lens makers designed devices that magnified objects, but in 1609 Galileo Galilei perfected the first device known as a microscope. Dutch spectacle makers Zaccharias Janssen and Hans Lipperhey are noted as the first men to develop the concept of the compound microscope. -
Using physical matching
In 1784, one of the first documented uses of physical matching saw an Englishman convicted of murder based on the torn edge of a wad of newspaper in a pistol that matched a piece remaining in his pocket. -
Bullet Comparison
The first case of forensic firearm examination to be documented was in 1835. That was when Henry Goddard applied ballistic fingerprinting to link a bullet recovered from the victim to the actual culprit. -
Using body temperature to determine time of death
Alexandre Lacassagne (1843–1924), director of Legal Medicine in Lyon, France, wrote extensively on algor mortis (the temperature of death), rigor mortis (the stiffness of death), and livor mortis (the color of death). Normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. -
Fingerprints used to determine crime
At Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1880, Inspector Eduardo Alvarez made the first criminal fingerprint identification. He was able to identify Francisca Rojas, a woman who murdered her two sons and cut her own throat in an attempt to place blame on another. -
Using dental records
Officers first findings were published in the Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle in 1897, and thus became the first officially recorded use of forensic dentistry. -
Breathalyzer Test
In 1954 Robert F. Borkenstein invented the Breathalyzer. Borkenstein had been hired as a police photographer at the Indiana State Police Lab in 1936, and quickly became interested in drunk driving thanks to the work of Harger and his Drunkometer. -
Fingerprint scanning system
The first such robust system for indexing fingerprints was developed in India by Azizul Haque for Edward Henry, Inspector General of Police, Bengal, India. This system, called the Henry System, and variations on it are still in use for classifying fingerprints. -
Starting DNA recognition
With the introduction of DNA testing in the late 1970s and early 1980s, scientists saw the potential for more powerful tests for identification and determination of biological relationships. -
Fingerprinting criminals
In 1892 Juan Vucetich, an Argentine chief police officer, created the first method of recording the fingerprints of individuals on file.