-
In ancient Babylon, the clay tablets that were used for business transactions required fingerprints.
-
The book Hsi Duan Yu, or The Washing Away of Wrongs, was published and is considered to be the first known guide to pathology. The work describes how to determine whether a victim drowned or was strangled as a cause of death.
-
Varignana performed the first medico-legal autopsy, an autopsy conducted for the purpose of obtaining information regarding a crime.
-
Henry Goddard became the first person to use physical analysis to connect a bullet to the murder weapon.
-
Sir William Herschel was working as the Chief Magistrate of the Hooghly district in Jungipoor, India. In order to reduce fraud, he had the residents record their fingerprints when signing business documents.
-
Robert F. Borkenstein invented the Breathalyzer in order to test a person's sobriety.
-
DNA is used to solve crimes for the first time, the first crime being the murder of Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth.
