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No Fingerprints Are The Same
William Herschel, a magistrate in India, began to use fingerprinting as a way to make natives "sign" a contract. After several contracts, he noticed that no two fingerprints were the same and that fingerprints could be used for identification purposes -
Henry Faulds
Dr. Henry Faulds, of Tokyo Japan, used fingerprints to identify who had left a bottle lying around. He matched fingerprints left on the bottle with a laboratory worker. After this discovery, he became very invested in fingerprinting and he is now one of the very well-known forensic scientists today. -
Eduardo Alvarez
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Inspector Eduardo Alvarez made the first forensics fingerprint identification. With the help of fingerprinting, he was able to identify Francisca Rojas, who was a woman that murdered her two sons and killed herself in an attempt to place blame on another. -
Fingerprint Classifying System
Sir Edward Richard Henry, an Inspector General of Police in Bengal, India, developed the first system of classifying
fingerprints.This system of classifying fingerprints was first adopted as the official system in England, and eventually spread throughout the world. -
Fingerprints in Paris
Paris police began keeping fingerprints of criminals on file. After a murder was committed, the police found a fingerprint at the scene and were able to put it against their files and identify the killer -
Military and Police Begin to Use Fingerprinting
The U.S. Military adopted the use of fingerprints and soon after, police agencies began to adopt the use of
fingerprints. -
First Conviction Based on Fingerprints
Thomas Jennings was the first person to be convicted of murder in the United States based on fingerprint evidence. He appealed his conviction to the Illinois Supreme Court on the basis of a questionable new scientific technique. The Illinois Supreme Court cited the historical research and use of fingerprints as a means of reliable identification in upholding the conviction, and he was later executed. -
Palm Prints Identified
First "palm print" identification is made in Nevada. The bloody palm print, found on a letter left at the scene of a stage coach robbery and murder of its driver, was identified to be Ben Kuhl. -
First Fingerprint Database
The first computer database of fingerprints was developed, which is now known as the Automated Fingerprint
Identification System. In the present day, there nearly 70 million cards, or nearly 700 million individual
fingerprints entered in AFIS -
Fingerprint America
Christ Migliaro, the founder of Fingerprint America which is the fingerprinting of children as a means of identifying kids who became lost, or went missing.
