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First Event
Sir William Herschel was a British administrator in District in India. He required fingerprint and signatures on civil contracts. -
Second Event
Alphonse Bertillion, a French anthropologist, created a formula. This formula involves taking the measurements of a persons
body parts, and recording these measurements on a card. Became known as the Bertillion System. -
Third Event
Sir Francis Galton, a British Anthropologist publishes the first book on fingerprints. In this book, Galton identifies the individuality and uniqueness of fingerprints.Officially became known as the minutiae, or Galton's details. -
Fourth Event
Sir Edward Henry, an Inspector General of Police in Bengal, India, develops the first system of classifying fingerprints. The system was originally adopted as the official system in England, and eventually spread throughout. -
Fifth Event
U.S. Military adopts the use of fingerprints. Soon after, police agencies began to adopt the use of it as well. -
Sixth Event
The first official fingerprint card was developed. -
Seventh Event
Fingerprints are first accepted by U.S. courts as a reliable means of Identification. -
Eighth Event
First Palm print identification was made in Nevada. The bloody print found on a letter left at the scene of a stage coach robbery and murder of its driver, was identified to Ben Kuhl. -
Ninth Event
Formation of ID Division of FBI. -
Tenth Event
First computer data base of fingerprints was developed, which came to be known as the Automated Fingerprint
Identification System, (AFIS).Today, there nearly 70 million cards, or nearly 700 million individual fingerprints entered in the system.