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Feb 29, 1248
Hsi Duan Yu
Hsi Duan Yu ("The Washing Away Of Wrongs"), perhaps the first book on forensics, is published. It offers some advice that is still useful today, including tips on identifying cases of strangulation from damaged neck cartilage. -
John Toms Case
In Lancaster, England, John Toms was convicted of murder on the basis of the torn edge of wad of newspaper in a pistol matching a remaining piece in his pocket. This was one of the first documented uses of physical matching -
Eugene Franois Vidocq
Eugene Franois Vidocq Born July 24, 1775 was a French criminal and criminalist whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac. The former criminal became the founder and first director of the crime-detection Sûreté Nationale as well as the head of the first known private detective agency -
Mathieu Orfila
Mathieu Orfila April 04, 1787 often called the "Father of Toxicology," was the first great 19th-century exponent of forensic medicine. Orfila worked to make chemical analysis a routine part of forensic medicine, and made studies of asphyxiation, the decomposition of bodies, and exhumation. He helped to develop tests for the presence of blood in a forensic context and is credited as one of the first people to use a microscope to assess blood and semen stains. -
John Evangeist Purkinji
John Evangeist Purkinji Born December 17, 1787 At Breslau he created the world's first independent physiology department and first official physiology laboratory. He introduced the term protoplasm, devised new methods for preparing microscope samples and recognized the uniqueness of fingerprints. -
Francis Galton
Francis Galton Born Feburary 16, 1822 Francis Galton was an explorer and anthropologist known for his studies in eugenics and human intelligence. As a child, Galton rejected conventional methods of teaching, and he began studying medicine in his teens -
Henry Faulds
Henry Faulds born June 1, 1843. He went to work in Glasgow as a clerk, and then decided to study medicine. He became a missionary and in 1873 he was sent to Japan where he founded and then became the surgeon superintendent of Tuskiji Hospital in Tokyo. -
Hans Gross
Hans Gross Born December 12, 1847. In 1871 Gross commenced to work as an investigator in Feldbass, Leoben (Upper Styria) and Gratz. In 1878–1879 Hans Gross participated in military operations on the territory of Bosnia. In 1890–1892 Hans Gross worked as an assistant of the prosecutor. -
Edward Richard Henry
Edward Richard Henry born July 26, 1850. a British official stationed in India, began to develop a system of fingerprint identification for Indian criminals. (Henry created 1,024 primary fingerprint classifications.) -
Alphonse Bertillion
Born April 24, 1853. was a French criminologist who first developed this anthropometric system of physical measurements of body parts, especially components of the head and face, to produce a detailed description of an individual. This system, invented in 1879, became known as the Bertillon system, -
Sr Arthur Conan Doyle
Born May 22, 1859. Author Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 mystery stories featuring the wildly popular detective character Sherlock Holmes and his loyal assistant Watson. -
Karl Landsteiner
Karl Landsteiner Born June 14, 1868. was an Austrian biologist and physician.[2] He is noted for having first distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the blood, and having identified, with Alexander S. Wiener, the Rhesus factor, in 1937, thus enabling physicians to transfuse blood without endangering the patient′s life. -
August Vollmer
August Vollmer Born March 7, 1876. as chief of police in Los Angeles, California, implemented the first U.S. police crime laboratory -
Edmond Locard
Born December 13, 1877. Dr. Edmond Locard was a pioneer in forensic science who became known as the "Sherlock Holmes of France". He formulated the basic principle of forensic science: "Every contact leaves a trace". This became known as Locard's exchange principle. -
Calvin Goddard
Calvin Goddard Born October 30, 1891. work on the St. Valentine’s day massacre led to the founding of the Scientific Crime Detection
Laboratory on the campus of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. -
Paul Kirk
Paul Kirk Born May 09, 1902. assumed leadership of the criminology program at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1945, he formalized a major in technical criminology -
Creation of FBI
The FBI originated from a force of special agents created in 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. -
De SARAM
De SARAM Born September 5, 1912 In 1955 De Saram publishes measurements of temperature I cases obtained from executed prisoners. The papers are considered landmarks in determination of time since death from body cooling. -
Leone Lattes
Italian Scientist
• 1915 devised a procedure by which dried
bloodstains could be grouped as A, B, AB
or O
• His procedure is still used today by some
forensic scientists -
Frye vs. United States
is a test to determine the admissibility of scientific evidence. It provides that expert opinion based on a scientific technique is admissible only where the technique is generally accepted as reliable in the relevant scientific community. -
R.F Borkenstein
The Breathalyzer became one of the most successful and widely-used breath alcohol testing instruments used by the police throughout the world. Over 30,000 units were sold between 1955 and 1999, a record in longevity that will almost certainly not be repeated -
Saburo Sirai
a Japanese scientist, is credited with the first recognition of secretion of group-specific antigens into
body fluids other than blood. -
Daubert vs. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals
s a United States Supreme Court case determining the standard for admitting expert testimony in federal courts. The Daubert Court held that the enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence implicitly overturned the Frye standard; the standard that the Court articulated is referred to as the Daubert standard. -
Dr. Bill BAss Body Farm
Born August 30, 1938 is an American forensic anthropologist, best known for his research on human osteology and human decomposition. He has also assisted federal, local, and non-U.S. authorities in the identification of human remains. -
FBI Crime Lab Established
The crime lab that is now referred to as the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory officially opens in Washington, D.C., on this day in 1932. The lab, which was chosen because it had the necessary sink, operated out of a single room and had only one full-time employee, Agent Charles Appel. Agent Appel began with a borrowed microscope and a pseudo-scientific device called a helixometer. -
Walter Specht
at the University Institute for Legal Medicine and Scientific Criminalistics in Jena, Germany,
developed the chemiluminescent reagent luminol as a presumptive test for blood. -
Murray Hill
Murray Hill initiates the study voiceprint identification. -
Albert S. Osborn
Osborn is known for founding the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners (ASQDE) on September 2, 1942. In 1913 Osborn began inviting select practitioners to informal educational gatherings hosted in his home and those meetings eventually led to formation of the ASQDE. He became the society's first president and was involved intimately with the discipline and Society until his death four years later. -
Coppolina vs. State
The defendant, Carl Coppolino, was tried upon an indictment charging him with the first degree murder of his wife Carmela. The jury found defendant guilty of murder in the second degree and pursuant to this verdict judgment and sentence were entered. From this judgment and sentence defendant appeals. -
Rule 702 Of The Federal Rules Of Evidence
Rule 702
defines experts not only by qualifications but also by the nature
of admissible testimony, which must satisfy standards of reliability -
Los Angeles Forensic Crime Lab Creation
creation of LA crime lab and start of forensic science -
Colin Pitchfork Case
the first person in the UK to be convicted of murder based on DNA profiling evidence. -
AFIS
Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) -
IBIS
Integrated Ballistics Identification System -
Kumho Tire co. vs. Carmichael
is a United States Supreme Court case that applied the Daubert standard to expert testimony from non-scientists. -
IAFIS
The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System