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44 BCE
Death of Julius Caesar
After Julius is assinated a physician preforms an autopsy and finds only one of the 23 wounds were fatal -
600
Fingerprints are used for the first time
Fingerprints are used for identification for the first time by taking a debtors prints -
Physical evidence used in first case
First record of physical evidence being used to solve a murder case, a piece of torn newspaper was found in a pistol and was matched to the newspaper in his pocket -
Chemical testing
Chemical processes are used to determine if arsenic was the cause of death in a murder trail -
Photo idenification
First time in the us that photos are used for identification -
Finger prints are found to be unique
A paper is published describing the uniqueness of all fingerprints, and it is adapted for use in the court -
Coroner's Act
The Coroner's act established that coroners were to determine cause of death in sudden, violent and unnatural deaths -
Hair
The first study on hair is published and the first legal case involving hair took place shortly afterwards -
Guns are Unique
It is discovered that all guns will have slightly different barrels which leave unique grooves on each bullet allowing the matching of fired bullets to the guns that fired them -
DNA
DNA fingerprinting techniques developed and used in first case in 1983 where the original suspect was cleared due to DNA evidence and DNA evidence is found to be reliable in 1996 -