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History of Forensics

By rkumar1
  • Jan 1, 1248

    First forensic science book

    First forensic science manual published by the Chinese. This was the first known record of medical knowledge being used to solve criminal cases.

  • Reporting cases (1600s)

    First pathology reports published.

  • Physical evidence used in criminal case

    First recorded instance of physical matching of evidence leading to a murder conviction (John Toms, England).

  • Investigating poisoning

    German chemist Valentin Ross developed a method of detecting arsenic in a victim's stomach, thus advancing the investigation of poison deaths.

  • Chemical testing utilized

    James Marsh, an English chemist, uses chemical processes to determine arsenic as the cause of death in a murder trial.

  • Fingerprints found to be unique

    Henry Faulds and William James Herschel publish a paper describing the uniqueness of fingerprints.

  • Fingerprint ID used in crime

    Juan Vucetich, an Argentinean police officer, is the first to use fingerprints as evidence in a murder investigation.

  • Hair now used in forensics

    Victor Balthazard and Marcelle Lambert publish first study on hair, including microscopic studies from most animals.

  • Crime labs built

    First police crime lab established in Los Angeles.

  • Lie detection

    Prototype polygraph, which was invented by John Larson in 1921, developed for use in police stations.

  • Voice recording, used as evidence (1960s)

    A sound spectrograph discovered to be able to record voices.

  • Auto fingerprint system first used

    Royal Canadian Mounted Police implement first automatic fingerprint identification system.

  • DNA evidence certified

    National Academy of Sciences announces DNA evidence is reliable.

  • Footwear detection system

    Britain's Forensic Science Service develops online footwear coding and detection system. This helps police to identify footwear marks quickly.

  • Facial sketches matched to photos

    Michigan state university develops software that automatically matches hand-drawn facial sketches to mug shots stored in databases.

  • 4 second dental match

    Japanese researchers develop a dental x-ray matching system. This system can automatically match dental x-rays in a database, and makes a positive match in less than 4 seconds.