History of Forensics

FORENSIC SCIENCE TIMELINE
BCE.	Evidence of fingerprints in early paintings and rock carvings of prehistoric man
700s	Chinese used fingerprints to establish identity of documents and clay sculpture, but without any formal classification system.
(1000)	Quintilian, an attorney in the Roman courts, showed that bloody palm prints were meant to frame a blind man of his mother's murder.
1248	A Chinese book, Hsi Duan Yu (the washing away of wrongs) contains a description of how to distinguish drowning from strangulation. This was the first recorded application of medical knowledge to the solution of crime.
1609	The first treatise on systematic document examination was published by François Demelle of France
1686	Marcello Malpighi, a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, noted fingerprint characteristics. However, he made no mention of their value as a tool for individual identification.
1784	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.
(1800s)	Thomas Bewick, an English naturalist, used engravings of his own fingerprints to identify books he published.
1810	Eugène François Vidocq, in return for a suspension of arrest and a jail sentence, made a deal with the police to establish the first detective force, the Sûreté of Paris.
1810	The first recorded use of question document analysis occurred in Germany. A chemical test for a particular ink dye was applied to a document known as the Konigin Hanschritt.
1813	Mathiew Orfila, a Spaniard who became and, Professor of medicinal/forensic) chemistry at University of Paris, published Traite des Poisons Tires des Regnes Mineral, Vegetal et Animal, ou Toxicologie General l. Orfila is considered the father of modern toxicology. He also made significant contributions to the development of tests for the presence of blood in a forensic context and is credited as the first to attempt the use of a microscope in the assessment of blood and semen stains.
1823	John Evangelist Purkinji, a Professor of anatomy at the University of Breslau, Czecheslovakia, published the first paper on the nature of fingerprints and suggested a classification system based on nine major types. However, he failed to recognize their individualizing potential.
(1830s)	Adolphe Quetelet , a Belgian statistician, provided the foundation for Bertillon's work by stating his belief that no two human bodies were exactly alike.
1831	Leuchs first noted amylase activity in human saliva.
1835	Henry Goddard, one of Scotland Yard's original Bow Street Runners, first used bullet comparison to catch a murderer. His comparison was based on a visible flaw in the bullet which was traced back to a mold.
1836	James Marsh, an Scottish chemist, was the first to use toxicology (arsenic detection) in a jury trial.
1839	H. Bayard published the first reliable procedures for the microscopic detection of sperm. He also noted the different microscopic characteristics of various different substrate fabrics.
1940	Vincent Hnizda, a chemist with the Ethyl Corporation, first used vacuum distillation to collect evidence to analyze in an arson/murder case for the Detroit police.
1851	Jean Servais Stas, a chemistry Professor from Brussels, Belgium, was the first to successfully identify vegetable poisons in body tissue.
1853	Ludwig Teichmann, in Kracow, Poland, developed the first microscopic crystal test for hemoglobin using hemin crystals.
1854	An English physician, Maddox, developed dry plate photography, eclipsing M. Daguerre's wet plate on tin method. This made practical the photographing of inmates for prison records.
1856	Sir William Herschel, a British officer working for the Indian Civil service, began to use thumbprints on documents both as a substitute for written signatures for illiterates and to verify document signatures.
1862	The Dutch scientist J. (Izaak) Van Deen developed a presumptive test for blood using guaiac, a West Indian shrub.
1863	The German scientist Schönbein first discovered the ability of hemoglobin to oxidize hydrogen peroxide making it foam. This resulted in first presumptive test for blood.
1864	Odelbrecht first advocated the use of photography for the identification of criminals and the documentation of evidence and crime scenes.
1877	Thomas Taylor, microscopist to American Dept. of Agriculture suggested that "markings of the palms of the hands and the tips of the fingers could be used for identification in criminal cases. Although reported in the American Jounal of Microscopy and Popular Science and Scientific American, the idea was apparently never pursued from this source.
1879	Rudolph Virchow, a German pathologist, was one of the first to both study hair and recognize it's limitations.
1880	Henry Faulds, a Scottish physician working in Tokyo, published a paper in the journal Nature suggesting that fingerprints at the scene of a crime could identify the offender. In one of the first recorded uses of fingerprints to solve a crime, Faulds used fingerprints to eliminate an innocent suspect and indicate a perpetrator in a Tokyo burglary.
1882	Gilbert Thompson, a railroad builder with the U.S Geological Survey in New Mexico, put his own thumbprint on wage chits to safeguard himself from forgeries.
1883	Alphonse Bertillon, a French police employee, identified the first recidivist based on his invention of anthropometry.
1885	Alexander von Inostranzeff, a Russion minerologist, developed the first microscope with a comparison bridge.
1887	Arthur Conan Doyle published the 1st Sherlock Holmes story in Beeton's Christmas Annual of London.
1889	Alexandre Lacassagne, Professor of forensic medicine at the University of Lyons, France, was the first to do try to individualize bullets to a gun barrel. His comparisons at the time were based simply on the number of lands and grooves.
1891	Hans Gross, Examining Magistrate and Professor of criminal law at the University of Graz, Austria, published Criminal Investigation, the first comprehensive description of uses of physical evidence in solving crime. Gross is also sometimes credited with coining the word criminalistics.
1892	(Sir) Francis Galton published Fingerprints, the first comprehensive book on the nature of fingerprints and their use in solving crime.
1892	Juan Vucetich, an Argentinean police researcher, developed the fingerprint classification system that would come to be used in Latin America. After Vucetich implicated a mother in the murder of her own children using her own bloody fingerprints, Argentina was the first country to replace anthropometry with fingerprints.
1894	Alfred Dreyfus of France was convicted of treason based on a mistaken handwriting identification by Bertillon.
1896	Sir Edward Richard Henry developed the print classification system that would come to be used in Europe and North America. He published Classification and Uses of Finger Prints.
1898	Paul Jesrich, a forensic chemist working in Berlin, Germany, took photomicrographs of two bullets to compare, and subsequently individualize, the minutiae.
1901	Paul Uhlenhuth, a German immunologist, developed the precipiten test for species. He was also one of the first to institute standards, controls, and QA/QC procedures. Wassermann (famous for developing a test for syphilis) and Schütze independently discovered and published the precipiten test, but never received due credit.
1900	Karl Landsteiner first discovered human blood groups and was awarded the Nobel prize for his work in 1930. Max Richter adapted the technique to type stains. This is one of the first instances of performing validation experiments specifically to adapt a method for forensic science. Landsteiner's continued work on the detection of blood, its species and its type formed the basis of practically all subsequent work.
1901	Sir Edward Richard Henry was appointed head of Scotland Yard and forced the adoption of fingerprint identification to replace anthropometry.
1901	Henry P. DeForrest pioneered the first systematic use of fingerprints in the U.S. by the New York Civil Service Commission.
1902	Professor R.A. Reiss, Professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and a pupil of Bertillon, set up one of the first academic curricula in forensic science. His forensic photography department grew into Lausanne Institute of Police Science.
1903	The New York State Prison system began the first systematic use of fingerprints in U.S. for criminal identification.
1903	At Leavenworth State Prison, Kansas, Will West, a new inmate, was differentiated from resident convict Will West by fingerprints, not anthropometry. They were later found to be identical twins.
1904	Oskar and Rudolf Adler developed a presumptive test for blood based on benzidine, a new chemical developed by Merk.
1905	American President Roosevelt established Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
1910	Victor Balthazard, Professor of forensic medicine at the Sorbonne, with Marcelle Lambert, published the first comprehensive hair study, Le Poil de L'homme et des Animaux. In one of the first cases involving hairs, Rosella Rousseau was convinced to confess to murder of Germaine Bichon. Balthazard also used photographic enlargements of bullets and cartridge cases to determining weapon type and and was among the first to attempt to individualize a bullet to weapon.
1910	Edmund Locard, successor to Lacassagne as Professor of forensic medicine at the University of Lyons, France, established the first police crime laboratory.
1910	Albert S. Osborne, an American, and arguably the most influential document examiner, published Questioned Documents.
1912	Masaeo Takayama developed another microscopic crystal test for hemoglobin using hemochromogen crystals.
1913	Victor Balthazard, Professor of forensic medicine at the Sorbonne, published the first article on individualizing bullet markings.
1915	Leone Lattes, Professor at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Turin Italy, developed the first antibody test for ABO bloodgroups. He first used the test in casework to resolve a marital dispute. He published L'Individualità del sangue nella biologia, nella clinica, nella medicina, legale, the first book dealing not only with clinical issues, but heritability, paternity and typing of dried stains.
1915	International Association for Criminal Identification (to become The International Association of Identification (IAI)), was organized organized in Oakland, California.
1916	Albert Schneider of Berkeley, California first used a vaccum apparatus to collect trace evidence.
1918	Edmond Locard first suggested 12 matching points as a positive fingerprint identification.
1920	Locard published L'enquete criminelle et les methodes scientifique, in which appears a passage that may have given rise to the forensic precept that "Every contact leaves a trace".
1920s	Georg Popp pioneered the use of botanical identification in forensic work.
1920s	Luke May, one of the first American criminalists, pioneered striation analysis in tool mark comparison, including an attempt at statistical validation. In 1930 he published The identification of knives, tools and instruments, a positive science, in The American Journal of Police Science.
1920	Charles E. Waite was the first to catalogue manufacturing data about weapons.
(1920s)	Calvin Goddard, with Charles Waite, Phillip O. Gravelle and John H Fisher, perfected the comparison microscope for use in bullet comparison.
1921	John Larson and Leonard Keeler designed the portable polygraph.
1923	Vittorio Siracusa, working at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the R. University of Messina, Italy, developed the absorbtion-elution test for ABO blood typing of stains. Along with his mentor, Lattes also performed significant work on the absorbtion-inhibition technique.
1923	In Frye vs. United States, polygraph test results were ruled inadmissible. The federal ruling introduced the concept of general acceptance and stated that polygraph testing did not meet that criteria.
1924	August Vollmer, as Chief of Police in Los Angeles, California, implemented the first U.S. police crime laboratory.
1925	Saburo Sirai, a Japanese scientist, is credited with the first recognition of secretion of group-specific antigens into body fluids other than blood.
1926	The case of Sacco and Vanzetti, which took place in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, was responsible for popularizing the use of the comparison microscope for bullet comparison. Calvin Goddard's conclusions were upheld when the evidence was reexamined in 1961.
1927	Landsteiner and Levine first detected the M, N, and P blood factors leading to development of the MNSs and P typing systems.
1928	Meüller was the first medico-legal investigator to suggest the identification of salivary amlyase as a presumptive test for salivary stains.
1929	K.I. Yosida, a Japanese scientist, conducted the first comprehensive investigation establishing the existence of serological isoantibodies in body fluids other than blood.
1929	Calvin Goddard's work on the St. Valentine's day massacre led to the founding of the the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory on the campus of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
1930	American Journal of Police Science was founded and published by staff of Goddard's Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory in Chicago. In 1932, it was absorbed by Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, becoming the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and police science.
1931	Franz Josef Holzer, an Austrian scientist, working at the Institute for Forensic Medicine of the University of Innsbruck, developed the absorbtion-inhibition ABO typing technique that became the basis of that commonly used in forensic laboratories. It was based on the prior work of Siracusa and Lattes.
1932	The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime laboratory was created.
1935	Frits Zernike, a Dutch physicist, invented the first interference contrast microscope, a phase contrast microscope, an achievement for which he won the Nobel prize in 1953.
1937	Holzer published the first paper addressing the usefulness of secretor status for forensic applications.
1937	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.
1937	Paul Kirk assumed leadership of the Criminology program at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1945, he created and chaired the new department of Criminalistics.
1938	M. Polonovski and M. Jayle first identified haptoglobin.
1940	Landsteiner and A.S. Wiener first described Rh blood groups.
1941	Murray Hill of Bell Labs initiated the study voiceprint identification. The technique was refined by L.G. Kersta.
1945	Frank Lundquist, working at the Legal Medicine Unit at the University of Copenhagen, developed the acid phosphatase test for semen.
1946	Mourant first described the Lewis blood group system.
1946	R.R. Race first described the Kell blood group system
1950	M. Cutbush, and colleagues first described the Duffy blood group system.
1950	Paul Leland Kirk and August Vollmer, chief of police of Berkeley, California, established one of the first academic departments of criminology/criminalistics at the University of California at Berkeley. The group included Edgar O. Heinrich, who ran a private criminalistics lab.
1950	Max Frei-Sulzer, founder of the first Swiss criminalistics laboratory, developed the tape lift method of collecting trace evidence.
1950	The American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) was formed in Chicago, Illinois. The group also began publication of the Journal of Forensic Sciences(JFS).
1951	F.H. Allen and colleagues first described the Kidd blood grouping system.
1953	Kirk published Crime Investigation, one of the first comprehensive criminalistics and crime investigation texts that encompassed theory in addition to practice.
1954	R.F. Borkenstein, captain of the Indiana State Police, invented the Breathalyzer for field sobriety testing.
1958	A.S. Weiner and colleagues introduced the use of H-lectin to positively determine O blood type.
1958	Anthony Longhetti and George Roche were among the first to use the polarizing light microscope (PLM) to assist in the forensic identification of man-made fibers. They published Microscopic identification of man made fibers from the criminalists point of view in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
1959	Hirshfeld first identified the polymorphic nature of Group specific Component (Gc).
1960	Lucas, in Canada, first described the application of Gas Chromatography (GC) to the identification of petroleum products in the forensic lab and discussed potential limitations in the brand identification of gasoline.
1960s	Maurice Muller, a Swiss scientist, adapted the Ouchterlony antibody-antigen diffusion test for precipiten testing to determine species.
1963	D.A. Hopkinson and colleagues first identified the polymorphic nature of erythrocyte acid phosphatase (EAP).
1963	Bruce Ettling first developed the Flame Ionization Detector (FID) for use with the GC in analyzing arson evidence.
1964	N. Spencer and colleagues first identified the polymorphic nature of red cell phosphoglucomutase (PGM).
1966	R.A. Fildes and H. Harris first identified the polymorphic nature of red cell adenylate cyclase (AK).
1966	Brian J. Culliford and Brian Wraxall developed the immunoelectrophoretic technique for haptoglobin typing in bloodstains.
1967	Culliford, of the British Metropolitan Police Laboratory, initiated the development of gel-based methods to test for isoenzymes in dried blood stains. He was also instrumental in the development and dissemination of methods for testing proteins and isoenzymes in both blood and other body fluids and secretions.
1968	Spencer and colleagues first identified the polymorphic nature of red cell adenosine deaminase (ADA).
1970	Spector and Parker first reported using the radio immunoassay (RIA) technique to screen blood and urine samples for the presence of morphine. Ultimately, RIAs were developed for may other drugs.
1971	Culliford published The Examination and Typing of Bloodstains in the Crime Laboratory, generally accepted as responsible for disseminating reliable protocols for the typing of polymorphic protein and enzyme markers to the U.S. and world-wide.
1972	Midkiff and Washington popularized the heated headspace sampling technique for collecting arson evidence.
1973	Hopkinson and colleagues first identified the polymorphic nature of esterase D (ESD).
1974	J. E. Wessel, P.F Jones, Q. Y. Kwan, R. S. Nesbitt and E. J. Rattin, at Aerospace Corporation, developed scanning electron microscopy with electron dispersive X-rays (SEM-EDX) technology for the detection of gunshot residue (GSR).
1975	Cain, in the UK, was the first to use a GC with a capillary column for a forensic application, comparing kerosene samples.
1975	J. Kompf and colleagues, working in Germany, first identified the polymorphic nature of red cell glyoxylase (GLO).
1975	The Federal Rules of Evidence, originally promulgated by the U.S. Supreme Court, were enacted as a congressional statute. They are based on the relevancy standard in which scientific evidence that is deemed more prejudicial than probative may not be admitted.
1976	Zoro and Hadley in the UK first evaluated the combination of a Gas Chromatrograph and Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) for forensic purposes.
1977	Twibell and Hom of the Home Office in the U.K. developed the carbon-wire technique of collecting volatiles for arson examination.
1978	Brian Wraxall and Mark Stolorow developed the "multisystem" method for testing the PGM, ESD, and GLO isoenzyme systems simultaneously. They also developed methods for typing blood serum proteins such as haptoglobin and Gc.
1984	(Sir) Alec Jeffreys developed the first DNA profiling test. It involved detection of a multilocus RFLP pattern. He published his findings in Nature in 1985.
1986	In the first use of DNA to solve a crime, Jeffreys used DNA profiling to identify Colin Pitchfork as the murderer of two young girls in the English Midlands. Significantly, in the course of the investigation, DNA was first used to exonerate an innocent suspect.
1983	The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was first conceived by Kerry Mullis, while he was working at Cetus Corporation. The first paper on the technique was not published until 1986.
1986	The human genetics group at Cetus Corporation, led by Henry Erlich, began development of the PCR technique for a number of clinical and forensic applications. This resulted in development of the first commercial PCR typing kit, HLA DQ-alpha (DQA1), specifically for forensic use.
1983	Using protocols written by David L. von Minden, the U.S. Navy adopted SIM GC/MS confirmation of the THC metabolite of Marijuana, establishing the procedure as the "Gold Standard" for drug confirmation in the U.S.
1986	In People vs. Pestinikas ,Edward Blake first used PCR-based DNA testing (HLA DQ-alpha) , to confirm different autopsy samples to be from the same person. The evidence was accepted by a civil court. This was also the first use of any kind of DNA testing in the U.S.
1987	DNA profiling was introduced for the first time in a U.S. criminal court. Based on RFLP analysis performed by Lifecodes, Tommy Lee Andrews was convicted of a series of sexual assaults in Orlando, Florida.
1987	New York vs. Castro was the first case in which the admissibility of DNA was seriously challenged. It set in motion a string of events which culminated in a call for certification, accreditation, standardization, and quality control guidelines for both DNA laboratories and the general forensic community.
1990	K. Kasai and colleagues published the first paper suggesting the D1S80 locus (pMCT118) for forensic DNA analysis. D1S80 was subsequently developed by Cetus (subsequently Roche Molecular Systems) corporation as a commercially available forensic DNA typing system.
1992	In response to concerns about the practice of forensic DNA analysis and interpretation of the results, the National Research Council Committee on Forensic DNA (NRC I) published DNA Technology in Forensic Science.
1992	Thomas Caskey, Professor at Baylor University in Texas, and colleagues published the first paper suggesting the use of Short Tandem Repeats for forensic DNA analysis. Promega corporation and Perkin-Elmer corporation in collaboration with Roche Molecular Systems independently developed commercial kits for forensic DNA STR typing.
1993	In Daubert et al. vs. Merrell Dow, a U.S. federal court relaxed the Frye standard for admission of scientific evidence and conferred on the judge a "gatekeeping" role. The ruling cited Karl Popper's views that scientific theories are falsifiable as a criterion for whether something is "scientific knowledge" and should be admissible.
1994	Roche Molecular Systems (formerly Cetus) released a set of 5 additional DNA markers ("polymarker") to add to the HLA-DQA1 forensic DNA typing system.
1996	In response to continued concerns about the statistical interpretation of forensic DNA evidence, a second National Research Council Committee on Forensic DNA (NRC II) was convened and published The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence.
1996	In Tennessee vs. Ware, mitochondrial DNA typing was admitted for the first time in a U.S. court .
1998	An FBI DNA database, enabling interstate cooperation in linking crimes, was put into practice.