Forensic Science Timeline

The very first Autopsies was performed in Italy by Dr. Bartolomeo da Varignana.

The very first Microscope was invented by Hans and Zacharias Janssen.

Fingerprints were finally introduced as Forensic Evidence.

The first Breathalyzer was invented.

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.

President Theodore Roosevelt established the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (FBI)

Edmund Locard established the first Police Laboratory in France.

Calvin Goddard, Charles White, Phillip O. Gravelle, and John H Fisher perfected the comparison microscope for use in bullet comparison.

Sir Alec Jefferey's developed the first DNA profiling test.

Medical schools are established in Padua and Bologna.

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

Ergot Outbreak - 40,000 people in France died from eating contaminated wheat/rye that caused gangrene known as St. Anthony's Fire.

Zhou Man - The Chinese explorer lost thousands of crew members to uranium exposure while mining lead in Jabiru, Australia.

Pope Clement VI(1291–1352) orders autopsies on victims of the Black Death to hopefully find a cause for the plague.