Fingerprint timeline

1684 - Dr. Nehemiah Grew described presence of ridges and notices fingerprint patterns

1823 - Professor Johannes Evengelista Purkinje documented nine patterns of fingerprints

1858 - William Herschel used fingerprints as a way to make natives sign for contracts, noticed no two were the same

1879 - Alphonse Bertillion creates physical registry of fingerprints of prisoners and identifies repeat offenders

1902 - Alphonse Bertillon makes first conviction with fingerprints and solves murder

1888 - Sir Francis Galton verified that fingerprints do not change with age, and develops modern classification system of fingerprints

1896 - Sir Edmund Richard Henry creates system that divided fingerprint records into groups based on pattern and creates the "ten card"

2013 - FBI has 76 Million people digitally fingerprinted in IAFIS

Fingerprints are first used as official documents in ancient civilizations (Babylon, China, Persia, Nova Scotia)