Important Date in Forensic History

Important Dates in Forensic History!

Created By:

Maggie Crosby, Purvi Patel, Sahithi Narayandas, & Sarah Shrimpton

1901:

1670:

1910:

1900:

1628:

Austrian Karl Landsteiner identifies human blood groups. In 1930 he receives a Nobel Prize for this work.

Victor Balthazard publishes the first comprehensive study of human and animal hair. He also uses photographic enlargements of bullets and cartridge cases in an attempt to connect an individual bullet to a particular weapon.

Paul Uhlenhuth develops the precipitin test, which distinguishes between human and animal blood. The test is used in the murder conviction of Ludwig Tessnow in the same year.

Birth of Italian Marcello Malphigi, credited with noticing patterns in the skin of fingers.

The first high powered microscope is constructed by Anton Van Leeuwenhoek of Holland.

We thought this was important because with Landsteiner discovering the different blood types and who can receive which blood, we are able to save more people's lives. If he did not find this then we could have not known that we were giving the wrong type of blood to a person and they could end up rejecting it as well as that blood could not be used ever again to save anyone else. When it comes to forensics by knowing what type of blood someone is we can narrow down the suspect list.

We think this is important because this was the beginning of life for the person who would bring back recognition to the idea that there are patterns in our skin, on our fingers, after the Babylonians.

We thought this was important for two reasons. One, if a hair follicle was found at a crime scene the lab would be able to see if it was a club left from the killer or an animal in passing. Secondly because of his photographic enlargments we are now able to narrow out types of weapons or what weapons the police should be looking for.

We found this important because this was a new finding that would allow generations to come to be able to know whether or not the blood they were studying was human (victim/killer) or animal.

We thought this was important because this was one of the first steps in allowing man-kind to see beyond what our eyes can see

1920:

1977:

1959:

1957:

1937:

Russian paleontologist Mikhail Gerasimov develops a method to reconstruct facial appearance from a skull. He is later popularized as the character Andreev in the detective novel "Gorky Park".

James Watson and Francis Crick discover the CNA double helix.

Walter Specht. Finds that the chemical, Luminal, glows in contact with latent blood.

A limited computerized scanning mechanism is first used to develop a database in forensic science by the FBI’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS)

The growth stages of skeletal bones are identified by Americans Thomas Mocker and Thomas Stewart, forming the basis of forensic anthropology.

This finding is important because now that we have the capability we can see blood that has been cleaned up. This would catch a killer when they say that there is no blood but really the place is covered in it; also providing proof that they are guilty.

This information is probably one of the most important facts that we can have when it comes to DNA. It tells us which of the bases goes together with the double helix. It also tells us how those bases combine when RNA goes on.

This database allows the authorities to search if someone has a criminal background and if they could have committed the crime.

This is important because of many reasons. One example would be if nobody found the victim until all was left were bones and no identification was left then the police would be able to search all the databases to look for facial recognition. This would allow the authorities to notify the deceased family.

This information can tell us how old a person was when they died and how they were killed.