1149 Idea of having a coroner started by King Richard of England

1284 Descriptions of bodies having died from different causes written in a book by Chinese His Yuan Lu

1447 Missing teeth used to identify the body of the French Duke of Burgundy

1590 Beginnings of the modern microscope developed by Zacharias Janssen of Holland.

1628 Birth of Italian Marcello Malpighi, credited with noticing patterns on the skin of fingers.

1670 First simple microscope with powerful lenses created by Anton Van Leeuwenhoek of Holland

1732 The basis of lie detection equipment made possible with Luigi Galvani discovery that the human nervous system transmits information electronically

1776 Body of US General Warren is identified by Paul Revere who made his false teeth.

1807 Forensic Science Institute established at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

1814 First scientific paper on the detection of poisons published by Matthieu Orfila of Spain.

1823 Whorls, ellipses and triangles described by Czech physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkinje.

1836 Method for the detection of arsenic poison developed by James Marsh of England.

1849 Bones and teeth remains used as evidence of murder given by a forensic team lead by anatomy professor Dr Jeffries Wyman.

1850 First private detective agency in the US set up by Allan Pinkerton.

1859 Spectroscopy is developed. Gustav Kirchoff and Robert Bunson showed substances give off a spectrum of light, which identifies elements in the substance.

1879 System of identifying people by special body measurements developed by Frenchman Alphonse Bertillon.

1880 First criminological use of fingerprints made by Henry Fauld in Tokyo.

1880s Sherlock Holmes detective stories published by Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, describe solutions based on crime solving methods.

1888 First hand held camera invented by American George Eastman.

1889 Matching bullets to the gun that fired it, developed by Alexandre Lacassagne.

1892 scientific classification of fingerprints developed by Englishman Francis Galton

1895 X-rays first discovered by German physicist Conrad Rontgen.

1896 System of matching fingerprints to identify people developed by Edward Henry of England.

1900 Scotland Yard adopts the Galton-Henry system of fingerprinting.

1901 Basic human blood groups are identified by Austrian, Karl Lansdsteiner.

1902 Harry Jackson became the first British person convicted on fingerprint evidence.

1903 New York City Police Department began fingerprint files of arrested persons.

1906 Bite marks found at the scene of the crime first used as evidence in court.

1909 Discovery those chromosomes carry hereditary information, made by US physiologist Thomas Hunt Morgan.

1910 World’s first forensic laboratory set up in France by Edmond Locard.

1921 First polygraph (lie detector) built by John Larson, United States.

1920s Helixometer to examine the inside of gun barrels, developed by John Fisher.

1920s A method to calculate the thickness of muscle, flesh and skin over the scull developed by Russian paleontologist Michael Gerasimov.

1922 Nobel Prize awarded to Francis Aston for developing the first mass spectrometer.

1923 Crime Lab known as the Bureau of Forensic Ballistics (BFB) set up in Los Angeles by Charles Waite and Philip Gravelle.

1930 National fingerprint file set up in the US by the FBI.

1930s Watertank used by English ballistic expert, Gerald Burrard, to test the flight of bullets. Scanning electron microscope with up to 150,000x magnification, designed by Russian physicist Vladimir Zworykin.

1932 FBI forensic science laboratory established.

1940s Ways of comparing teeth from a corpse with dental records developed by Keith Simpson

1957 Skeletal growth stages, the basis of Forensic Anthropology, identified by American pathologists Thomas mocker and Thomas Stewart.

1960 First laser design to identify fingerprints (and other applications) developed by US physicist Theodore Maiman.

1967 FBI National Crime Information Centre (NCIC) established.

1971 Photo-fit enabling witnesses to piece together facial features developed by photographer Jacques Perry.

1978 Electro-static Detection Apparatus (ESDA) to expose handwriting impressions developed by Bob Freeman and Doug Foster.

1980 Method for detecting DNA differences developed by American Ray White.

1983 First use of personal computers in US police patrol cars to provide quick information from National Crime Information Centre.

1984 Genetic profiling using DNA developed by English geneticist Alec Jeffries.

1987 First time DNA evidence used to get a conviction in the US.

Information from