History of Fingerprints

What are fingerprints?
Fingerprints are unique features that everyone has. The reason why they're unique is because every person's fingerprint is different. While your body grows and your characteristics change, your fingerprints do not. That's the reason why they have been used to accurately identify criminals for over 100 years.

Important People:
Malpighi (1686): He discovered our fingers had loops, ridges, and spirals in them.
Faulds (1880): He started studying skin-furrows after noticing finger marks on prehistoric pottery. He recognized the means of identification and created a way to classify them.
Bertillion (1882): He developed a system called Anthropometry or the Bertillon System. It classified people using different parts of a person's body.
Vucetich & Galton (1892): Juan Vucetich made the first fingerprint investigation. He identified Francis Rojas as the woman who murdered her own 2 sons and tried to save herself by cutting her own throat. Unfortunately for her, a bloody print of her hand was left on a door. Sir Francis Galton wrote a book called, "Fingerprints", which talked about the uniqueness and permanence of fingerprints.