The Computer Mouse Is Publicly Demonstrated

Setting the scene

Computers were room-sized machines operated with punch cards and teletypes; Douglas Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center at SRI sought tools that could let knowledge workers manipulate information on screens.

What happened

On December 9, 1968, at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, Engelbart publicly demonstrated the computer mouse, hypertext, video conferencing, and collaborative editing in what became known as "The Mother of All Demos."

Why it still matters

The ninety-minute presentation foreshadowed personal computing, the graphical user interface, and modern office software decades before those tools reached consumers. Memorable detail: Engelbart's wooden mouse prototype had only one button and rolled on two metal wheels.

Background

The demo foreshadowed personal computing decades early.