Saturday, September 19, 2026

Question: In 1964, researchers at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California, built the first prototype of which now-ubiquitous computer input device?

Answer: The computer mouse. SRI’s Douglas Engelbart conceived it, and the lab’s chief engineer, Bill English, built the first prototype in 1964, using wheels to translate the device’s motion into cursor movement on the screen. Engelbart held the basic patent, and he unveiled the mouse at the celebrated 1968 “mother of all demos.”