A former naval radar technician, Doug Englebart, directed the invention of the first computer mouse in the mid 60s at Stanford Research International (SRI). Englebart and Bill English worked together comparing various pointing devices for speed and accuracy. Bill English built the original mouse from Englebart’s conceptions. So, “It is safe to say Bill English is the first person to ever use a mouse.

Since then, a handful of companies (namely Xerox, Apple, Microsoft, and Logitech) have poured millions into refining the form and function of the mouse: they’ve changed its number of buttons, changed the interfaces by which mice connect to computers, and tinkered with new methods of tracking movement. But despite four decades of commercial evolution, computer users today handle the mouse in much the same way Englebart did 40 years ago: as an ingeniously efficient and easy-to-use pointing device.

The first marketed integrated mouse – shipped as a part of a computer and intended for personal computer navigation – came with the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981.

The mouse has come along way since 1981 with many variations. Today the mouse is 40 years old, and we owe thanks to Doug Englebart for this invention.