The First Computer Mouse Was Made of Wood

The computer mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1964. The first prototype was a simple wooden box with two perpendicular metal wheels inside. Engelbart called it a "mouse" because the cable coming out the back looked like a tail. Its official name was "X-Y position indicator" but nobody used that. The first mouse had one button. It was introduced to the world in the famous 1968 "Mother of All Demos." That day also saw the first video conferencing, hypertext, and word processor demos. Apple popularized the mouse with Macintosh in 1984. Engelbart never made money from his invention - Stanford owned the patent. Source: Computer History Museum