Engelbart, Douglas C (1925– )

US computer engineer. He invented the mouse and created the first two-dimensional editing system. He was also the first to demonstrate the use of mixed text-graphics and shared screen viewing and founded the Bootstrap Project at Stanford University.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Engelbart served in the US Navy during World War II, and later studied and taught at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1956 he moved to the Stanford Research Institute where he launched the SRI Augmentation Research Centre. In 1968 he gave a demonstration of a mouse-operated hypertext system that inspired later research at Xerox's PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre). Xerox's work led on to the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft's Windows interface.