- Born
- Died
- Bill English was born on January 27, 1929 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. He was married to Roberta. He died on July 26, 2020 in California, USA.
- SpouseRoberta(? - 2020) (his death)
- He was an engineer and inventor who was co-inventor of the computer mouse. He built the first mouse in 1963, using a concept of his colleague Doug Engelbart. The first version was a wooden block with a button and two rolling wheels at 90-degree angles. Neither English or Engelbart could remember who decided the device should be called a "mouse". Their invention was patented but was owned by their employer, and the intellectual property rights expired in 1987, so neither of them profited greatly from their invention.
- He is largely credited with creating the graphical desktop user interface system used by almost all modem computers.
- In the first report, we had to call it something. "A brown box with buttons" didn't work. It had to be a short name.
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