American inventor of the computer mouse, Doug Engelbart passed away at the age of 88 on July 2, 2013. The information about his death was shared in an email sent by his daughter Christina to The Computer History Museum in California, which Engelbart has been a part of since 2005. However, the exact cause of his death was not shared by Ms. Engelbart.
Christina revealed that her father was in poor health in recent times and died peacefully in his sleep at home. Engelbart first invented the computer mouse in the 60s and then patented his creation in the 70s. However, at the time, the idea of operating a computer with an outside device was not so popular. Moreover, the mouse was not commercially available until 1984.
The mouse was first introduced with Apple?s Macintosh. When the mouse was first created, it was a simple wooden tool covering two metal wheels. The invention was made so early that he hardly had any profit from it. The patent of the mouse had a 17-year life span and the technology entered the public domain in 1987, which means that he could not collect royalties on the mouse when it was most in use.
Since the mid-80s, more than a billion computer mice have been sold.
