Doug Engelbart was an inventor and early internet pioneer that was best know for the creation of the mouse, but also was instrumental in the development of hypertext, networked computers, and many precursors to graphical user interfaces.

Engelbart describes the early development of the mouse in a 2004 interview with Wired:

I first started making notes for the mouse in ’61. At the time, the popular device for pointing on the screen was a light pen, which had come out of the radar program during the war. It was the standard way to navigate, but I didn’t think it was quite right…We set up our experiments and the mouse won in every category, even though it had never been used before. It was faster, and with it people made fewer mistakes. Five or six of us were involved in these tests, but no one can remember who started calling it a mouse. I’m surprised the name stuck.