LOSE YOURSELF IN 1968

MOUSE IN THE HOUSE

A device without which modern life would be a lot more awkward and jerky peeked out from its hole during December. In 1963, US engineer and inventor Douglas Engelbart of Stanford Research Institute began looking at ways of improving human/ computer interaction. He conceived a small device featuring two wheels and a wooden casing in 1964, aided by fellow computer engineer Bill English. Because of the tail-like cord attached to the rear, they decided to christen it the ‘mouse’. The first public demonstration was on 9 December 1968 when, for good measure, Engelbart also debuted a windows-based operating interface, graphics, video conferencing and word processing in a single system. No wonder the event became known as ‘ The Mother of All Demos’. Engelbart never received any royalties for the mouse, as its patent had expired by the time it became widespread for desktop personal computers.

FLOODY HELL

This year saw some extreme weather, culminating in what has become known as the Great Floods of 1968 during September. Problems began at the start of July, when sand from the Sahara mixed with cold and damp air over the UK, leading to thunderstorms and torrential rain hitting most of England and Wales. Because of the dust, the clouds were so dark that daylight disappeared, while some of the rain was an eerie blood red because of the sand. There were further floods in south-west England on 10 July. Then, an area of low pressure caused even more chaos in mid-September, when the Home Counties experienced the worst inland floods for a century. From the New Forest to the Thames Estuary, the equivalent of six weeks’ worth of rain fell in under 48 hours.