Retail chain with a vast stock of computers & parts, plus software, gaming supplies & electronics. Firsts: The Mouse

In 1964, Douglas Engelbart and lead engineer Bill English at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) built the first prototype. It wasn't the sleek plastic tool we know today; it was a carved block of redwood with two perpendicular metal wheels and a single button. It was officially named the "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System," but the team nicknamed it the "mouse" because the cord came out of the back like a tail. The "Mother of All Demos" (1968) Micro Center

While you can easily find a mouse near you at retailers like Best Buy , Target , or Walgreens , the story of how that device reached those shelves is a decades-long journey of innovation. It began not in a store, but in a research lab in the early 1960s with a wooden box and a dream of "augmenting human intellect". The Wooden Origin (1964)