December 9, 2008 Happy Birthday! The PC turns 40 Play video

(NECN: Brian Burnell, Hartford, Conn.) - We have become so used to personal computers that it is rare to walk into an office, home or store that doesn't have at least one, and probably more. 40 years ago today, things were much different. Different because at that time, there was one personal computer and it was on display in San Francisco.

Today, December 9th, is the anniversary of the introduction of the PC. Douglas Englebart of the Stanford Research Institute unveiled a device that was primitive by today's standards, but it did have a mouse and an interactive screen.

It is unlikely Englebart and his colleagues realized just how ubiquitous the PC would become.

Bill Sanders is a professor of multimedia web design and development at the University of Hartford. He says the Internet is the big reason why computers have become such a part of our lives and adds the future of computing is unlimited and unpredictable.

When we talk about how far we've come, consider this. The first computer mouse was built in 1964. It was made of wood.