---
title: The mother of all demos
date: '2026-09-17'
author: yann64
banner: /media/history/images/timeline_1268_motherdemo_s1.jpg
summary: A mouse, windows and hypertext, shown to an audience in 1968.
sample: true
---

In December 1968 Douglas Engelbart presented the mouse, on-screen windows, hypertext and shared editing in a single session. The history entry on [the mother of all demos](/history/the-mother-of-all-demos/) has been recovered.

For what came next, see the entry on the [Xerox Alto](/history/xerox-alto/), the research machine that turned these ideas into a desktop.