Science on This Day: December 9 | The Computer Demo That Predicted the Future, Smallpox Eradication, and Fritz Haber
December 9 brings together three stories that show how science and technology can change society in very different ways. In 1968, computer scientist Douglas Engelbart demonstrated technologies that would become familiar features of modern computing, including the computer mouse, hypertext links, and collaborative editing. In 1979, an international commission confirmed that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide, marking a turning point in public health. The date also marks the birth of chemist Fritz Haber in 1868, whose work helped make large-scale production of ammonia possible and transformed agriculture, while also raising difficult questions about the consequences of scientific discoveries.
These events offer opportunities to connect computing with engineering, vaccination with biology and public health, and industrial chemistry with food production and ethics. They also demonstrate that scientific progress depends not only on discoveries, but on how people develop, share, and use new knowledge.
December 9, 1968: Douglas Engelbart’s “Mother of All Demos”
Imagine watching a computer demonstration in 1968 and seeing someone use a mouse to control a cursor, edit text on a screen, follow links between information, and collaborate with colleagues working somewhere else. Today, many of these features seem ordinary. At the time, they offered a glimpse of a very different way of working with computers.
On December 9, 1968, American engineer and computer scientist Douglas Engelbart presented a system called the oN-Line System, usually shortened to NLS, at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. Engelbart and his colleagues at the Stanford Research Institute had been developing tools intended to help people organise information, solve problems, and work together more effectively. The live demonstration lasted around 90 minutes and became known as the “Mother of All Demos.”
The presentation was remarkable partly because it showed several technologies working together. Engelbart used a computer mouse, a pointing device that he and his colleagues had developed earlier in the decade. He demonstrated interactive text editing, links between documents, different views of information, and collaborative work. Members of his team joined the demonstration remotely from their laboratory in Menlo Park, California, using a networked computer system and video links.
The mouse was not the only important innovation, and Engelbart did not single-handedly invent every feature that later appeared in personal computers. Instead, the demonstration showed how a collection of tools could form an integrated system for interacting with information. The underlying idea was that computers could do more than calculate numbers: they could help people think, communicate, and manage complex projects.
Many of the technologies demonstrated in 1968 influenced later developments in interactive computing. However, the path from experimental research to everyday technology took decades, involving work by many researchers, engineers, designers, and companies. Engelbart’s achievement was to demonstrate a compelling vision of what interactive computers could do and how people might use them.
Classroom connection: Which technologies have become ordinary?
Show students a short excerpt from the original demonstration, available through the Doug Engelbart Institute’s archive. Ask them to identify features they recognise from modern computers. They might notice a cursor controlled by a mouse, linked information, text editing, multiple views, or remote collaboration.
Next, ask students to imagine using a computer without a mouse, clickable links, or the ability to edit text easily. Which tasks would become more difficult? What alternative tools might they use? This can lead to a discussion about how user interfaces influence accessibility, productivity, and the way people organise information.
For a practical activity, students could sketch an interface for a simple school task, such as organising research notes or collaborating on a science report. They should identify the problem their design solves, explain how a user would interact with it, and consider how they would test whether it works. This introduces an important engineering principle: a successful technology must do more than function technically. It must also help people accomplish a task.
The event is also a useful reminder that technological change often happens gradually. Students can compare the 1968 demonstration with current laptops, tablets, collaborative documents, and video calls, then identify which ideas remained similar and which changed substantially.
December 9, 1979: Smallpox eradication is confirmed
For thousands of years, smallpox was one of the most devastating infectious diseases affecting humans. Caused by the variola virus, it spread between people and could cause fever, severe illness, and characteristic skin lesions. The disease killed many of those infected and left some survivors with permanent scars or blindness.
Smallpox became the first human infectious disease to be eradicated through a coordinated global public health campaign. On December 9, 1979, the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication concluded that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide. The World Health Assembly formally endorsed the declaration on May 8, 1980.
This distinction matters: December 9 marks the commission’s certification, while May 8, 1980, marks the official declaration by the World Health Organization’s member states.
The achievement was the result of decades of scientific work and international cooperation. Edward Jenner’s late-eighteenth-century work helped establish vaccination as a way to prevent smallpox. Much later, the World Health Organization intensified its global eradication programme in 1967, combining vaccination with surveillance and efforts to identify and contain outbreaks.
Vaccination was central to the campaign, but success required more than distributing doses. Health workers had to locate cases, investigate where infection had spread, and vaccinate people who were at risk. In many places, targeted approaches helped interrupt transmission even when it was difficult to vaccinate everyone. International coordination was essential because infectious diseases do not respect national borders.
The last known naturally occurring case of smallpox was recorded in Somalia in 1977. After extensive investigation and review, the commission concluded in 1979 that the disease had been eradicated. Smallpox remains the only human infectious disease officially eradicated worldwide. Its elimination showed that a global public health effort could permanently remove a disease from natural circulation.
The achievement did not mean that all infectious diseases could be eliminated in the same way. Different pathogens spread differently, and some have animal reservoirs or other features that make eradication much harder. Smallpox nevertheless provides a powerful case study in how biological knowledge, vaccines, disease surveillance, public communication, and international cooperation can work together.
Classroom connection: What does it take to eradicate a disease?
Ask students what would be needed to eliminate an infectious disease from every country. Their suggestions might include an effective vaccine, accurate diagnosis, accessible health services, public cooperation, reliable information, and a way to identify remaining cases.
Students could then compare the smallpox campaign with a hypothetical outbreak in a school or town. How would health workers find people who had been exposed? What information would they need? How could they reduce transmission while treating affected people fairly? This can introduce concepts such as infection chains, population immunity, surveillance, and outbreak control.
A useful follow-up is to ask students to distinguish between controlling a disease and eradicating it. A disease can become uncommon in a region while continuing to circulate elsewhere. Eradication requires the disease to stop spreading naturally across the entire world.
For reliable background, the World Health Organization’s smallpox overview explains the disease and the global eradication effort. The WHO’s 40th-anniversary account of the eradication milestone clarifies the December 1979 certification and the formal declaration in 1980.
December 9, 1868: Fritz Haber and the chemistry of ammonia
Fritz Haber was born in Breslau, then part of Prussia and now the Polish city of Wrocław, on December 9, 1868. He became a chemist whose work helped solve a major industrial challenge: how to produce ammonia from nitrogen in the air and hydrogen on a large scale.
Nitrogen is essential for plant growth, but the nitrogen gas that makes up most of Earth’s atmosphere is not directly usable by most plants. Plants need nitrogen in compounds that can enter biological processes and help them build proteins and other important molecules. In natural ecosystems, microorganisms and other processes convert nitrogen into usable forms. As agriculture expanded, however, the demand for nitrogen-containing fertilisers grew.
Haber developed a method for synthesising ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen under controlled conditions. The reaction is reversible and does not proceed quickly enough under ordinary conditions to be commercially useful. Haber’s laboratory work demonstrated how ammonia could be produced under high pressure and at elevated temperatures with a suitable catalyst. Chemist and engineer Carl Bosch and other industrial researchers helped develop the process into a practical system for large-scale manufacture. The industrial method is therefore known as the Haber-Bosch process.
The process transformed agriculture by making it possible to manufacture nitrogen fertilisers in large quantities. These fertilisers helped increase crop yields and support food production for a growing global population. The process also became a foundation of the modern chemical industry.
However, the story has another side. Industrial ammonia production requires substantial energy, and much of that energy has historically come from fossil fuels. The manufacture and overuse of nitrogen fertilisers can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and disruption of ecosystems. Fertilisers are valuable agricultural tools, but their benefits depend on how they are produced and used.
Haber’s career also raises a difficult ethical issue. During the First World War, he played a leading role in Germany’s development and use of chemical weapons, including chlorine gas. His work on ammonia synthesis and his involvement in chemical warfare illustrate how scientific knowledge can have very different consequences depending on how it is applied. A discovery can support essential human needs while other applications cause severe harm.
Haber received the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements; the award was presented in 1919. His legacy is therefore complex. His research helped change food production and industrial chemistry, while his involvement in chemical warfare remains a central part of how his career is understood.
Classroom connection: Can chemistry help feed the world sustainably?
Haber’s work creates a direct link between chemical reactions and a real-world challenge. Ask students why plants need nitrogen and why the abundance of nitrogen gas in the atmosphere does not automatically mean that plants can use it. Students can then investigate how fertilisers supply nutrients and how their use can affect crop production.
A useful extension is to compare the benefits and environmental costs of nitrogen fertilisers. Students could consider how farmers decide when and how much fertiliser to apply, what happens when excess nutrients wash into waterways, and how improved application methods might reduce waste. The aim is to recognise that a chemical process can be useful without being impact-free.
For older students, the Haber-Bosch process provides an opportunity to revisit reversible reactions, equilibrium, pressure, temperature, and catalysts. They can consider why industrial chemists must balance reaction rate, yield, energy use, and cost when designing a process.
The Nobel Prize biography of Fritz Haber provides information about his life and research, while the Nobel Prize facts page explains the ammonia synthesis process and its agricultural importance.
Using Science on This Day in your classroom
These three events offer different ways to connect science with students’ lives. Engelbart’s demonstration shows how computing tools can change the way people work together. Smallpox eradication illustrates the role of biology, vaccination, and international cooperation in protecting public health. Haber’s work connects chemical reactions with food production, industrial development, environmental impact, and scientific ethics.
You could use one of the stories as a short starter, ask students to identify the problem being addressed, and then have them discuss the evidence or technology that made progress possible. Alternatively, students could compare the long-term effects of the three events: how a new interface changes work, how a vaccination campaign changes disease transmission, or how an industrial process changes food production.
My December Science on This Day activity set contains 132 science and STEM events across the 31 days of December. It includes an interactive HTML version with date and subject filters, a classroom display mode, discussion questions and favourites, plus editable slides, a filterable spreadsheet, and a printable PDF. You can choose a brief event for a warm-up or use a discussion question to develop a longer classroom conversation.
For more ready-to-use activities across science topics, explore The Teaching Astrophysicist resource store.
What else happened in science during December?
December offers plenty of other events for connecting the history of science with classroom topics. On December 10, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, and the Hubble Space Telescope’s corrective optics were installed during a servicing mission in 1993. December 11 marks Apollo 17’s landing on the Moon in 1972 and the birth of microbiologist Robert Koch in 1843.
On December 14, Max Planck presented work that helped launch quantum theory, while NASA’s Mariner 2 spacecraft made a historic flyby of Venus in 1962. December 17 marks the Wright brothers’ first powered flight in 1903 and the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938.
Later in the month, Apollo 8 launched on December 21, the Earthrise photograph was taken on December 24, and the James Webb Space Telescope launched on December 25, 2021.
Taken together, these events show how scientific discoveries emerge from observation, experimentation, engineering, and cooperation. They also provide a reminder that science is not separate from society: its applications can influence how people communicate, protect health, produce food, and respond to environmental challenges.
Thanks for reading
Cheers and stay curious
Oliver - The Teaching Astrophysicist
