Charles A. Kiesling at Sperry Rand invented the blinking cursor. He filed the patent on August 24, 1967.

Kiesling was a Korean War naval veteran who joined Sperry Rand in 1955. The patent (US 3,531,796) was granted on September 29, 1970. His simple solution to help operators find their position on CRT screens became one of computing's most enduring interface elements.