On May 29, 1886, American chemist John Pemberton launched advertisements for a freshly invented soft drink — one destined to become nothing less than an American icon: Coca-Cola. The remarkable thing? He never set out to create one of history's most beloved beverages. He wasn't even trying to make a soft drink in the first place. The whole thing was essentially an accident.
During the Civil War, Pemberton served in the Confederate Army and suffered a severe saber wound at the Battle of Columbus. The injury left him dependent on morphine for pain management, and he quickly became addicted. That struggle with morphine addiction motivated him to leverage his chemistry expertise once the war ended, driving him to search for a pain-relieving formula free of morphine's dangerous side effects. Armed with a brass cauldron and determination, he began experimenting with various concoctions right in his own backyard.
What emerged from those experiments in May 1886 wasn't exactly the morphine substitute he'd been chasing — but it turned out to be delicious and refreshing. Pemberton brought his creation to Jacob's Pharmacy, which sold soft drinks at its soda fountain, and offered it up for tasting. The pharmacy's verdict? "Excellent." They promptly added it to their soda lineup. Customers loved it, and its popularity grew quickly. Pemberton then placed an advertisement in The Atlanta Journal, encouraging thirsty Atlantans to give "the new and popular soda fountain drink" a try. From that point forward, as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Fun Fact: Coca-Cola contained trace amounts of cocaine due to the coca leaf. But they stopped using the coca leaf in 1903.