Each year on May 8, millions of people across the country celebrate National Have a Coke Day. Â Coca-Cola, often referred to as Coke, is a carbonated soft drink that is produced by The Coca-Cola Company. Coke is a registered trademark of the Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944. Â As of 2013, Coke products can be found in over 200 countries around the world as consumers down more than 1.8 million company beverage servings each day.
In 1886, John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, at Pemberton’s Eagle Drug and Chemical House in Columbus, Georgia, intending it as a patent medicine. It was then bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler. Candler’s marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century.
Though U.S. pharmacist John S. Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886, his bookkeeper, Frank Robinson invented the name. Robinson had beautiful handwriting, and his flowering script is still used today.
- 1891 – The first bottling of Coco-Cola occurred at the Biedenharn Candy Company in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
- 1894 – The first outdoor wall advertisement that promoted the Coca-Cola drink was painted in Cartersville, Georgia
- 1914 – The longest running commercial Coca-Cola soda fountain anywhere was Atlanta’s Fleeman’s Pharmacy. The pharmacy closed its doors in 1995 after 81 years.
- 1944 – July 12, the one-billionth gallon of Coca-Cola syrup was manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company.
- 1955 – Cans of Coke first appeared.
- Coca-Cola was first marketed as a nerve tonic that “relieves exhaustion.’
- Only two countries in the world do not sell Coca-Cola: North Korea and Cuba.
- Coke sold 25 bottles its first year. Today, it sells 1.8 billion bottles—per day
- Coca-Cola was the first commercial sponsor of the Olympic Games in 1928.
- A can of Coke will sink in water whereas a can Diet Coke will float.
- In order for Coca-Cola to continue to operate in its current form, the company has a special arrangement with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to allow them to import dried coca leaves from Peru (and to a lesser degree, from Bolivia) in huge quantities.
- Coca-Cola Freestyle (the touch screen drink machines with a bunch of options) are designed by Pininfarina. Pininfarina is the design house that designs Ferraris.
- Coca-Cola has so many types of drinks that it would take a person drinking one a day over nine years to try them all.
- A Soviet Union Marshal commissioned a colorless coca-cola resembling vodka because he liked the taste, so that he could drink coke without offending Joseph Stalin
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