Episode 1 of 3

Development of Coca-Cola

When: 1886
Where: Atlanta
Part of: Event of 1886: American pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that will b

Pemberton developed a non-alcoholic beverage in 1886 to comply with Atlanta's temperance laws, replacing his alcoholic French Wine Coca.

In 1886, Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation. Pemberton responded by creating a non-alcoholic version of his French Wine Coca nerve tonic. The drink was marketed as a patent medicine, claimed to cure morphine addiction, indigestion, and headaches, leveraging the popularity of carbonated water.

Sources

Coca-Cola Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-06

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.