In May, 1886, Coca Cola was invented by Doctor John Pemberton a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia. John Pemberton concocted the Coca Cola formula in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard. The name was a suggestion given by John Pemberton's book keeper Frank Robinson.

It was a prohibition law, enacted in Atlanta in 1886, that persuaded physician and chemist Dr. John Stith Pemberton to rename and rewrite the formula for his popular nerve tonic, stimulant and headache remedy, "Pemberton's French Wine Coca," sold at that time by most, if not all, of the city's druggists.

So when the new Coca-Cola debuted later that year - still possessing "the valuable tonic and nerve stimulant properties of the coca plant and cola nuts," yet sweetened with sugar instead of wine - Pemberton advertised it not only as a "delicious, exhilarating, refreshing and invigorating" soda-fountain beverage but also as the ideal "temperance drink." It is said coke was discovered when DeLuise, a 19th century American soda jerk accidentally hit the soda water spigot, adding carbonated water to the syrup in the glass. The result was a "happy accident": the invention of Coca-Cola.

Though Pemberton died just two years later - five months, in fact, after his March 24, 1888, filing for incorporation of the first Coca-Cola Co. - the trademark he and his partners created more than one hundred years ago can claim wider recognition today than that of any other brand in the world.