Event of the Day — Coca-Cola® Invented

The product, “Pemberton’s French Wine Cola,” was advertised as a treatment for drug addiction, depression, alcoholism, and “neurasthenia” (a disease of high-strung women). It was billed as beneficial for “ladies, and all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration, irregularities of the stomach, bowels and kidneys, who require a nerve tonic and a pure, delightful diffusible stimulant.”

The alcohol in French Wine Cola became problematic when Fulton County, Georgia, implemented temperance laws, and Pemberton was forced to prepare a non-alcoholic version, working with an Atlanta druggist named Willis Venable. On March 29, 1886, the two created a new drink, blending the base syrup developed from French Wine Cola with carbonated water. Pemberton thought it would work better as a fountain drink than as a medicine, and so began the soft drink known as Coca-Cola®.

On this day in history —

• The largest military engagement in the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Towton, takes place (1461)
• The Knights of Columbus is founded (1882)
• The last V-1 “buzz bomb” attack takes place (1945)
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage (1951)
• Lieutenant William Calley is convicted for the My Lai massacre (1971)
• Charles Manson is sentenced to death (1971)
• The Terracotta Army is discovered in China (1974)
• Mariner 10 reaches Mercury (1974)
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average breaks 10,000 for the first time (1999)

It’s the birthday of —

• Jennifer Capriati, tennis player (1976)
• Lucy Lawless, actress (1968)
• Ондар Коңгар-оол (Kongar-ol Ondar), Tuvan throat singer (1962)
• Billy Beane, sabermetrician (1962)
• Amy Sedaris, actress and comedienne (1961)
• Annabella Sciorra, actress (1960)
• Kurt Thomas, gymnast (1956)
• Marina Sirtis, Star Trek counselor (1955)
• Earl Campbell, football player (1955)
• Brendan Gleeson, played Mad-Eye Moody in Harry Potter (1955)
• Karen Ann Quinlan, right-to-die case (1954)
• Bud Cort, actor (1948)
• Walt Frazier, basketball player (1945)
• Denny McLain, baseball player (1944)
• Eric Idle, Monty Python member (1943)
• John Major, prime minister (1943)
• Vangelis, composer (1943)
• Billy Carter, beer namesake (1937)
• Judith Guest, author (1936)
• Vincent “the Chin” Gigante, crime boss known as “The Oddfather” (1928)
• John McLaughlin, bloviator (1927)
• Eileen Heckart, actress (1919)
• Pearl Bailey, singer (1918)
• Sam Walton, retailer (1918)
• Man o’War, racehorse (1917)
• Eugene McCarthy, presidential candidate (1916)
• Hanna Reitsch, test pilot (1912)
• Arthur O’Connell, actor (1908)
• E. Power Biggs, organist (1906)
• Philip Ahn, Master Kan in Kung Fu (1905)
• Don “Midnight” Miller, football player (1902)
• Лавре́нтий Бе́рия (Lavrentiy Beria), secret policeman (1899)
• József Mindszenty, cardinal (1892)
• Warner Baxter, Cisco Kid (1889)
• Cy Young, baseball player (1867)
• John Tyler, 10th US president (and my g-g-g-g-great uncle) (1790)

Deaths —

• Johnnie Cochran, lawyer (2005)
• John Lewis, jazz pianist (2001)
• Paul Henreid, actor (1992)
• Lee Atwater, political strategist (1991)
• Ted Kluzewski, baseball player (1988)
• Jeanine Deckers, singing nun (1985)
• Mantovani, conductor (1980)
• Georges Seurat, pointillist (1891)
• John Jacob Astor, businessman (1848)
• Emanuel Swedenborg, scientist and theologian (1772)

Holidays —