The History of Coca-Cola.

It all started in May of 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, where pharmacist John Pemberton created the caramel colored syrup that is known worldwide as Coca-Cola. He took the syrup to Jacob's pharmacy where it was mixed with carbonated water to create a drink that was "delicious and refreshing." On May 8th, 1886, Jacob's pharmacy started selling the drink at the soda fountain for 5 cents a glass. John Pemberton's bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, named the creation Coca-Cola and scripted the logo that is still famous today. Even though only 9 glasses were sold a day for the first year, 10 years later more than 10 billion gallons of syrup was produced by the coca-cola company. Unfortunately John Pemberton died in 1888 and was never able to see the success that was made by his invention. From the years of 1888-1891, Asa Griggs Candler secured rights to the company for $2,300 and became the first president of the company. Coupons were given away for complimentary first tastes of the drink and there were distributions of clocks, urns, calendars, and apothecary scales with the coca-cola brand in 1896. In 1894, a Mississippi businessman named Joseph Biedanharn was the first to put the drink in bottles, but when he sent 12 bottles to Candler, the president wasn't even interested. In 1899, 2 Chattanooga lawyers named Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead secured exclusive rights from Candler to bottle and sell the drink for the sum of a dollar. They wanted to be sure that the people were getting the original coca-cola and not a copycat, so they held a contest for designing the signature bottle. The root glass company of Terre Haute, Indiana, won the contest where the design of the bottle was recognized in the dark. 
In 1900, there were only 2 bottlers, but by 1920 there were 1,000 bottlers. Ernest Woodruff purchased the company from Candler in 1919 and in 1923, his son, Robert Woodruff, became the president of the company and remained its leader for over 60 years. He led the expansions overseas by first introducing coca-cola to the Olympic games with the United States' team at the Amsterdam Olympics. He also developed and distributed the 6 pack and the top cooler and when America entered World War 2 in 1941, he ordered that "every man in uniform gets a bottle of coca cola for 5 cents, wherever he is, and whatever it costs the company." From the mid 1950s until 1960, the number of countries with bottling operations nearly doubled and the imagery of advertising were basically happy couples at the drive-in or a group of smiling teenagers or little kids. 

New flavors started developing from the 1940s; Fanta was developed in the 1940s, but introduced in the 1950s, sprite was in 1961, TAB in 1963, and Fresca in 1966. In 1960, the coca-cola company acquired the minute maid company and moved into Cambodia, Montserrat, Paraguay, Macau, Turkey, and many more countries. The 1970s became the important years of the business, which was about advertising. In 1971, there was an international commercial showing a group of young people from all over the world gathered on a hilltop in Italy singing "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke."

The People's Republic of China selected coca-cola as the only company to sell cold beverages in 1978. In 1981, Roberto C. Goizueta became chairman of the Board of Directors and the CEO of the company. He had a strategy called "intelligent risk taking" where he took risks suck as organizing a new public company called Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and introducing the diet cola in 1982, which became the top lower calorie drink in the world. For the first time in 99 years, he also changed the original formula to a new taste in 1985 called new coke, but the people begged for the original formula back and the critics called it "the biggest marketing blunder ever", so the company bought back the old formula as coca-cola classic. In the 1990s, coca-cola had the support of the Olympic games, FIFA World Cup Football, Rugby World Cup, and the National Basketball Association, and the coca-cola classic became the official soft drink of NASCAR racing. The "always coca-cola" advertising with the coca-cola polar bear was introduced in 1993 along with new beverages such as Powerade sports drinks, Qoo children's fruit drink, and Dasani bottled water. 
     
By 1997, over 1 billion servings of coca-cola was served each day and today more than 1.7 billion servings are sold per day. Now, coca-cola has over 500 brands such as limca, maaza, and thums up in India, barq's root beer in the United States, inca kola in Peru, and cadbury schweppes beverage brands.