Time-Line

-1886: a pharmacist named John Pemberton invented Coca Cola.

-1887: Coca Cola had made its first efforts in marketing by giving out free-drink
coupons to people for them to taste the new beverage.
-1888: John Pemberton, creator of Coca Cola died in August of 1888.
-1891: John Pembeton sold the majority of his business interest sold to Atlanta
businessman, Asa G. Candler.
-1894: impressed by the growing demand for Coca-Cola and the desire to make the
beverage portable, Joseph Biedenharn installed bottling machinery in the rear of his
Mississippi soda fountain, becoming the first to put Coca-Cola in bottles.
-1899: Ben Franklin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead approached Candler about
bottling the drink so it was available beyond the soda fountain
-1899: large scale bottling was made possible, when three enterprising businessmen
in Chattanooga, Tennessee secured exclusive rights to bottle and sell Coca-Cola.
-1903: the cocaine content of Coca-Cola stops being in the recipe
-1909: by this time, Coca Cola had a total of 379 bottling plants all over American
cities and towns.
-1916: because of the number of imitators, bottlers needed a distinctive and
standard bottle. In 1916, bottlers approved the unique design for the Coca Cola
bottles.