Hi, everyone. I'm John Haggardorn. And welcome to Found in the Footnotes.

Amazing history in 5 to 10 minute sound bites. Now ready to be discovered every Wednesday at 4 p.m. Easter time, right here at 1001 Heroes.

Another gem rises to the surface, and our story begins.

Imagine it's a warm afternoon in Atlanta, Georgia. The year is 1886.

Horse-drawn carriages rattle down dusty streets. Electricity is still a novelty, and medicine is questionable, at least.

Inside a small pharmacy, a man stirs a dark, syrupy liquid.

That man was John Stith Pemberton.

Pemberton wasn't trying to change the world.

In fact, he was trying to save himself.

He was a pharmacist and a Civil War veteran who had been badly wounded in battle.

To manage the pain, doctors prescribed him morphine, a common treatment at the time,

and over the years, Pemberton had become addicted.

Desperate for an alternative, he turned to what he knew best, chemistry.

Like many pharmacists in the late 1800s, Pemberton experimented with tonics,

drinks that promised energy, focus, and relief from pain.

These medicines were sold over the counter and often contained powerful

ingredients. One of his early successes was a drink called French wine coca made with wine

and coca leaf extract. It sold well until Atlanta passed a law banning alcohol. Suddenly,

Pepper didn't had a problem.

But instead of giving up, he went back to his lab.

He removed the wine and replaced it with a sweet syrup.

He kept the coca leaf extract and added cola nut, which contained caffeine.

...