Dashed left edge = started before May 1886 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond May 1886
Events in May 1886 7
1804 – 1886John Deere (1804-1886)Died 17 May 1886, aged 82John Deere, the American blacksmith and manufacturer who invented the steel plow, died in Moline, Illinois. His self-scouring plow, introduced in 1837, made farming the tough prairie soils of the American Midwest practical and grew into the company that still bears his name. Deere & Company became one of the world's largest agricultural equipment manufacturers.
1830 – 1886Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)Died 15 May 1886, aged 55Emily Dickinson, the reclusive American poet, died at her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems had been published during her lifetime. Her sister discovered the bulk of her manuscripts after her death, and their posthumous publication established her as one of the most important American poets.
1830 – 1886Christina RossettiEnglish poetRossetti wrote devotional and lyrical poetry exploring love, faith, and mortality.
1886Haymarket affairBombing and riot during a Chicago labor rallyA labor rally in support of striking workers at Chicago's Haymarket Square ended when a bomb was thrown at police, killing several officers and triggering gunfire that left both police and civilians dead. Eight anarchist labor activists were controversially tried and convicted, several sentenced to death, in a case that became a global symbol of the struggle for the eight-hour workday. The event helped establish May Day as an international workers' holiday.
1886First Coca-Cola servedJacobs' Pharmacy, Atlanta — May 8, 1886Pharmacist John Stith Pemberton brought his flavoured syrup to Jacobs' Pharmacy in downtown Atlanta on May 8, 1886, where it was mixed with carbonated water and sold for five cents a glass. About nine drinks a day were sold in the first year.
1886 – presentThe Coca-Cola CompanyFrom Atlanta pharmacy to world's most recognised brandThe Coca-Cola Company was founded in Atlanta, Georgia, when pharmacist John Pemberton first served his syrup on May 8, 1886. Today it operates in more than 200 countries, producing over 500 beverage brands, and its trademark script logo is one of the most recognised symbols in history.
1886First Coca-Cola advertisementAtlanta Journal, May 29, 1886Pemberton ran the first advertisement for Coca-Cola in the Atlanta Journal on May 29, 1886. His bookkeeper Frank M. Robinson had named the drink, choosing the alliterative name from its two main ingredients — coca leaves and kola nuts — and penned the flowing Spencerian script logo still used today.