Short answers, pulled from the story.
Pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in May 1886 as a patent medicine intended to help him control his morphine addiction, which he had developed after being severely wounded in the American Civil War. He formulated the drink using cocaine from coca leaves and caffeine from kola nuts, which were then being promoted as a treatment for opioid dependence.
The Coca-Cola Company was incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia in January 1892 by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, who had purchased the formula and brand for $2,300 in 1889. The company remains headquartered in Atlanta today.
Frank Mason Robinson, John Pemberton's bookkeeper, chose the name Coca-Cola because the drink's two main ingredients were coca leaves and kola nuts and because the name is an alliteration. Robinson also created the original logo.
Coca-Cola acquired Columbia Pictures in 1982 for $692 million, making it the first and only film studio the company has ever owned. During its ownership, Columbia released Ghostbusters and The Karate Kid, but Coca-Cola sold the studio to Sony for $3 billion in 1989.
The Coca-Cola Company produces over 3 million tonnes of plastic packaging each year, including 110 billion plastic bottles annually. A study published in Science Advances in 2024 found the company was responsible for 11% of global branded plastic pollution by count, more than any other company.
The Global Energy Balance Network was a front organization funded by The Coca-Cola Company to counter evidence linking its products to childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes in the United States. An investigative report in August 2015 exposed it as a corporate front, after which it was shut down.