18861776 Club

Atlanta pharmacist Pemberton mixes a carbonated syrup he hopes will turn his fortunes around

Struggling with debt and morphine addiction, John Stith Pemberton puts a new cola-flavored drink on sale at his pharmacy.

In 1886, pharmacist John Stith Pemberton faced a desperate gamble. Struggling with morphine addiction and financial ruin, he concocted a carbonated beverage that would change the world. This was not just a drink; it was his last hope for redemption and legacy…

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Coddington founds Newport; a new settlement opens on Aquidneck Island for those driven out by the Antinomian Controversy

The colony takes shape as Coddington plants a settlement built around the promise of religious freedom in Rhode Island.

1846

Taylor's army beats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande; a war is now underway

American troops hold their ground in the first major engagement of the border dispute, with the armies still in the field and the outcome of the wider conflict far from settled.

1976

Six Flags opens the world's first modern looping coaster; the Great American Revolution launches at Magic Mountain

The ride debuts in the park's Bicentennial summer, sending riders through a complete vertical loop for the first time on a modern steel coaster.

19421776 Club

Carrier aircraft do all the fighting as Allied forces move to block a Japanese thrust into the South Pacific.

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Roosevelt makes it official: the Executive Mansion is now the White House

An executive order settles a name the public had already used for ninety years.

1898

Spain's flag comes down in San Juan; the United States takes Puerto Rico

Four centuries of Spanish rule end quietly, ten weeks after the armistice that ended the war.

1879

Edison's thread-filament bulb glows for thirteen and a half hours before it dies

A length of carbonized cotton thread, sealed in glass, outlasts every filament Edison had tried before it.

1900

Washington says it will buy the Danish West Indies for $7 million

The second American attempt in three decades to take the islands, this time with the Caribbean suddenly a strategic priority.

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