---
title: "Which came first, Coca-Cola or LEGO?"
description: "Coca-Cola vs LEGO: Coca-Cola came first, by 46 years — 1886 against 1932. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-lego/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Coca-Cola or LEGO?

**Which came first, Coca-Cola or LEGO?: Coca-Cola**

1886 — 46 years before LEGO

Coca-Cola came first, by 46 years. John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta.

## Side by side

|  | Coca-Cola | LEGO |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1886 | 1932 |
| Date | 1886-05-08 | — |
| Category | company | company |
| What happened | John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta. | Ole Kirk Christiansen started making wooden toys in Billund. |

## Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola went on sale in May 1886 as a patent medicine, selling about nine glasses a day in its first year. Pemberton sold the rights for a few thousand dollars and died in 1888 without seeing any of it. Pepsi followed in 1893 under the name Brad's Drink, renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898 — so Coke is seven years older, and both are older than the Ford Motor Company.

## LEGO

The company began in 1932 making wooden toys; the name comes from leg godt, Danish for "play well". The interlocking plastic brick in its modern form was patented on 28 January 1958, and the tolerances have been held so precisely since that a brick made that day still clutches a brick made today. LEGO is now the largest tyre manufacturer in the world by unit count.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Coca-Cola or LEGO?

Coca-Cola, by 46 years — 1886 against 1932.

### When did Coca-Cola start?

1886. John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta.

### When did LEGO start?

1932. Ole Kirk Christiansen started making wooden toys in Billund.

## Related pages

- [India or LEGO?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/india-vs-lego/)
- [Fanta or LEGO?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fanta-vs-lego/)
- [the car or Coca-Cola?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/car-vs-coca-cola/)
- [the aeroplane or Coca-Cola?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-coca-cola/)
- [the Ford Motor Company or LEGO?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/ford-vs-lego/)
- [Coca-Cola or the Statue of Liberty?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-statue-of-liberty/)
- [Coca-Cola or the Eiffel Tower?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-eiffel-tower/)
- [Coca-Cola or Germany?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-germany/)
- [Coca-Cola or the hamburger?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-hamburger/)
- [Coca-Cola or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-telephone/)
- [Coca-Cola or the lightbulb?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-lightbulb/)
- [Coca-Cola or Nintendo?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-nintendo/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]