Which came first, Coca-Cola or the Statue of Liberty?

Both arrived in 1886. John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta. The statue was dedicated in New York Harbor.

Side by side

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.

the Statue of Liberty

Dedicated in October 1886, the statue predates the Eiffel Tower by two and a half years — and its internal iron framework was designed by Gustave Eiffel, who went on to use what he learned on the tower. It arrived from France in 214 crates and the American side had to raise the money for the pedestal by public subscription, which nearly failed. The copper skin is about 2.4 mm thick, roughly the thickness of two pennies.