dysPEPSIa

Pepsi was created by an American pharmacist, Caleb Bradham, in 1893. Bradham had attended the University of Maryland School of Medicine as an aspiring doctor but had to drop out due to a family crisis. He opened a drug store instead, and named his invention ‘Brad’s Drink’. Bradham believed the drink aided digestion; renaming it Pepsi-Cola (dyspepsia is the medical term for indigestion).

Pepsi was the first American consumer product to be sold in the USSR. At that time, the Soviet ruble was not internationally accepted, so the USSR paid with vodka. When vodka supplies could no longer keep up with Russian demands for Pepsi, the USSR traded a military fleet for three billion dollars worth of Pepsi. Pepsi suddenly owned 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer. Pepsi was now the 6th most powerful navy in the world. The fleet was quickly sold to a Swedish company for scrap recycling.