On this day 23 years ago the Coca-Cola Bottling Company announced that they had "irrevocably" changed the formula for Coke, unveiling the "New Coke," which was, apparently, the only recipe prepared to take the Coca Cola Co. into the 21st century. The executives at Coca-Cola held the much beloved original recipe hostage for exactly 79 days until public outcry forced them reintroduce the original formula, now marketed as Coca-Cola "Classic." The "New Coke" fiasco is one of the most well remembered corporate blunders in recent memory, costing the Coca Cola company millions of dollars in lost profits and damage control. Apparently, when executives at Coke noticed that perennial No. 2 cola Pepsi eating away at their market share, especially among the all important youth demographic, they panicked. Some observers might have chalked up the loss in market share to a high profile national ad campaign launched the year before that featured a young(er) Michael Jackson and a spiffy new slogan for the mid-80s; "Pepsi: The Choice of a New Generation." The executives at Coke were not so naive. Americans, according to Coke, had moved on. Clearly the shift to Pepsi was indicative, not of particularly savvy marketing, but rather of a sudden and massive change in the taste preferences of American consumers. What was a fine Cola in Reagan's first term, was simply not adequate for his second. And so the Coca-Cola company proceeded to do exactly what we are warned not to do and decided to fix what wasn't broke. Reactions to New Coke were mixed, some people hated it while others merely disliked it. When Coca-Cola reintroduced the original formula on July 10 Peter Jennings interrupted regular programming to share the good news with America, on the floor of the U.S. Senate Arkansas Senator David Pryor declared it "a meaningful moment in U.S. history," and, it is said, the heavens opened up to allow angels to walk among mere mortals and, for that one single moment, humanity was united in love happiness and refreshment. God bless America.