Burger King, 1953
Keith G Cramer, who owned Keith's Drive-In Restaurant in Daytona Beach, FL, partnered with his father-in-law to start the company. It was originally called Insta-Burger King.
When Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties in 1954, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton and James McLamore purchased the company and renamed it Burger King. In the five decades that followed, the company changed hands a whopping four times.
The 1970s were considered to be BK's 'golden age.'
Due to copyright laws that protect the Burger King name with another Australian company, BK had to go with Hungry Jack's in the country. Australia is the only country to have a BK franchise with a different name.
That's correct.
It also became a soft drink by accident. One day someone walked into Jacobs Pharmacy with a headache and needed a bottle. It was originally intended to be mixed with water before drinking. He didn't want to wait to get home and asked for it to be mixed at the soda fountain there in the drugstore. The tap was down at the other end of the counter, so the man behind the counter just mixed it with soda water. The result is what we know today.
More trivia: In Chinese, "Coca cola" translates to "Bite the wax tadpole."