1943Reputable sourceWell documented
LSD and the Birth of Psychedelics
On the timeline · around 1943 ·
What happened
In 1943 the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, who had first synthesized LSD in 1938 at Sandoz, accidentally absorbed a dose and experienced the world's first acid trip — famously riding his bicycle home through a swirl of hallucinations on 'Bicycle Day.'
Why it matters
LSD launched the modern psychedelic era — first as a promising psychiatric tool, then as the chemical emblem of 1960s counterculture, then as a banned drug.
Sources
- Smithsonian Magazine. The First LSD Trip Was a Literal Bicycle Ride · Reputable source