Today the substance is a Schedule I drug, the most restrictive type. Whatever its past therapeutic uses, the FDA now considers it to have a high potential for abuse, with no legitimate medical use. And such uses were at first numerous. Sandoz Laboratories brought it over to the United States. Its effects on the brain were considered to mimic psychosis, which made it an invaluable means of inducing the state. It was also thought conducive to increased creativity, a cure for alcoholism, and an overall harmless recreational drug. Legions of LSD consumers in medical experiments and otherwise have Albert Hofmann to thank — or blame — for his invention.

On this day, November 16, in 1938, while researching circulatory and respiratory stimulants for Sandoz Laboratories in Basle, Switzerland, Albert Hofmann created the substance LSD.

Hoffman did not know right away what he had created. He set the research aside for five years before coming back to try and re-synthesize the drug. At one point during the experiment, he absorbed a small amount of the substance through his fingertips. Suddenly, he began experiencing strange hallucinations, feeling he was poisoned and that only milk could cure him. “Everything in the room spun around, and the familiar objects and pieces of furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forms,” he wrote of the experience in his diary. “The lady next door, whom I scarcely recognized, brought me milk… She was no longer Mrs. R., but rather a malevolent, insidious witch with a colored mask.”