Bicycle Day

Celebrated every April 19th, Bicycle Day commemorates the first time that Albert Hofmann intentionally ingested LSD.

Working for Sandoz Laboratories, the Swiss-born chemist Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD on November 16, 1938. His intention was to create a respiratory and circulatory stimulant. Five years later, on April 16, 1943, Hofmann revisited the synthesis, absorbing a small amount while working with the LSD. He experienced an “intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination” and “perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.”

Three days later, on April 19, 1943, Hofmann became the first person to intentionally ingest LSD, taking a healthy 250 microgram dose. An hour later, as his perception began to shift, he asked his laboratory assistant to escort him home. In the midst of WWII rationing, they bicycled. Though Hofmann was freaking out – deep anxiety, including fears that his neighbor was a malevolent witch – on the way home, a doctor came to his house, examined him, and proclaimed he was experiencing no physical problems. Reassured, Hofmann started to dig his trip:

Little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux…

Hofmann imagined that the drug could have powerful psychiatric uses. It would take others, namely Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, Owsley, and the Grateful Dead to explore LSD recreationally and encourage others to do the same.

Be sure to celebrate Bicycle Day!