Aldous Huxley's mescaline dose, recorded in The Doors of Perception (1954), is one. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1797 opium visions, enshrined in his poem "Kubla Khan," is another.

But one high is so famous it has a birthday: Bicycle Day, April 19, 1943. The world's first acid trip.

You know the gist: Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, tinkering in the labs of Sandoz Chemicals, accidentally absorbs LSD-25 through his fingers. Later sold as "Delysid" by Sandoz, it was one of many synthetic molecules created in Hofmann's quest to prevent post-partum haemorrhaging. (The man who created the world's best-loved hallucinogen was only trying to prevent the death of women in childbirth. And he succeeded in both respects.) Hours later, cycling home, the world shimmered.

Entirely inexperienced with recreational drugs, the Hofmann was befuddled, and decided on a "self-experiment" to delve further.