Where did benzene come from?

For commercial use, until World War II, much of benzene was obtained as a by-product of coke production (or "coke-oven light oil") for the steel industry. However, in the 1950s, increased demand for benzene, especially from the growing polymers industry, necessitated the production of benzene from petroleum.

Why did Mitscherlich change benzene to benzol?

Retrieved 2015-06-27. In a footnote on page 43, Liebig, the journal's editor, suggested changing Mitscherlich's original name for benzene (namely, "benzin") to "benzol", because the suffix "-in" suggested that it was an alkaloid (e.g., Chinin (quinine)), which benzene isn't, whereas the suffix "-ol" suggested that it was oily, which benzene is.

How did Kekulé explain benzene?

In 1872, Kekulé suggested that benzene had two complementary structures and that these forms rapidly interconverted, so that if there were a double bond between any pair of carbon atoms at one instant, that double bond would become a single bond at the next instant (and vice versa).