76 years ago today...

[cobalt1999]

www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/04/dayintech_0407


President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the law changing the Volstead act to legalize the sale of 3.2 percent beer.


1933: Although it will be another eight months before Prohibition is officially repealed, this is a red-letter day for beer drinkers. Suds containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol by weight are legally obtainable again, without having to get the glad eye from some guy behind a peep hole and telling him, "Louie sent me."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signature repealed the Volstead Act, legalizing 3.2 percent beer. It also paved the way for the December ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment and deep-sixed Prohibition altogether.

The Volstead Act, which is how the National Prohibition Act was widely known, was pushed hard by religious and temperance groups and passed Congress in 1919 over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson.

[phantom power]

1. Thus setting back the development of American beer by 50 years.

[SteppingRazor]

2. FDR may not have known a good drink if it splashed him in the face...

but God bless'em anyway.


(The man was famous for his extremely wet martinis :puke: )

On another note, FDR and Winston Churchill memorably spent a large part of WWII completely tanked.

Hitler didn't drink.

I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned there somewhere. :patriot:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. The failure of the 18th Amendment

shows that you simply can't legislate morality. Ironically, there are still plenty of "dry" counties around--and it is very interesting to note their drunk driving statistics.

Let's hope that the US Government repeals another law that went into effect 74 years ago....