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Volstead Act, U.S. law enacted in 1919 (and taking effect in 1920) to provide enforcement for the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. -
The 18th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. -
In 1920, Lawyer George Remus moved to Cincinnati to set up a drug company to gain legal access to bonded liquor. -
Roy Olmstead bootlegged alcohol while serving as a police lieutenant. By 1920, Roy Olmstead had become "King of the Puget Sound Bootleggers." "My dad thought that prohibition was an immoral law. So he had no compunction about breaking that law. And dad’s particular job was the bagman for the police department. He decided that patrolmen would get so much and no more per week; sergeants would get so much; lieutenants, captains, and so on. So he was the paymaster for the Olmstead Gang." -
In 1922, Frank Mather signed on with the treasury department to scour Nelson County, Kentucky for moonshiners, arresting them and dumping their whiskey into local streams. -
In 1924, four years after Prohibition was first imposed, the Boston Herald offered $200 to the reader who came up with a brand-new word for someone who flagrantly ignored the edict and drank liquor that had been illegally made or illegally sold. Twenty-five thousand responded. Two readers split the prize. Each had come up with the same word – “scofflaw.” -
In 1926 Alphonse 'Al' Capone is blamed for murder of prosecuter, Billy McSwiggin. "So all the gangsters who had their own neighborhoods in Chicago started vying for the work in their territories. Well, the strong won out and they ended up with the district. And the weak ended up in the cemetery." Jack Clarke -
In 1928, the Purple Gang of Detroit, Michigan, goes to trial for bootlegging and highjacking. -
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929, in which several men dressed as policemen (and believed to be associated with Capone) shot and killed a group of men in an enemy gang. -
The New York Stock Exchange sees a stock market crash. -
With the country mired in the Great Depression by 1932, creating jobs and revenue by legalizing the liquor industry had an undeniable appeal and led to the 21st Amendment being made. -
Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. The 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, ending Prohibition.