A Condensed Timeline of Prohibition

This era began with the ratification of the Eighteenth (18th) Amendment on January 16, 1919. 

• In simplistic terms, the 18th Amendment prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” but did not ban the consumption, private possession, or production for one’s own consumption. 

The 18th Amendment was proving incredibly difficult to enforce. So, on October 28, 1919 Congress passed the National Prohibition Act.

• Also known as the Volstead Act, the National Prohibition Act provided guidelines for the federal enforcement of Prohibition. 

• It also defined an intoxicating beverage as anything that contained more than one half of one percent of alcohol. 

• The Volstead Act had a number of loopholes to exploit, which made it completely ineffective by January 17,1920. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act in April of 1933, as a preliminary step to ending Prohibition. This Act amended the Volstead Act and allowed the manufacturing and sale of low-alcohol beer and wines.

• This Act also raised the legal alcohol percentage from one half of one percent to 3.2%

Prohibition, and subsequently the 18th Amendment, were repealed with the ratification of the Twenty-First (21st) Amendment on December 5, 1933 - thirteen years after it first began.