Volstead Act Passed: Prohibition Gets Its Enforcement Law
The Volstead Act overrode President Wilson's veto to define "intoxicating liquors" as anything exceeding 0.5% alcohol, effectively launching a nationwide ban on production and sale while carving out exceptions for religious rituals and industrial fuel. This rigid legal framework sparked the rise of organized crime and illegal speakeasies that flooded cities with bootlegged spirits until the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the law just over a decade later.
October 28, 1919
107 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on October 28
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