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Legal Stuff
Senate passes a resolution to present a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcohol to the states for ratification. -
Period: to
Other legal stuff to make Prohibition constitutional
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Legal enforecement of Prohibition begins
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The Anti-Prohibition Congress was in Brussels, politicians from Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland came.
It failed to get ‘the active support of a hundred million European advocates’ to repeal Prohibition in America -
Home invasion and outcry
There was public outcry after police invaded a home in Portland, Oregon. They used an illegal search warrant based only on an ‘anonymous tip.’ The governor said that time had changed the belief that people’s homes were their castles. They were no longer sanctuaries. So Oregonians should keep their homes such that ‘visiting’ Prohibition agents would be welcome at any time.’ -
Sen. Greene of Vermont paralyzed
He was paralyzed by a stray bullet from a bootlegger and law enforcement fight -
San Fran Cases
In the city of San Francisco alone, there were 2,500 Prohibition cases awaiting trial. The courts finally offered ‘bargain days.’ Those accused could plead guilty in return for low fines or sentences -
Health
Dr. Raymond Pearl published Alcohol and Longevity. He had found that moderate drinkers outlived both abstainers and heavy drinkers.65 Dr. Pearl’s findings were during the middle of Prohibition and got little attention. But over time, more and more research has supported his findings. -
Voluntary Committee of Lawyers
A group of highly influential attorneys formed the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers. Its members promoted the repeal of Prohibition. -
AMA Hypocrisy
The American Medical Association denounced limits on how much medicinal alcohol doctors could prescribe. It said there should be no laws restricting the use of therapies by physicians. Yet ten years earlier the AMA had officially supported Prohibition. It said alcohol’s “use in therapeutics has no scientific value.” However, doctors found that writing prescriptions for alcohol was highly profitable. Now, the AMA insisted that alcohol was useful in treating 27 separate conditions. -
Pauline Sabin
Pauline Sabin formed the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WOMPR). The president of the WCTU had said to Congress that “I represent the women of the United States!” Sabin disagreed. She had earlier been a staunch supporter of Prohibition. But over time she came to believe that it was not only ineffective. It was causing very serious problems and making others worse. -
The Wall Street Crash Sparks The Depression
Hoover looks at economics with a laissez-faire approach. The unemployment rate is at 3.2%, it will lag behind the crash -
Nation-wide poll
The Literary Digest conducted a nation-wide poll. It found that 31% of respondents favored enforcement of Prohibition, 29% favored modification, and 40% favored its repeal. -
Dust Bowls Begin
Hoover says unemployment will pass quickly within the next few months. Tariff Act was passed to help support farmers (it didn't). The land became unusable for crops.
Unemployment reaches 8.7%, inflation rising. -
Food Riots and Banks Collapse
Unemployment continues, and resentment for foreign workers bubbles up. Bank of the US fails, a huge impact on the GD. Banks weren't insured then.
Unemployment reaches 16.3% -
Rock bottom (the second)
Since its peak in August 1929, the economy would reach rock bottom after a 27% shrink. -
Revenue Act
President Hoover signs the Revenue Act of 1932, which increases the top income tax rate to 63%. Believing it would restore confidence and reduce the federal deficit, the taxes being pushed to a higher rate would actually make the depression worse. -
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
RFC is created, and authorized to lend money to states in July. -
Franklin D Roosevelt
Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States after defeating Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory. Roosevelt got 22,800,000 popular votes, compared to Hoover who got 15,750,000. -
Prohibition ends
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Dust Storms and Droughts Continue
Federal mortgage insurance is provided by the Federal Housing Administration and the stock market becomes regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Americans also saw the hottest temperatures on record in 1934, and when the year came to an end, droughts had covered 75% of the nation. -
Dust Storms and Droughts Continue
Known as Black Sunday, the worst dust storm hits the United States. In order to help farmers learn how to work sustainably, President Roosevelt introduces the Soil Conservation Act. -
Spending on New Deal Programs Cut
This year, President Roosevelt had the difficult task of having to manage the debt, but also try to keep the economy out of the depression. In an attempt to relieve the country’s debt, he cut back spending on the New Deal programs, which ultimately pushed the economy back into the depression. In the end, after a $5 billion relief program was enacted by Congress, the economy grew by 5.1%. -
Economic Growth
The economy started to grow again this year, eventually bringing the country out of the Great Depression. However, unemployment rates were still extremely high. Unemployment Rate: 19.0% -
Resistance
Ho Chi Minh and communist colleagues establish the League for the Independence of Vietnam. Known as the Viet Minh, the movement aims to resist the French and Japanese occupation of Vietnam. -
United States Enters The War
When the United States enters the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the country is finally able to get out of the Great Depression by mobilizing for war. At the end of the Second World War, despite its devastating effects, the United States would emerge as the only economic superpower in the world. United States Enters The War -
Truman Doctrine
In an address to Congress, President Harry Truman states that the foreign policy of the United States is to assist any country whose stability is threatened by communism. The policy becomes known as the Truman Doctrine. -
Brown v. Board
Brown v. Board of Education, a consolidation of five cases into one, is decided by the Supreme Court, effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated. -
Civil Rights
Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote. -
MLK, March on Washington
Approximately 250,000 people take part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gives his “I Have A Dream” speech as the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, stating, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” -
Civil Rights, EEOC
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin. Title VII of the Act establishes the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to help prevent workplace discrimination. -
Voting Rights
President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places. -
Fair Housing Act
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion, or national origin. -
Presidential resignation
President Nixon resigns in the face of likely impeachment after the Watergate Scandal is revealed. Gerald R. Ford becomes president. -
After the Vietnam war
By the end of the war, some 58,220 Americans lose their lives. Vietnam would later release estimates that 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters were killed, up to 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died and more than 2 million civilians were killed on both sides of the war. -
Evacuation
In the Fall of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam is seized by communist forces, and the government of South Vietnam surrendered. U.S. Marine and Air Force helicopters transport more than 1,000 American civilians and nearly 7,000 South Vietnamese refugees out of Saigon in an 18-hour mass evacuation effort.