United States History Timeline

  • Rum Row

    Rum Row
    William McCoy, a Florida skipper, pioneered the "rum running" trade by sailing a schooner loaded with 1500 cases of liquor from Nassau in the British colony of the Bahamas to Savannah and pocketing $15,000 in profits from just one trip.
  • The Circle

    Layer George Remus moves to Cincinnati to set up a drug company to gain legal access to bonded liquor.
  • The Good Bootlegger

    Roy Olmstead bootlegged alcohol while serving as police lieutenant. By 1920, Roy Olmstead had become "King of the Pudget Sound Bootleggers."
  • Kentucky Stills

    Kentucky Stills
    Frank Mather signs on with treasury department to scour Nelson County, Kentucky for moonshiners, arresting them and dumping their whiskey into local streams.
  • Scofflaw

    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.
  • Beer Wars

    Beer Wars
    Alphonse 'Al' Capone is blamed for murder of prosecutor, Billy McSwiggin.
  • Purple Gang Trial

    Purple Gang Trial
    The Purple Gang of Detroit, Michigan, goes to trial for bootlegging and hijacking.
  • Gang Violence

    Gang Violence
    By 1929 gang violence is on the rise in nearly every city in the United States
  • The Great Depression

    The Great Depression
    The Great Depression hits the country's economy hard
  • The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

    The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
    What happened in the streets in the streets of Chicago during Prohibition made the city synonymous with murder and mayhem for a generation. On February 14, 1929, Al Capone has seven of Bugs Moran's men murdered in Chicago.