Prohibition in the United States December 18, 1918. Upon being approved by a 36th state on January 16, 1919, the amendment was ratified as a part of the Constitution. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, on January 17, 1920. On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The act established the legal definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them. Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the federal government lacked resources to enforce it. Prohibition was successful in
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution 24%, including increases in assault and battery, theft, and burglary. Anti-prohibition groups arose and worked to have the amendment repealed, once it became apparent that Prohibition was an unprecedented catastrophe. It is alleged that the Eighteenth Amendment failed because of its sudden, strict enforcement. It didn't allow the people to have a say or let them gradually ease into the complete ban of alcoholic beverages. Instead, the people rebelled and the introduction of speakeasies and "flappers" came about. The Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933. Following ratification in 1919 the effects of the amendment were long