Beer and Spirits
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Custom
Beer Coasters
Irish toast: "May the enemies of Ireland never eat
bread
nor drink whisky, but be tormented with itching without benefit of
scratching."
-- Traditional St. Patrick's Day toast.
(AP, 3/17/99)
2650-2180BCE Egyptian wall paintings
included information on beer production. In 2004 Japan’s Kirin Brewery
produced a beer dubbed “The Old Kingdom Beer.”
(WSJ, 10/14/04, p.A1)
1570-1070BCE Egyptian wall paintings included
information on beer production. In 2004 Japan’s Kirin Brewery produced
a beer dubbed “The New Kingdom Beer.”
(WSJ, 10/14/04, p.A1)
c1116BCE In China an imperial decree stated that it
was a requirement of the heavenly powers that people regularly take a
moderate amount of alcoholic drink.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, Z1 p.8)
296CE Roman Emp. Diocletian
ordered the burning of alchemical manuscripts for fear their
discoveries would debase his coinage. This may have set back the
science of distillation.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.68)
c500-600 Irish monks brought an alembic from the
Middle East that was initially used to distill perfumes. They soon
applied it to spirits and produced Uisce Beatha (water of life), better
known as whiskey.
(WSJ, 8/14/02, p.D8)
500-600CE In Laos a local legend describes a military
celebration for which the stone jars of the Plain of Jars were created
to ferment and store alcohol.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.E)
815 Abu Nawas, Arab poet, died.
His odes included verses on Baghdad liquor that was "as hot between the
ribs as a firebrand."
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.68)
c1000 Cloisters take up brewing at
about the turn of the first millennium. The monks were particularly
interested in the scientific aspects of brewing, and so it was that at
the Brabant Cloister zum Würzen that hops were tried for the very
first time. That probably led to the legend that Brabant King Gambrinus
was the inventor of beer. He is still remembered today as a great
patron of the brewers and a beer lover in his own right.
(www.oldworld.ws/okbeerhist.html)
1000 By this time Europe had about
50 monastic breweries.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.A14)
1100s Bushmills Distillery in
Northern Ireland began producing whiskey.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T8)
1162-1227 Genghis Khan was born in the Hentiyn Nuruu
mountains north of Ulan Bator. His given name was Temujin, "the
ironsmith," and seized control over 5 million square miles that covered
China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Vietnam, and most of Korea and Russia. "In
Search of Genghis Khan" is a book by Tim Severin. He was succeeded by
his son Ogedai, who was succeeded by Guyuk. Ogedai ignored numerous
pleas from his brother Chaghatai to cut down on his drinking and died
of alcoholism as did Guyuk.
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-10)(WUD, 1994, p. 591)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R6)
1300s England recruited Flemish
weavers with promises of "good beer, good food, good bed and good
bedfellow."
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1494 The earliest report of Scots
making whiskey was made. [see 1495]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1495 Jun 1, The first
written record of Scotch Whiskey appeared in the Exchequer Rolls of
Scotland. Friar John Cor was the distiller. The later J&B brand
stood for Justerini and Brooks. [see 1494]
(DTnet, 6/1/97)(SFEC,12/28/97, Z1 p.2)
1500s Most people got married in
June because they took their yearly bath in May and were still smelling
pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides
carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.
Lead cups were used to drink ale
or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple
of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and
prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a
couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and
wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a
"wake".
(e-mail, Riddiough, 5/14/99)
1516 In Bavaria, Germany, the
Reinheitsgebot law was enacted. It required that beer be made from
malt, hops, yeast, water and nothing else.
(WSJ, 5/27/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/15/04, p.A2)
1543 Sugar cane was introduced to
Brazil about this time. Fermented sugar cane later became the base for
cachaca, a light rum that is the national spirit. Cachaca is used to
prepare the national drink, the caipirinha.
(Hem, 4/96, p.10)
1568 Jul 13, Alexander Nowell, the
Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, perfected a way to bottle beer.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(MC, 7/13/02)
1575 The Bols family arrived in
Amsterdam to open ‘het Lootsje’ where they would distill liqueurs. This
was the starting point of what would become the world’s oldest
distillery. Bols began producing Genever, a Dutch style of gin, in
1664. In 2007 it opened a House of Bols museum in the museum quarter in
the Dutch capital. It was dedicated to the history of Jenever (also
known as genever or jeniever), the juniper-flavored alcoholic liquor
from which gin evolved. The museum is housed on two floors of the Bols
headquarters at 14 Paulus Potterstraat. Originally sold as a remedy for
lumbago muscular pain, the traditional Dutch and Flemish drink was
allegedly invented at the end of the 16th century by Sylvius de Bouve,
a chemist, alchemist, renowned scholar and professor at the university
of Leyden.
(http://amsterdam.wantedineurope.com/news/news.php?id_n=2999)(www.lucasbols.com/index.asp)(WSJ,
5/31/08, p.A12)
1584 Mar 18, Ivan IV (53), the
terrible, Russian tsar (1547-84), died. He was succeeded by his
weak-minded son, Fyodor I. Boris Godunov, Fyodor’s brother-in-law,
assumed general control. During his rule Ivan replaced the sale of beer
and mead with vodka at state-run taverns.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(MC, 3/18/02)(SFC, 9/5/03, p.A8)
1600-1700 Cognac 1st appeared when Dutch sea
merchants found that they could better preserve white wine shipped from
France to northern Europe by distilling it. They then learned the wine
got better as it aged in wooden barrels.
(WSJ, 7/14/03, p.A1)
1608 Bushmills Distillery in
Northern Ireland acquired a license for whiskey production. They had
been producing whiskey since the 1100s.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T8)
1609 Henry Hudson gave brandy to
the local Indians and their chief passed out. The place was renamed
"Manahachtanienk," meaning "where everybody got drunk." Authorities say
that "Manhattan" came form an Indian word meaning "high island."
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1620 Dec 21, The Mayflower reached
Plymouth, Mass. after a 63-day voyage. Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower
went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass. The crew
of the ship did not have enough beer to get to Virginia and back to
England so they dropped the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock to preserve their
beer stock.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(AP, 12/20/97)(Hem., 8/96,
p.115)(MC, 12/21/01)
1637 Gekkeikan began making sake
in Kyoto, Japan. The company began supplying the imperial household in
1909.
(SSFC, 9/26/04, p.D12)
1648 The island of St. Martin in
the Lesser Antilles was divided between the French and Dutch. The
southern half went to the Dutch as Sint Maarten, while the northern
half, Saint Martin, became part of the French department of Guadeloupe.
Legend has it that a Dutchman and a Frenchman stood back to back at the
center of the island and paced of their shares. The Dutchman stopped
often to drink beer and was left with the smaller share.
(NH, 10/96, p.60)(SFEC,2/16/97, p.T6)
1660s The British began to
dominate the trade in port wine from Portugal after a political spat
with the French denied them the French Bordeaux wines. Brandy was added
to the Portuguese wines to fortify them for the Atlantic voyage.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T7)(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.T8)
1671 Apr 22, King Charles II sat
in on English parliament after which he gave his Royal Assent to the
several Bills that were presented to him, fourteen private Acts, and
eighteen public, including an act for exporting “Beer, Ale, and Mum.”
(http://british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=37626)
1676 King Carlos II of Spain,
having successfully outlawed a drink suspected of leading to homicides,
inattentiveness at church and moral turpitude, warned his colonial
rulers in Bogota of a drink "that is, beyond all comparison, more
dangerous and which goes by the name of aguardiente." In 1988 Gilma
Mora de Tovar's authored, "Aguardiente and Social Conflicts in 18th
Century New Granada,"
(AP, 9/2/03)
1678 The 1st recorded shipment of
Vinho do Porto was made from Portugal to England.
(SFC, 11/13/03, p.D1)
1688 In France a blind Benedictine
monk named Dom Perignon discovered the fermentation process that led to
champagne. [see 1662] He later devised a cork stopper to hold the
bubbles.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)(Hem., 10/97, p.103)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R34)
1693 Aug 4, Dom Perignon invented
champagne. [see 1688]
(MC, 8/4/02)
1700 The Spanish crown
monopolized the Aquardiente industry in Colombia.
(AP, 9/2/03)
1716 Sep 24, Medici Grand Duke
Cosimo III passed a law limiting and regulating the area of wine
production in Tuscany, thus creating the 1st "Appelation Controlee"
wine.
(Carmignano, 1997)
1755 Arthur Guinness began brewing
a dark-brown stout in the town of Leixlip, Ireland.
(WSJ, 9/12/08, p.B7)
1757 Jan 11, Alexander Hamilton,
first U.S. Secretary of Treasury, was born on St. Croix. After
showing remarkable promise in finance, the young Hamilton was sent by a
benefactor to King’s College in New York. In 1776, Hamilton joined the
Continental Army, where he soon joined George Washington’s staff. After
the war, Hamilton became active in New York politics, gaining a
reputation as a supporter of a strong central government. In the
struggle for the ratification of the Constitution, Hamilton
collaborated with James Madison and John Jay in writing the Federalist
Papers, which were instrumental in the passage of the Constitution. In
1789, newly elected President George Washington named Hamilton
secretary of the treasury. During his tenure, Hamilton established the
National Bank, introduced an excise tax, suppressed the Whiskey
Rebellion and spearheaded the effort for the federal government to
assume the debts of the states. In the presidential election of 1800,
Hamilton broke the deadlock between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr by
supporting Jefferson. The enmity between Hamilton and his longtime
political enemy Burr grew worse during the 1804 campaign for governor
of New York. Finally, on July 11, at Weehawken, N.J., the two men
fought a duel. Hamilton was shot and died the next day of his injuries.
(WUD, 1994 p.640)(AP, 1/11/98)(HN, 1/11/00)(HNPD,
1/11/00)
1759 Arthur Guinness purchased
Mark Rainsford’s Ale Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, and began producing
his own recipe.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, p.T8)
1763 Dec 28, John Molson, founder
of the Montreal Molson brewery, was born.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1765 Hennessy began producing
cognac.
(Econ, 3/6/04, Survey p.6)
1766 The Beekman Arms of
Rhinebeck, NY, began serving beer. In 2000 it was the oldest
continuously operating tavern in the US.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, Z1 p.2)
1767 George Hodgeson, British
entrepreneur, cut a deal with the East India Company to start providing
beer to the British Civil-service and merchant classes in the India
colonies. He doubled the hop content to help preserve the beer on its
long voyage.
(WSJ, 8/13/04, p.W6)
1776 A New York tavern keeper
mixed a rum and "cocktail." The name was derived from rooster feathers
used as ornaments for glasses.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
c1776-1781 Molly Corbin manned a cannon during the
American Revolution and was wounded. She was cited for bravery and sent
to the Invalid Regiment at West Point where she received half the male
pay. She was also denied the daily rum ration until her complaints were
heard.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, Z1 p.3)
1779 Sep 13, Frederick II of
Prussia issued a manifesto in which he bemoaned the increased use of
coffee and called for more consumption of beer.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.D3)
1783 John H. Molson (19) acquired
a share in a log cabin brewery on the banks of the St. Lawrence River
and began the Molson beer empire.
(WSJ, 6/29/04, p.A11)
1785 May 9, British inventor
Joseph Bramah patented a beer-pump handle.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1789 Sep 11, Alexander Hamilton
was appointed the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. During his
tenure, Hamilton established the National Bank, introduced an excise
tax, suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion and spearheaded the effort for
the federal government to assume the debts of the states. In the
presidential election of 1800, Hamilton broke the deadlock between
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr by supporting Jefferson. The enmity
between Hamilton and his longtime political enemy Burr grew worse
during the 1804 campaign for governor of New York.
(AP, 9/11/97)(HNPD, 1/11/99)
1789 Nov 8, Bourbon Whiskey, 1st
distilled from corn, was made by Elijah Craig in Bourbon, Ky.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1794 Aug 7, George Washington
issued a proclamation telling a group of Western Pennsylvania farmers
to stop their Whiskey Rebellion. In the US in western Pennsylvania,
angry farmers protested a new federal tax on whiskey makers. The
protest flared into the open warfare known as the Whiskey Rebellion
between US marshals and whiskey farmers.
(http://www.ttb.gov/public_info/whisky_rebellion.shtml)(A&IP, ESM,
p.16)(HNQ, 10/14/99)
1795 Jim Beam, US producer of fine
Bourbon whiskey was founded.
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.82)
1796 Hacienda Santa Teresa began
producing rum in Venezuela. In 1885 it was bought out by the Vollmer
family.
(WSJ, 11/10/04, p.A8)
1797 John Anderson, a Scottish
farm manager, convinced George Washington that distilling whiskey would
make money. In a six-week season each spring, Washington’s men netted
about a million shad and herring from the Potomac River. The catch was
then salted, packed in barrels, and exported. His diversified farming
was less successful, largely because of his long absences from Mount
Vernon.
(AM, 9/01, p.80)(HNQ, 8/30/02)
1799 Dec 14, George Washington
(66), the first president of the United States (1789-97), died at his
Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67. By 8 p.m. he was aware that he was
dying, whispering, "I die hard, but I am not afraid to go." Washington
died at approximately 10:30 p.m., December 14, 1799, at the age of 67.
He died from the incompetence of physicians who bled him to death while
fighting pneumonia. Richard Brookhiser authored "Founding Father:
Rediscovering George Washington." The Washingtons at this time had 317
slaves. His 5 stills in Virginia turned out some 12,000 gallons of corn
whiskey a year.
(A&IP, ESM, p.16)(AP, 12/14/97)(WSJ, 11/6/98,
p.W15)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 12/11/99, p.B6)(MC, 12/14/01)
1804 Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark packed up 5,555 rations of flour, and 120 gallons of whiskey for
their western journey of exploration that would last 2 ½ years.
In 1996 Stephen Ambrose published an account of their trip titled:
"Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening
of the American West." The cutthroat trout, Onchorhynchus clarki
lewisi, was found to be highly abundant. In 1997 the fish was on the
brink of extinction.
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 5/21/97, p.A2)
1809 Jan 19, Edgar Allan Poe
(d.1949), American writer, was born in Boston. His father, David Poe,
was an Irish-American actor and abandoned his family shortly after
Edgar’s birth. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins, died in 1811 and
he grew up with a foster family. Poe studied briefly at the University
of Virginia, but then he quarreled with his foster father and went to
Boston in 1827, where he published his first volume of poetry
anonymously. In the early 1840s Poe became known for his lyrical,
brooding poems and detective stories, such as "The Gold Bug" and
"Murders at the Rue Morgue." In fact, he is recognized as the father of
the modern detective story. Poe was unafraid to criticize literary
practices of the time, stressing the importance of artistic value more
than moral value. After battles with alcoholism and his wife Virginia's
illness and death, Poe became depressed but continued to write. He
became engaged again in 1849 but soon died at the age of 40. His best
known stories include: "Fall of the House of Usher " and "The Tell-Tale
Heart." His most famous poems are "The Raven" and Annabel Lee." "I hold
that a long poem does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, 'a long
poem,' is simply a flat contradiction in terms."
(CFA, '96,Vol 179, p.38)(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T5)(AP,
1/19/98)(HNPD, 1/19/99)(AP, 1/29/99)
1814 Oct 17, Two giant porter vats
at the Horse Shoe Brewery on London’s Tottenham Court Road burst when
the securing hoops failed. The 25-foot-high vats were owned by Sir
Henry Meux and. Several lives were lost along with an estimated
8,000-9,000 barrels of porter.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meux%27s_Brewery)(http://tinyurl.com/2v43jm)
1817 Work began on the Erie
Canal, more properly named the New York State Barge Canal. The canal
connected Lake Erie with the Hudson and opened on October 26, 1825. The
canal was proposed by NY Gov. Dewitt Clinton and detractors called it
"Clinton's Folly." Workers were paid a quart of whiskey a day plus $1.
[see 1826]
(WSJ, 7/3/96, p.A8)(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet,
12/7/98)(SFEC, 12/27/98, Z1 p.8)(SFEC, 1/31/99, Z1 p.8)
1818 In Russia the Smirnoff family
went into the vodka business.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1819 In Savannah Chatham Artillery
Punch was served to Pres. James Monroe. It was a concoction of Catawba,
rum, gin, brandy, rye whiskey, strong tea, brown sugar, Benedictine,
juices of oranges and lemons, Maraschino cherries and champagne.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)
1822 Dec 27, Louis Pasteur
(d.1895), French chemist and microbiologist, was born in Dole, France.
One of his several monumental contributions to science and industry was
pasteurization, the process of heating wine, beer and milk to kill
microorganisms that cause fermentation and disease. Pasteur also
developed important vaccines and his work on molecular asymmetry led to
the science of stereochemistry. He was the first to vaccinate animals
for anthrax and chicken cholera, and in 1885 he proved that his rabies
vaccine could be used successfully on humans when he saved the life of
a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog. The Pasteur
Institute was formed in Paris in 1888 for research on rabies. Pasteur
ran the institute until his death in 1895.
(WUD, 1994, p.1055)(AP, 12/27/97)(HNPD, 12/27/98)
1826 Scotsman Robert Stein
invented the continuous still. It was later refined by Aeneas Coffey as
the Coffey still.
(Hem, 11/02, p.36)
1829 The Yeungling Brewery began
producing beer in Pottsville, Pa.
(WSJ, 3/23/04, p.B5)
1830 American alcohol consumption
reached 7.1 gallons per capita.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A28)
1838 Jan 26, Tennessee became the
1st state to prohibit alcohol.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1838 The Buckeye Brewing Co. of
Toledo, Ohio, began operations. Green Seal Select Beer was one of their
early brands. The company continued until 1972.
(SFC, 2/13/08, p.G8)
1839 Trappists monks at St. Sixtus
in Belgium began brewing Westvleteren beer in order to finance
construction of a new monastery.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.A1)
1847 Carlsberg began beer
production in Denmark.
(WSJ, 10/7/03, p.B1)
1849 French brothers Adolphe and
Edouard-Jean Cointreau created a brand of liqueur called Cointreau and
soon founded their own distillery in Angers. The liqueur was a secret
blend of orange peels and pure sugar-beet alcohol.
(SFC, 11/1/06, p.G2)
1850 Residents of the northern
California town of Rough and Ready rebelled against taxes and began a
secession movement from the US. It last just 3 months in part
because nearby saloonkeepers refused to sell liquor to the “foreigners.”
{California, USA, Liquor}
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.E8)
1851 Jun 2, Maine became the first
state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol. By the Civil War 13 Northern
states had bans on alcohol sales. In 1998 Thomas R. Pegram authored
"Battling Demon Rum," a history of anti-alcohol movements in the US.
(AP, 6/2/97)(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A28)
1851 About 775 abandoned ships sat
in the SF Bay. Some began to be used as offices and public buildings.
The ship Euphemia became the city’s 1st jail and insane asylum. An
enterprising barkeep cut a hole in the beached sailing vessel Arkansas
and began selling what he called “Gud, Bad and Ind’ifferent Spirits” at
25 cents each. The Old Ship Saloon at Pacific Avenue and Battery Street
was built in 1907 and remodeled in 1999.
(Ind, 9/2/00,5A)(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A2)
1852 In Poland Ignacy Lukasiewicz,
a druggist, found oil seeping from the ground and in an attempt to make
vodka distilled it to produce the first kerosene.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)
1854 Colonel Agoston Haraszthy, a
Hungarian Count, acquired several hundred acres of the old Rancho Feliz
in California's San Andreas Valley. He planted 30 acres of zinfandel
and muscat grapes along with 20,000 fruit trees. He later moved to
Sonoma.
(Ind, 5/11/02, 5A)
1854 Pierre Pellier, having
settled in Santa Clara Valley, planted cuttings from France and
established his 1st San Jose, Ca., vineyards. In 1881 his daughter
married vintner Pierre Mirrasou. Mirrassou sold its brand name to Gallo
in 2002.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)(SFC, 8/5/04, p.B7)
1855 A beer brewing operation,
later known as the California Brewing Co. began in SF.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1855 Napoleon III ordered up a
list of the best wines of Bordeaux and ranked the best according to
quality and price. Those at the top became known as the first growths
and included Chateaux Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Latour, and
Margaux. Mouton Rothschild was elevated in 1973.
(WSJ, 4/23/04, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/04, p.W6)
1856 In Oakland, Ca., steam beer
production began at a site that later became known as Golden West
Brewery, which produced the Golden Glow Beer and Ale labels. Operations
shut down in 1959.
(SFC, 9/4/09, p.C1)
1858 Aug 23, "Ten Nights in a
Bar-room," a play about the tragic consequences of consuming alcohol,
opened in New York.
(AP, 8/23/08)
1860 John Wagner established
Nevada's longest-operating brewery in Carson City during the rush to
Virginia City. The Carson Brewing Co. built a new two-story brewery in
1865 in the commercial form of Classical Revival, on the corner of
Division and King streets, where it was later turned into an arts and
performance center.
(www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/nevada/bre.htm)(SSFC,
11/19/06, p.F10)
1860 William McGillin began opened
McGillin’s Olde Ale House in Philadelphia. In 2009 it celebrated its
sesquicentennial.
(SFC, 8/5/09, p.A4)
1860 Gaspare Campari of Italy
invented a bright-red aperitif that became known as Campari.
(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.B10)
1861 Young’s "Scientific Secrets"
was published. It is a book of recipes and formulas for furniture
polish, beers, wines, and directions on interpreting flowers’
"language."
(CM, 12/94, p.59)
1861 In Russia Dmitri Ivanovich
Mendeleyev, chemist, determined that the maximum solubility of alcohol
in water occurs at a ratio of 40% to 60%. This became the ideal mixture
for sipping vodka for Russians.
(WSJ, 2/2/98, p.A23)
1862 The first US federal tax on
beer was levied to finance the Civil War.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1862 Facundo Bacardi Masso founded
a rum business in Cuba.
(SFC, 9/9/08, p.E3)
1862-1906 Bitters bottles were manufactured in
Tiffin, Ohio and Omaha, Neb. to hold "American Life Bitters," an
alcoholic concoction of herbs and gin that was marketed as medicine.
(SFC, 6/3/98, Z1 p.6)
1864 Adolphus Busch (1839-1913),
German immigrant married to Eberhard Anheuser’s daughter (1861), began
working at his father-in-law’s brewery in St. Louis.
(WSJ, 5/27/08,
p.A18)(www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/2007_busch.htm)
1864 In the Netherlands Gerard
Adriaan Heineken founded a beer brewery. In 2002 it was the world’s 3rd
largest brewery.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
1866 The Hopland, Ca., hops
industry began. The damp soils of the Russian River floodplains were
suitable for the cultivation of hops, whose flowers determine the
bitterness and aromatic properties of beer.
(WCG, 7/95, p.91)
1867 Jacob Leinenkugel, an
immigrant from Bavaria, founded Leinenkugel Beer to supply the
lumberjack community of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. In 1988 the family
business agreed to be acquired by the Miller Brewing Co.
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/4epavl)
1870 In San Francisco a
Norman-style castle, later known as the Albion Castle and Brewery, was
built as a brewery at 881 Innes Ave. In 1940 it became the home of a
mountain springs water company, which bottled fresh water flowing
underneath. In 2005 it sold for $2.1 million and was put on the market
in 2009 for $2.95 million.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.D2)
1870 Tequila Herradura began
producing tequila at the Hacienda San Jose del Refugio in the highlands
of Jalisco state. Their tequila was made from 100% blue-agave juice.
(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A1)
1872 May 10, Victoria Woodhull
became the first woman nominated for U.S. president. Thomas Nast
depicted her as "Mrs. Satan." Woodhull adhered to a diet prescribed by
Sylvester Graham, known for his ginger-colored crackers. Sylvester
preached against demon rum and died at age 57 after administering
himself a medicinal treatment with considerable liquor.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, Par p.14-16)(SFC, 10/17/98, p.E5)(HN,
5/10/98)
1872 Jun 4, Harvey Flint (d.1882)
patented his Quaker Bitters, a general cure-all with 21.4% alcohol. He
had recently left a family furniture business in Providence, Rhode
Island, and began making Quaker Bitters under the name Flint & Co.
(SFC, 8/8/07,
p.G2)(www.bottlebooks.com/temperance/temperance.htm)
1872 Jun 17, Canadian George
Hoover hauled in a wagon load of whiskey and set up a tent shop called
Hoover’s Bar five miles west of Fort Dodge. It was the founding
business of Dodge City. The town up to this time had been dry.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.E4)(HN, 6/17/98)
1872 A police raid in Glasgow,
Scotland, found only 2 pubs in 30 serving real Scotch whiskey.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A7)
1873 Adolph Coors selected the
waters of Clear Creek, Colorado, for his dream of high producing a high
quality beer.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.4)
1873 Asa T. Soule of Rochester,
NY, concocted the alcohol laced Hop Bitters patent medicine and made a
fortune. The Univ. of Rochester later declined a $100,000 offer to
change its name to Hops Bitters Univ.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.B6)
1873 The Matusalem company was
founded in Santiago, Cuba, to produce aged dark rum.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.34)
1874 The first national convention
of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was held. The Woman's
Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was established to promote the
movement for prohibition in the U.S. It shut down saloons all over the
country because they believed that male drinking was the cause of
prostitution, child abuse and poverty. Under the leadership of its
second president, Frances Willard, the WCTU grew to a nationwide
movement with 200,000 members, the largest and most socially acceptable
women’s organization of the time. Although prohibition was the WCTU’s
primary mission, they also campaigned for woman suffrage, reasoning
that if women could vote, they would reform American society for the
betterment of all. The WCTU spurred the founding in 1893 of the
Anti-Saloon League. On December 18, 1917, the U.S. Congress adopted and
submitted to the states an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting
the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic liquors. The 18th
Amendment was declared ratified on January 29, 1919 and went into
effect on January 16, 1920. It was repealed by the 21st Amendment in
1933.
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1. p.6)(HNQ, 11/189)(HNPD, 8/13/00)
1875 May 1, 238 members of
"Whiskey Ring" were accused of anti-US activities.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1875 Lydia Estes Pinkham
(1819-1883) was in her mid-fifties when economic hardship forced her
and her family to begin selling bottles of a homemade health remedy.
Mrs. Pinkham’s tonic, formulated from herbs and 20% alcohol as a
"solvent and preservative," was first sold as a cure for "female
complaints." Business grew as the family aggressively marketed their
product with trade cards which linked Pinkham’s Compound with the
patriotism and progress represented by the Brooklyn Bridge. Lydia
Pinkham was probably the best-known woman in America at the time. Her
medicines remained tremendously popular until the 1930s, when medical
science and public awareness of the compound’s unfounded claims reduced
sales to a trickle.
(HNPD, 6/30/98)
1875 The Schmitt brewery was built
by an innkeeper for his restaurant in Singen in the German state of
Thuringia. Richard Schmitt buys the brewery in May 1885 for DM9,900.
Today it is run by the Obstfelder family and produces around 26,000
gallons of beer annually.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.113-114)
1875 Calgary, Canada, was founded
by Troop F of the royal Northwest Mounted Police. They built a log fort
at the junction of the Bow and Elbow Rivers to control illegal whiskey
traders operating from outposts with names like Fort Whoop-Up.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T11)
1876 Feb 7, Pres Grant's private
secretary Orville was acquitted in Whiskey Ring.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1876 Adolphus Busch, a German
immigrant beer-maker, licensed the name of Budweiser in America. The
name came from the town of Budweis in Bohemia. The town was later
renamed Ceske Budejovice but a local brewery used the Budweiser name
for its beer.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.A12)
1878 May 25, Bill "Bojangles"
Robinson was born and began his dancing career in childhood. The young
song-and-dance man learned his trade in beer gardens, traveling
companies and later on the vaudeville circuit. Robinson performed only
within the black community until he was 50 years old, when his unique
style of tap-dancing, including his signature "stair dance," crossed
over to white audiences. Robinson, who continued to perform into his
late sixties, made 14 Hollywood motion pictures, playing both
stereotypical black roles and a handful of leads. He died of a chronic
heart condition in 1949.
(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.A20)(HNPD, 5/26/99)
1879 Genesee Brewing began
producing beer in Rochester, NY.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.B2)
1881 Feb 19, Kansas became the
first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1881 Apr 7, Lewis R. Redmond, a
North Carolina moonshiner wanted for murder, was cornered at his home.
He was shot 6 times while trying to escape, but survived and was
convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served just 3 years
and returned to work for a licensed distillery.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.W11)
1882 Bishop Crittenden authored
the dime novel “The Entwined Lives of Miss Gabrielle Austin, Daughter
of the Late Rev. Ellis C. Austin, and Redmond, the Outlaw, Leader of
the North Carolina Moonshiners.”
(WSJ, 3/20/09,
p.W11)(www.theridgebooks.com/si/7107.html)
1883 The Brooks and Carey Saloon
opened on Mission Road, Colma, Ca. It was later renamed the Brooksville
Hotel. Frank Molloy purchased the place from Patrick Brooks in 1929 and
renamed it Molloy's.
(Ind, 1/30/98, p.5A)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.E8)
1883 Lydia Estes Pinkham (b.1819)
died. She was in her mid-fifties when economic hardship forced her and
her family to begin selling bottles of a homemade health remedy. Mrs.
Pinkham's tonic, formulated from herbs and 20% alcohol as a "solvent
and preservative," was first sold in 1875 as a cure for "female
complaints."
(HNPD, 6/30/01)(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.D7)
1886 The Tequila San Matias
company in Guadalajara began tequila production.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.4)
1886 Piotr Smirnov was made
'Official Purveyor' of vodka to the imperial Russian court. His pure,
charcoal-filtered vodka became the toast of the Czars. Later, one of
Smirnov's sons escaped Russia's revolution and restarted the family
business in Paris, adopting the francophone name Smirnoff. The pure
Smirnoff vodka took America by storm in the 1930's and went on to
become a global icon.
(www.diageo.com/en-row/AboutDiageo/OurHistory/)
1887 Nov 8, Doc Holliday, who
fought on the side of the Earp brothers during the Gunfight at the O.K.
Corral sixty years earlier, died of tuberculosis after waking from a 57
day delirium in Glenwood Springs, Colo. He downed a glass of whiskey
and said: "I’ll be damned!" and died. In 2001 Bruce Olds authored the
novel "Bucking the Tiger," based on the life of Holliday.
(HN, 11/6/98)(MesWP)(SFC, 7/29/00, p.E3)(SSFC,
9/9/01, DB p.70)
1888 In Chicago Louis Glunz set up
shop as a wine, beer and spirits merchant at Wells and Division
streets. By 2009 the Louis Glunz Beer company represented
Chicago-land consumers with the largest portfolio of Micro, Specialty
and Import Beers with 665 brands and 172 breweries worldwide.
(www.glunzbavarianhaus.com/glunz-bavarian-chicago.html)
1888 For the dedication of
Skidmore Fountain in Portland, Oregon, brewer Harvey Weinhard offered
to pump his beer through the fountain. The city fathers declined the
offer.
(Hem, 4/96, p.129)
1890 Philippine brewer San Miguel
began making beer.
(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.B1)
1893 Charlie Wacker, director of
the World's Columbian Exposition and a friend of Louis Glunz, was
instrumental in making Louis a bottler of Schlitz beer for the Chicago
Exposition.
(www.glunzbavarianhaus.com/glunz-bavarian-chicago.html)
1893 The Anti-Saloon League formed
in Ohio. It became national in 1895 when it merged with an organization
in Washington D.C.
(AH, 2/05, p.72)
1896 Sep 24, American author F.
Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24,
1896. He wrote about the "Jazz Age" between World War I and World War
II. He published his first novel in 1920, "This Side of Paradise," and
gained instant acclaim and celebrity, marrying Zelda Sayre shortly
afterward. In 1924, Fitzgerald wrote what has become his best-known
novel, "The Great Gatsby." Although it was not especially popular at
the time, as more readers began to appreciate the novel for its
perspective of how materialism drives people, it became an American
classic. As years passed, Fitzgerald battled alcoholism and his wife
sought treatment for her mental illness. He died in Hollywood at age 45
in 1940. "If you're strong enough, there are no precedents."
(HFA, ‘96, p.38)(AP, 9/24/97)(HNPD, 9/24/98)(HN,
9/24/98)(AP, 8/16/99)
1896 In SF the Anchor Brewing Co.
was founded and brewed beer at Pacific Ave. and Larkin St. It later
moved to 8th and Bryant and then to Kansas and 17th before settling on
Mariposa St. by Potrero Hill.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.4)
1896 Budweiser introduced Michelob
beer as "draught beer for connoisseurs."
(WSJ, 5/27/08,
p.A18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelob)
1898 Pyotr Smirnov (b.1831),
Russian vodka manufacturer, died. In 2009 Linda Himelstein authored
“The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an
Empire.”
(SSFC, 5/31/09, Books p.J2)
1900 Dec 27, Militant
prohibitionist and temperance agitator Carry Nation, (Carrie Nation),
first used a hatchet to carry out her public smashings of a bar, at the
Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kan. As a result, the hatchet soon became the
symbol of her crusade against alcohol. Born in Kentucky, Nation‘s first
husband died of alcoholism and her second marriage ended in divorce.
She was often arrested, fined and jailed for her actions. She published
the Smasher in Topeka. Advertisers boycotted and the paper failed.
(AP, 12/27/97)(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)(HNQ, 10/17/99)
1901 The US tax on a barrel of
beer was reduced from $2 a barrel to $1.60.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1901 Battista Bianco, the mother
Giuseppe and Mike Gallo’s father, founded the Bianco Winery Company in
California.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1905 Jean Lanfray, a Swiss
laborer, murdered his wife and children after drinking 2 glasses of
absinthe. The murder led to a ban on the sale of absinthe. The ban was
lifted in 2005.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A3)(SFC, 11/4/04, p.A2)
1906 Giuseppe and Mike Gallo
founded the Gallo Wine Company in California.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1907 The San Francisco Brewing
Company established a facility at 155 Columbus Ave, South San Francisco.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.E8)
1909 The Polar exploration team
led by Ernest Shackleton abandoned its Antarctic expedition as winter
ice formed and left behind 5 crates of whiskey and brandy. An Antarctic
Heritage Trust team found the crates in 2006. One crate, labeled
Mackinlay's whisky, was recovered in 2010 and shipped to New Zealand
for testing.
(AP, 7/22/10)
1910 In SF William T. “Cocktail
Bill” Boothby (d.1930), devised his Boothby cocktail at the Palace
Hotel. It was essentially a Manhattan with a Champagne float.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.F2)
1911 Jun 9, Carry Amelia Moore
Gloyd Nation (b.1846), American temperance leader, died in Leavenworth,
Kansas. She was buried in the Belton City Cemetery, Belton, Cass
County, Missouri. Carry Nation was a social reformer, saloon smasher
and scourge of barkeepers and drinkers everywhere.
(www.kshs.org/exhibits/carry/carry8.htm)
1912 The US banned the drink
absinthe. Lawmakers thought the chemical thujone, found in one of the
spirit’s main ingredients, wormwood, made people crazy or homicidal.
This theory was later dismissed and the ban was lifted in 2007.
(WSJ, 12/24/96, p.A6)(SFC, 3/21/08, p.F4)
1913 In Denmark the bronze statue
of the Little Mermaid, a character from a Hans Christian Anderson
story, was installed in the harbor. It was commissioned by Carl
Jacobsen, founder of the Carlsberg Beer Co., and created by Edvard
Eriksen. [see 1964]
(SFC,11/5/97, p.C2)
1914 US Navy Secretary Josephus
Daniels substituted grape juice for the daily rum ration.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, Z1 p.5)
1915 The French government banned
absinthe, the "Green Goddess," which had become renowned for causing
convulsions, hallucinations and psychosis. In 1988 the European Union
lifted the ban on making absinthe.
(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W8)(http://tinyurl.com/5mqxvs)
1916 Nov 16, French adjutant-chief
Eugene Rouges died with several of his men when a German artillery
shell exploded in their trench in Gradesnica, Macedonia. In the 1990s
villagers began finding a liquid fortune in vintage cognac buried in
the old trenches.
(AP, 7/23/07)
1917 The Seelbach Cocktail was
created at the Seelbach hotel in Louisville, Ky. The recipe was later
lost until 1995 when a hotel manager rediscovered the formula.
(SFC, 7/28/05, p.F6)
1918 Jan 8,
Mississippi became the first state to ratify the proposed 18th
amendment to the US Constitution, which established Prohibition.
(AP, 1/8/08)
1918 Sep, Pres. Woodrow Wilson
ordered all US breweries to shut down on December 1 in order to save
grain for the war effort.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P13)
1918 Dec 1, US breweries shut down
due to a September directive from Pres. Wilson.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P13)
1919 Jan 13, California
voted to ratify the Prohibition amendment.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1919 Jan 13, California
voted to ratify the Prohibition amendment.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1919 Jan 16, Prohibition
became law in the US with the passage of the Volstead Act, which
enforced and defined the 18thAmendment. It was passed over President
Wilson's veto with the necessary two-thirds majority of state
ratification. [see Jan 16,1920]
(HFA, '96, p.22)(WUD, 1994, p.1681)(WSJ,8/22/96,
p.A14)(MC, 1/16/02)
1919 Jan 16, Nebraska, Wyoming and
Missouri became the 36th, 37th and 38th states to ratify Prohibition,
which went into effect a year later. Prohibition became law in the US
with the passage of the Volstead Act on Oct 28, which enforced and
defined the 18th Amendment. It was passed over President Wilson's veto
with the necessary two-thirds majority of state ratification.
(WSJ, 8/22/96, p.A14)(AP, 1/16/98)
1919 Oct 8, The U.S. Senate and
House of Representatives passed the Volstead Prohibition Enforcement
Bill. It was named for Representative Andrew Volstead of Minnesota and
enforced the ban on the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages.
This rang in the era of prohibition.
(HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)
1919 Oct 26, President Wilson's
veto of Prohibition Enforcement Bill was overridden.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1919-1920 Hanna Hoch (1889-1978), photomontage artist
of the Berlin Dada movement made her work "Cut With the Kitchen Knife
Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Epoch of Germany."
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.E3)
1920 Jan 16, Prohibition began as
the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect. It was later
repealed by the 21st Amendment. Alcohol was outlawed in the US with the
passage of the 18th amendment. It was made law on Jan 16,1919, but
became effective on this day. At the time US authorities expected few
violations of the new law. Over the next fourteen years, Prohibition
corrupted all levels of society, swamped the judiciary, killed
thousands of people, and gave rise to underworld syndicates that still
exist.
(www.browardpalmbeach.com/1997-12-04/news/the-gallows-and-the-deep/)(AP,
1/16/98)(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)
1920 Dec 22, Bootleggers said
their was plenty of liquor available for San Franciscans.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
1921 Nov 23, President Harding
signed the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill. It
forbade doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1921 Dec 6, James Showan, a
wealthy NY shipbuilder, was arrested after his palatial yacht was
seized off the California coast with more than 100 cases of whiskey.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.C5)
1922 Louis M. Martini founded the
L. M. Martini Grape Products Co. in Kingsburg, Fresno Ct., California,
to sell grape juice, concentrates, sacramental and medicinal wines.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1923 Nov 4, Alfred Heineken, beer
brewer, was born.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1923 Nov 8, Adolf
Schicklgruber (Hitler) launched his first attempt to seize power with a
failed coup in Munich, Germany, that came to be known as the Beer-Hall
Putsch. He proclaimed himself chancellor and Ludendorff dictator. After
the unsuccessful beerhall putsch, he wound up in jail writing "Mein
Kampf." Mein Kampf, was sub-titled Four-and-Half Years of Struggle
against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice. The Nazi dictator wrote much of
Mein Kampf (My Struggle) while in prison in 1923 and 1924 for
attempting to overthrow the German government. The work became the
bible of the Nazi Party and a blueprint for the Third Reich.
(TMC, 1994, p.1923)(AP, 11/8/97)(HN, 11/6/98)(HNQ,
5/5/99)
1924 Apr 1, Adolf Hitler was
sentenced to five years in prison for "Beer Hall Putsch." Gen
Ludendorff was acquitted for leading the botched Nazi's "Beer Hall
Putsch" in the German state of Bavaria
(HN, 4/1/98)(MC, 4/1/02)
1926 Mar, A nationwide poll
on prohibition showed that people favored a modification of the
Volstead Act by a margin of 9 to 1.
(SFC, 3/16/01, WBb p.4)
1927 Mar 1, Edward R. Bohner began
serving as prohibition administrator for Northern California under
National Prohibition Commissioner J.M. Doran. Bohner resigned June 18,
1929.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.F2)
1927 May 16, US Supreme Court
ruled that bootleggers must pay income tax.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1927 Nov 2, In San Francisco
prohibition agents raided a brewery at 1407 San Bruno Ave. with nearly
2,000 gallons of beer brewing in 4 500-gallon vats.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.E7)
1927 Dock Boggs, singer and banjo
player, released his "Country Blues" swamp music album. It included the
song "Old Rub Alcohol Blues."
(SFEM, 3/22/98, p.8)
1927 French law set the boundaries
of the country’s Champagne region.
(WSJ, 8/12/05, p.B1)
1928 Apr, J.A. Star opened a
bootlegging resort at 3121 E. 12th St. in Oakland, Ca., with the
government’s knowledge in an effort to trap a ring of racketeers.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.F2)
1928 May 2, In Emeryville, Ca., a
raid on a brewery next door to the home of Police Chief Ed. J. Carey
uncovered 5,000 gallons of unbottled beer and 3,000 bottles of beer.
Jimmy Reese, star 2nd baseman of the Oakland Coast League and
son-in-law of Chief Carey, emerged from a cottage in front of the
warehouse and demanded to know what the raid was about. Alameda Ct. DA
Earl Warren filed a federal complaint against Carey.
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.E3)
1929 Jan 11, Prohibition agents in
San Francisco seized 1,100 cases of whiskies and 2,000 gallons of
Belgian alcohol worth $90,000 at 1861 16th Ave.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.E6)
1929 Jan 11, Prohibition agents in
Oakland, Ca., seized 200 gallons of moonshine at a residence at 1942 E.
27th St.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.E6)
1929 Feb 14, In Chicago the "St.
Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a garage of the Moran gang as
seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down. Police found seven
men shot to death in a North Chicago garage. With the exception of one,
the men were working under George "Bugs" Moran, a well-known bootlegger
and gangster, and staunch rival of Al "Scarface" Capone. Members of
Capone’s gang lured the victims into the garage under the guise of
selling cheap alcohol. Then two of Capone’s men, dressed up as police
officers, staged a raid. Believing them to be real, Moran’s outfit
turned over its weapons, turned to face the wall and waited for the
arrest. It was at that point that the hit on Moran’s men took place.
Neighbors heard the gunfire, but assumed the police were involved when
Capone’s costumed officers escorted the gunmen outside and together,
they all fled the scene.
(TMC, 1994, p.1929)(AP, 2/14/98)(HNQ, 2/14/02)
1930 May 26, US Supreme Court
ruled that buying liquor does not violate the Constitution.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1930 Jul 29, The US Coast Guard
towed the Canadian rum-runner Ray Roberts into SF with a cargo of 1,050
cases of whiskey.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
1930 In Mexico Pres. Pascual Ortiz
Rubio was wounded in an assassination attempt the day he took office.
From this point till 2000 the sale and public display of alcoholic
beverages were banned during patriotic events.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A14)
1932 May 14, There was a "We Want
Beer!" parade in NY.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1933 Feb 17, US Senate
accepted the Blaine Act ending prohibition.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1933 Feb 20, The House of
Representatives completed congressional action on an amendment to
repeal Prohibition. [see Apr 7]
(AP, 2/20/98)
1933 Feb, The US Congress passed
the 21st amendment to repeal the 18th amendment, which outlawed alcohol.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)
1933 Mar 22, During Prohibition,
President Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine & beer containing
up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal. [see Feb 20, Apr 7, Dec 5]
(AP, 3/22/97)(HN, 3/22/97)
1933 Apr 7, "Near beer" (3.2 beer)
became legal after FDR signed an amendment to the Volstead Act, which
had made drinking alcohol a federal crime. Prohibition ended when Utah
became the 38th state to ratify 21st Amendment. [see Dec 5]
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)(HN, 4/7/97)(MC, 4/7/02)
1933 Dec 5, Prohibition was
repealed--much to the delight of thirsty revelers--when Utah became the
36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The
nationwide prohibition of the manufacture, sale or transportation of
alcoholic beverages was established in January 1919 with passage of the
18th Amendment. Prohibition's supporters gradually became disenchanted
with it as the illegal manufacture and sale of liquor fostered a wave
of criminal activity. By 1932, the Democratic Party's platform called
for the repeal of Prohibition. In February 1933, Congress adopted a
resolution proposing the 21st Amendment to repeal the 18th and with
Utah's vote in December, Prohibition ended. Three-quarters of the
states approved the repeal of the 18th amendment and FDR proclaimed the
end of Prohibition.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)(AP, 12/5/97)(HNPD, 12/5/98)
1933 Dec 5, SF became a dry city
with the death of Prohibition as the city went under state license
control with no licenses issued.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1934 Feb 20, In San Francisco a
fire destroyed the recently opened Anchor Brewing Co. at 1610 Harrison
St. The plant specialized in steam beer for which SF was once
famous.
(SSFC, 2/15/09, DB p.50)
1934 Nov 2, In San Francisco a
fight for control of the beer market expanded as brewers matched the
prices of Humboldt Brewery at $1 a case of 24 pints.
(SSFC, 11/1/09, DB p.42)
1934 Dec 20, California’s new
state liquor control law went into effect making it legal to sell hard
liquor by the drink in hotels, restaurants and clubs.
(SSFC, 12/20/09, DB p.46)
1934 John Astor lured Fernand
"Pete" Petiot to the St. Regis in NYC. Petiot had invented the Bloody
Mary (vodka and tomato juice) at Harry’s NY Bar in Paris in the 1920s.
The name was changed to the Red Snapper for a decade and then back to
Bloody Mary.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.D4)
1934 Lucky Lager was first
commercially introduced. The brand was founded by General Brewing in
California. Lucky Lager Brewing opened a second brewery in Azusa,
California in 1949, and bought smaller breweries in Vancouver,
Washington in 1950 and in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1960.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lager)
1935 Jan 24, The 1st canned beer,
"Krueger Cream Ale," was sold by Krueger Brewing Co. of Richmond, Va.
(www.bcca.com/bccacan1.html)
1935 May 12, Alcoholics Anonymous
is founded in Akron, Ohio by "Bill W.," a stockbroker, and "Dr. Bob
S.," a heart surgeon. [see June 10]
(HN, 5/12/01)
1937 Jul 2, Amelia Earhart and
navigator Fred Noonan left Lae in Papua, New Guinea and disappeared
over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first
round-the-world flight at the equator. The two had set out in Earhart's
twin-engine Lockheed Electra, taking off from Oakland, Calif., for
Miami on May 21. They flew across the Atlantic from Brazil to Africa,
then reached Calcutta on June 17, having made 15 stops thus far. They
failed to arrive at their scheduled stop at Howland Island. Radio
operators received messages from Earhart saying that they had to be
close and were circling, searching for land, but radio contact was lost
and the two were never heard from again. Noonan was alcoholic and had
been on a binge the night before. Radioman Leo Bellarts was the last
person to communicate with Earhart. Errors from the US Coast Guard
cutter Itasca were later identified as contributing to the
disappearance.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8) (SFC, 5/20/97, p.A12) (AP,
7/2/97) (SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B10) (HNPD, 7/2/99)(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A1,11)
1937 Jun 16, August Busch III, CEO
(Anheuser-Busch, St Louis Cards), was born.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1938 Aug 16, Robert Johnson (27),
bluesman, musician and king of the Mississippi Delta blues, died 3 days
after ingesting whiskey laced with poison (probably strychnine). He has
2 grave sites around Morgan City. Columbia Records issued the first
Robert Johnson LP in 1961 titled "King of the Delta Blues Singers" and
"Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings" in 1990. His music is on "The
Complete Plantation Recordings" (Chess/MCA). Peter Guralnick later
wrote his biography. His tunes included "Love in Vain," "Cross Road
Blues" and "Ramblin on My Mind." In 1998 the video documentary "Can’t
You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life and Music of Robert Johnson" was
released. In 1999 Robert Mugge premiered his film "Hellhounds On My
Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson."
(HT, 5/97, p.41)(NH, 9/96, p.54)(HT, 5/97,
p.41)(SFC, 9/23/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W12)(SFEM, 9/26/99, p.12)
1939 Latrobe Brewing of Latrobe,
Pa., began making Rolling Rock, a pale lager. It was later acquired by
InBev SA. In 2006 Rolling Rock was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, which
moved operations to Newark NJ. In 2008 Anheuser-Busch was acquired by
InBev SA.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/nyregion/08brew.html?fta=y)(WSJ, 4/13/09,
p.B1)
1941 Liebmann Brewery, maker of
Rheingold Beer, began promoting the beer with pictures of model Jinx
Falkenburg (d.2003 at 84), a Chilean-born actress and tennis player.
(SFC, 7/4/03, p.A25)(SFC, 8/29/03, p.A28)
1941 Frank Schoonmaker and Tom
Marvel authored "American Wines."
(WSJ, 1/23/04, p.W4)
1944 Armand Hammer was granted a
unique license to produce beverage alcohol by the Roosevelt
administration due to its short wartime supply.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.D7)
1945 Feb 10, "Rum & Coca Cola"
by the Andrews Sisters hit #1.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1947 Jul 4, "Wino Willie" Forkner
(d.1997) led his South Central LA Boozefighters motorcyclists to
Hollister for a weekend of beer-drenched fun. They were all veterans of
WW II. He was said to have been the model for Marlon Brando in the film
"The Wild One." 3,000 motorcyclists spilled over into Hollister from a
nearby racetrack. [see Jul 7]
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.A1)
1948 Michigan passed a law that
prohibited women from serving alcoholic drinks in bars. In was
overturned by a 1971 Supreme Court decision on an Idaho case that
showed discrimination against one gender.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1949 The US Govt. defined generic
vodka as a neutral spirit reduced to between 110 and 80 proof and
treated so as to be without distinctive character.
(WSJ, 11/7/95, p.A-1)
1952 Nov 10, San Francisco
columnist Stanton Delaplane introduced Irish coffee to America at the
Buena Vista Cafe at the end of the Hyde St. cable line. He discovered
the drink at Shannon Airport in Ireland, served by Joe Sheridan and
perfected it with the help of Buena Vista owners Jack Koeppler and
George Freeberg.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(SFC, 11/16/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
11/9/08, p.B6)
1953 Jan 1, Country singer Hank
Williams Sr., 29, died of a drug and alcohol overdose while en route to
a concert date in Canton, Ohio. In 1998 Mercury Records released "The
Complete Hank Williams," with 225 recordings.
(AP, 1/1/98)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.W9A)
1953 Jim Beam began selling
special decanters filled with Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Political
bottles were produced from 1956 to 1988.
(SFC, 4/4/06, p.G8)
1953 Robert F. Borkenstein
(d.2002) invented a Breathalyzer to test drivers for alcohol content.
It stemmed from his work with Dr. R.N. Harger of the Indiana School of
Medicine to make the Drunkometer.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)
1954 Director Sam Fuller trekked
to the rainforest with a 16mm Bolex, 75 boxes of cigars and 2 cases of
vodka hoping to make a film. Producer Darryl Zanuck called it off. The
1995 documentary film "Tigrero" was made by Finnish filmmaker Mika
Kaurismaki. It covered Fuller’s trek into the Brazilian rainforest.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.C12)
1955 The Old Milwaukee brand was
first brewed by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Wisconsin. It was
the first beer brand launched exclusively as a “popular” beer.
(www.oldmilwaukee.com/ourbeer_main.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/rvxp4)
1959 Jan 22, The Adolph Coors Co.
of Golden, Colombia, introduced the aluminum beer can.
(www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/22/a-golden-milestone/)
1959 August A. Busch, president of
the Anheuser-Busch Beer Co., constructed his elaborate bird sanctuary
in Tampa, Fla.
(Hem., 3/97, p.61)
1959 The West End Brewing Co.,
producers of Utica Club Beer, began running TV commercials in the
Northeast US. The ad campaign included the Schultz and Dooley ceramic
mugs based on the ad characters.
(SFC, 2/1/06, p.G6)
1960 Feb 10, Adolph Coors, the
beer brewer, was kidnapped in Golden, Colo.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1963 Jan 11, The 1st discotheque
opened, Whiskey-a-go-go in LA.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1965 Jack Spicer (40), poet, died
of alcohol poisoning. The "Collected Book of Jack Spicer" was published
nearly 10 years after his death. In 1998 Lewis Ellingham and Kevin
Killian published "Poet Be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco
Renaissance. "The House That Jack Built : the Collected Lectures of
Jack Spicer was also published in 1998 with an afterward by Peter
Gizzi.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, BR p.3)
1967 Oct 9, The British Road
Safety Act, providing for use of the "breathalyser" (or breathalyzer)
to detect intoxicated motorists, went into effect.
(AP, 10/9/07)
1967 Gablinger’s beer, named after
Swiss chemist Hersch Gablinger, was launched by Rheingold Breweries.
Joseph Owades (1919-2005, brewmaster, developed the process to remove
starch from beer and gave the formula to Meister Brau. The product
failed but Meister Brau was sold to Miller Brewing. Miller successfully
marketed the beer as Miller Lite.
(www.ereader.com/product/book/excerpt/17067)(SFC,
12/20/05, p.B7)
1969 Oct 21, Jack Kerouac (47),
Beat Generation chronicler, died of alcoholism in St. Petersburg, Fla.
He wrote "On the Road," "Desolation Angels," "Vanity of Duluoz," and
"Dharma Bums." Japhy Ryder the Zen hobo-poet in the book was modeled
after poet Gary Snyder. In 1979 Dennis McNally authored the biography
"Desolate Angel." In 1998 Ellis Amburn published "Subterranean Kerouac:
The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac." In 1999 Barry Miles published "Jack
Kerouac, King of the Beats: A Portrait."
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A22)(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.30)(SFEC,
5/31/98, p.A17)(SFEC, 8/9/98, BR 9 p.3)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.3)(SSFC,
8/11/02, p.M1)
1974 In San Francisco the Anchor
Steam beer company introduced Anchor Porter. It featured a label by
artist Jim Stitt, the first of many that he drew for the company.
(SFC, 11/21/09, p.E10)
1974 Dr. Charles Lieber at the VA
Medical Center in the Bronx, NY, fed alcohol to baboons along with a
nutritionally complete diet. He found that the animals developed every
stage of human alcoholic liver disease.
(SSFC, 8/23/09, p.K6)
1975 In France Ricard merged with
Pernod, another French maker of the pastis aperitif.
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.66)
1976 Sep 4, George W. Bush (30),
candidate for US president in 2000, was arrested and pleaded guilty to
driving under the influence of alcohol in Kennebunkport, Maine.
(SFC, 11/3/00, p.A1)
1978 Mar 31, The SF General
Brewing Company capped its last bottle of Lucky Lager.
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.E8)
1978 Dec 22, Rudolf Slavik,
Czechoslovakia-born creator of the Leviathan cocktail (1934), died.
(SSFC, 12/13/09, p.K3)
1979 Feb 1, US Pres. Jimmy Carter
legalized home brewing.
(Hem., 8/96,
p.113)(www.foamrangers.com/glossary_H.html)
1980 Aug 14, It was reported that
France’s Moet-Hennessy is buying Schieffelin & Co., its New York
based US distributor. The deal also included the Simi Winery in
Healdsburg, Ca.
(SFC, 8/12/05, p.F3)
1980 Oct 15, An FTC judge upheld
Heublein’s acquisition of SF-based United Vintners, the 2nd largest
wine company in the US.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.F2)
1980 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
US bourbon Wild Turkey.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1982 Jun 10, The Jos. Schlitz
Brewing Company and the Old Milwaukee brand was acquired by Stroh
Brewing Company of Detroit. The Old Milwaukee brand was first brewed by
the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company.
(http://tinyurl.com/rvxp4)
1982 Budweiser introduced Bud
Light beer.
(WSJ, 5/27/08, p.A18)
1983 Nov 9, Alfred Heineken, beer
brewer from Amsterdam, was kidnapped and held for a ransom of more than
$10 million.
(HN, 11/9/98)
1983 Nov 30, Police freed
kidnapped beer magnate Alfred Heineken in Amsterdam.
(www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/ced-timeline-1983.html#11-1983)
1983 Kingsley Amis (1922-1995),
British novelist, authored “Everyday Drinking,” a book cobbled together
from his newspaper columns.
(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W5)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/amis.htm)
1983 The Mendocino Brewing Co.
became the 1st Brewpub in California and only the 2nd in the nation to
open since Prohibition.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.T10)
1983 Vijay Mallya (27) inherited
the UB Group of India when his father, Vittal Mallya, died of a heart
attack. Sales for UB then grew from $100 million to $1.6 billion in
2003. Import duties on foreign liquor of up to 550% protected his
business.
(SSFC, 10/26/03, p.I3)(WSJ, 6/8/07, p.A1)
1985 Absolut Vodka commissioned
Andy Warhol to create a painting of its bottle.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.D2)
1985 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Italian bitters group Ramazzotti.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1987 Jul 8, Kitty Dukakis, wife of
Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael S.
Dukakis, revealed she'd been addicted to amphetamines for 26 years but
had sought help and was drug-free. She later admitted to dependence on
alcohol, and entered a recovery program.
(AP 7/8/97)
1988 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Irish whiskies Jameson, Paddy and Bushmills.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1989 Feb 26, Defense
Secretary-designate John Tower, dogged by questions about a possible
drinking problem, publicly pledged not to drink any alcohol during his
term of office if confirmed by the Senate.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1989 Mar 30, "The Heidi
Chronicles" by Wendy Wasserstein won the Pulitzer Prize for drama; in
the journalism category, the Anchorage Daily News won the public
service award for its reports on alcoholism and suicide among native
Alaskans.
(AP, 3/30/99)
1989 Nov 6, Kitty Dukakis, wife of
Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, was hospitalized after ingesting
rubbing alcohol.
(AP, 11/6/99)
1989 Michael Dorris (d.1997 at
52), a Modoc Indian descendent, won the National Book Critics Circle
Award for his work: "The Broken Cord." It described the problem of
fetal alcohol syndrome.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A2)
1990 John O’Brien (d.1994)
published his novel "Leaving Las Vegas." It was made into a 1995 film
and was the semi-autobiographical account about an alcoholic who goes
to Las Vegas to drink himself to death.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)
1990 GHB, gamma hydroxy butyrate,
began to be reported as a cause of illnesses. The paint thinner gamma
butyl lactone was being mixed with water and alcohol that when ingested
metabolized to GHB, later called "liquid ecstasy" or "blue nitro."
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A16)
1990 Sweden adopted legislation
that lowered the blood alcohol limit for all drivers to .02%. The US
standard was .08%.
(AP, 12/22/09)
1991 Mar 21, Test results released
in Los Angeles showed that Rodney King, the motorist whose beating by
police was videotaped by a bystander, had marijuana and alcohol in his
system following his arrest. President Bush denounced King’s beating as
"sickening" and "outrageous."
(AP, 3/21/01)
1992 May 11, Carlos Herrera (90),
drink inventor (Margarita), died.
(http://home.flash.net/~whaugen/margarita.htm)
1992 In Finland the Wife Carrying
contest was initiated to revive a 200 year old tradition from when
Ronkainen the Robber tested aspiring members of his gang by making them
carry huge sacks on their backs through an obstacle course. Cash prizes
and the wife’s weight in beer was awarded to the winners.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A2)
1993 Jim Koch, founder of Boston
Beer co., the maker of Samuel Adams beer, set a new bar by creating
Triple Bock, a beverage with 17.5% alcohol by volume. In the early
2000s, Dogfish Head responded with beverages of their own that went to
22%. In 2009 Boston Beer released an updated version of its biennial
beer Utopias, to date the highest alcohol content beer on the market.
It was 27% alcohol by volume and $150 a bottle.
(AP, 11/30/09)
1993 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Cuban Rum Havana Club in a 50-50 joint venture with the Cuban
government.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.34)(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1993 In Germany the Reinheitsgebot
law of 1516 was relaxed to allow foreign brewers to sell their beer in
Germany.
(WSJ, 5/27/98, p.A1)
1993 In Tanzania in a
privatization drive part of the government stake in Safari beer was
sold to a South African company.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A1)
1994 Jan 15, A Hague motorist with
.51% alcohol in blood broke the Dutch record of .47%.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1994 Nov 10, In Russia Colonel
Mikhail Likhodey chairman of the Afghan War Invalids Fund was killed by
a bomb blast outside his apartment. The Fund had been granted lucrative
tax exemptions on the import and export of alcohol and tobacco with an
estimated value of $800 million.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A13)(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A11)
1994 South African Breweries (SAB)
moved into the China market.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.59)
1996 Jun 10, Rupinol, (Rohypnol),
also known as Rufi, is a drug that causes amnesia when mixed with
alcohol and is gaining popularity among young people. It is sold over
the counter in Mexico and other countries outside the US.
(SFC, 6/10/96, C4)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 27, In Indianapolis 4
police officers engaged in a fight outside the city’s Circle Center
mall. They were off duty and had just consumed a large amount of beer
in the city’s luxury suite at a ball game. They were later tried for
battery, disorderly conduct and public intoxication but the 1997 trial
ended in a hung jury.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.A7)
1996 Dec 24, In Bogota, Colombia,
at least 37 people were killed. Mayor Antanas Mockus blamed the
violence on alcohol consumption.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B4)
1996 Jack Allen Powell, a Virginia
Alcohol Beverage Control agent, authored "A Dying Art," a history of
moonshine production in Appalachia.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.A12)
1997 Feb, Ahmed Zayat, an Egyptian
American, took over the Al Ahram Beverages Co. and began to build a
state-of-the-art brewery to produce Egyptian Stella and Danish
Carlsberg Beer.
(WSJ, 4/10/97, p.A12)
1997 Aug 12, From Lithuania it was
reported that the country has become a favorite transit point for
smugglers. Cigarettes, alcohol, home appliances, oil, amber, gas, cars
and illegal narcotics were crossing the borders.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 31, Prince Charles
brought Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of
his former wife to a Britain that was shocked, grief-stricken and
angered by her death in a Paris traffic accident. Princess Diana (36)
and Egyptian billionaire Dodi al-Fayed (42) were killed along with the
car car’s driver in a car crash in Paris while trying to evade
paparazzi photographers. A bodyguard was severely injured but expected
to survive. It was later learned that the driver had 3 times the legal
alcohol limit and was driving at about 110 mph.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A1)(SFC,
9/2/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/31/98)
1997 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Spanish gin Larios.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1998 Oct 14, Frankie Yankovic
(83), the Polka King from Cleveland, died in Tampa, Fla. He played a
Slovenian-style polka on the accordion with clarinet and saxophone as
opposed to the Polish style which uses the accordion with trumpets and
has a faster beat. His hits included "In Heaven There Is No Beer."
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.C6)(AP, 10/14/99)
1998 Nov 18, Frederick McPhail
(27), a graduate student from NYU, was found dead in a car in Mexico
City. In 1999 13 current and former police officers were arrested as
suspects in a gang that robbed and kidnapped tourists. In 2000 6 former
police officers received sentences as long as 98 years for the death of
McPhail, whom they robbed and forced to drink a bottle of alcohol.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A7)
1998 Dec 26, President Clinton, in
his weekly radio address, urged Congress to lower the blood-alcohol
limit for drunken driving nationwide to 0.08 percent to conform with 17
states and the District of Columbia. The other 33 states have 0.10.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1998 Aug, The Tequila Express
Train began running between Guadalajara and Tequila with a $40 round
trip charge with complementary drinks.
(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 23, In Kenya police
reported that 23 people in Embu were killed by methanol liquor
disguised as whiskey.
(SFC, 9/24/99, p.A14)
1999 Popcorn Sutton (1946-2009),
Tennessee moonshiner, authored his autobigraphy “Me and My Likker.”
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A12)
2000 Feb 10, In Russia the
government announced that it would raise the minimum price for a bottle
of vodka by 30% at the end of the month.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A10)
2000 May 9, In Kentucky a fire at
the Wild Turkey Distillery caused an alcohol runoff into an 8-mile
stretch of the Kentucky River and a huge fish kill followed within days.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.D8)
2000 Jun 1, Stores across Japan
emptied beer vending machines to comply with a voluntary ban on beer
vending to help reduce alcoholism.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.B11)
2000 Oct 8-11, In El Salvador a
week of deaths from sugarcane liquor contaminated with methyl alcohol
increased to 51. Bottles of Thunderbolt were suspected to have been
refilled with a mixture of methanol and resold to poor farmworkers.
Liquor sales were banned after 117 deaths.
(SFC, 10/9/00, p.A11)(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A14)(WSJ,
10/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Mexican tequila producer Viuda de Romero.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
2001 Jun 4, In Russia most of the
production of vodka stopped due to the lack of government stamps, which
were ordered to fight bootlegging and boost taxes.
(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 14, In Nepal a panel of
inquiry reported that Prince Dipendra was tipsy from whiskey and high
on hashish when he killed his family members Jun 1.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 13, In Estonia the death
toll from tainted alcohol, consumed in or near the seaside resort of
Parnu, rose to 51. At least 85 more remained hospitalized and methanol
was blamed.
(SFC, 9/14/01, p.A32)
2001 The Firestone Walker brewery
relocated from Santa Barbara, Ca., to Paso Robles. The brewers
fermented their ales in used wine barrels.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.F6)
2001 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Polish vodka Wyborova, Czech bitters Jan Becher and Seagram’s Martell
cognac and Chivas scotch.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
2002 Jan 3, Alfred Henry Heineken
(78), builder of a global beer brand, died in the Netherlands. Freddie
designed the green bottle and logo. In 1983 he was abducted fro 3 weeks
and released unharmed.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
2002 South African Breweries
bought America’s Miller Brewing for $5.6 billion.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.64)
2005 Jul 26, Pernod Ricard SA said
it has completed its takeover of British rival Allied Domecq PLC to
become the world's second-largest wines and spirits maker. The acquired
brands included Ballantine’s, Malibu and Beefeater.
(AP, 7/26/05)(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
2005-2008 Follow the reference for a MADD link to a
timeline on drunk driving for this period.
(http://www.madd.org/campaign.aspx)
2006 Jun 16, A Russian state vodka
company won Stolichnaya brand rights back from a Dutch firm.
(WSJ, 6/17/06, p.A1)
2007 May 16, Indian company United
Spirits bought Scottish liquor maker Whyte and Mackay for more than one
billion dollars, emphasizing India's growing economic clout abroad.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 Jun 19, The European
Parliament decided that if it isn't distilled from grains or potatoes,
it really isn't vodka. It also overwhelmingly approved a ban on trade
in products containing cat or dog fur.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jul 31, A new study reported
that drinking wine or beer every day increases the risk of bowel
cancer. The British Daily Telegraph reported 35,000 people are
diagnosed each year with bowel cancer and that it kills 16,100 a
year.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In southern Nepal
tainted liquor killed at least 15 people and sickened several others on
the outskirts of Janakpur over the last 2 days.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Oct 9, Brewers SABMiller and
Molson Coors Brewing said they have agreed to combine their US
operations to create a business that will have annual sales of $6.6
billion and be the second-biggest market player behind Anheuser-Busch.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Dec 6, India overturned a
1914 law that banned women from tending bar in New Delhi. A ruling in
New Delhi in January said women could do bar work in hotels and
restaurants, ended a 92-year-old law barring their employment. In
August the Delhi government sought a ban on such jobs for women. Each
of India’s 29 states has its own laws governing the sale of alcohol,
and many restrict women working behind the bar.
(SFC, 12/22/07,
p.A15)(http://in.news.yahoo.com/071206/211/6o422.html)
2007 Dec 30, In Ohio a drunken
driver went about four miles down a highway in the wrong direction
before his pickup truck slammed into a minivan, killing a woman and
four children and injuring three others. All 8 had been visiting family
in Michigan and were returning to Maryland.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2008 Jan 1, In Mongolia a
government official said at least 11 people died and another 21 were
hospitalized for drinking tainted vodka during New Year's Eve
celebrations in Ulan Bator.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 25, Scottish &
Newcastle, the UK's largest brewer, announced it has agreed to be
bought by Carlsberg and Heineken, for around 7.6 billion pounds.
(AFP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jun 9, Budweiser, US beer
brewer, announced that it would go on sale in Vietnam.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.82)
2008 Jun 11, InBev, the
Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant, offered $46 billion, or 65 dollars a
share, in cash for Anheuser-Busch in a bid to create an unrivaled
global brewing giant.
(AFP, 6/12/08)(Econ, 6/21/08, p.77)
2008 Jul 13, Belgian-based brewer
InBev announced it will buy Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion.
(http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/703682.html)
2008 Nov 18, Belgian brewing giant
InBev announced it had completed the takeover of Anheuser-Busch to
create the world's biggest brewer. Beijing agreed to Belgium-based
InBev SA's takeover of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.'s Chinese operations as
part of their global merger, but limited future acquisitions on
anti-monopoly grounds.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Tom Gjelton, NPR
correspondent, authored “Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba,” a
history of Bacardi rum.
(SFC, 9/9/08, p.E3)
2009 Mar 9, French lawmakers
passed an amendment to ban the sale of alcohol to teens under 18, part
of an effort to tackle the rise of binge drinking in a country known
for a relaxed attitude toward a little libation.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Apr 11, Turkey’s agriculture
ministry said 11 people have died in Turkey over the past three weeks,
including three young Germans, after drinking bootleg spirits.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 May 12, In Utah partitions
know as “Zion curtains” began coming down as a new law came into effect
allowing bartenders to serve patrons directly over the bar.
(SFC, 5/13/09, p.A8)
2009 Jul 1, Utah ditched a
40-year-old requirement for bar customers to fill out applications and
pay a fee to become a member of a private club before entering a bar.
(SFC, 7/2/09, p.A5)
2009 Jul 6, In western India
people began falling ill after a night of drinking tainted home-brewed
liquor. The death toll soon rose to at least 112.
(AP, 7/8/09)(AP, 7/9/09)(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 20, In Malaysia Kartika
Sari Dewi Shukarno (32), a Muslim woman, was sentenced to six lashes
and a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,400) for having a beer in a nightclub
in Dec 2007. She would become the first woman in Malaysia to be given
the punishment under Islamic law. Her caning was delayed on Aug 24
because of the holy month of Ramadan. On Mar 30, 2010, the state's
sultan spared her the caning and instead ordered her to do 3 weeks of
community service.
(AP, 7/21/09)(AP, 8/19/09)(AP, 8/24/09)(AP, 4/1/10)
2009 Sep 28, In Malaysia news
reports said a judge has upheld a court verdict to cane a Muslim woman
for drinking beer, re-igniting a controversy over Islamic justice in
this moderate Muslim-majority country. The chief Shariah judge of
Pahang state ruled that a Shariah High Court's verdict against Kartika
Sari Dewi Shukarno (32) was correct and should stay.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 30, In Arizona a new law
took effect allowing people with concealed weapons permits to enter
bars and restaurants, that haven’t posted signs banning guns. Those
carrying weapons would not be allowed to drink alcohol.
(SFC, 9/30/09, p.A8)
2009 Oct 10, It was reported that
local Iraqi authorities have outlawed alcohol in the province of Najaf,
home to the holiest Shiite city, saying it contradicts the principles
of Islam. The Najaf provincial council's decision followed a similar
measure taken in August by authorities in Basra.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2010 Jan 1, The Russian government
set a minimum price for vodka that more than doubles the cost of the
cheapest vodka on the market in an effort to fight rampant alcoholism.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 11, Dutch brewer Heineken
said it will buy the beer-making operations of Mexico’s Femsa, the
maker of Dos Equis and Sol beers, in an all-share deal valued at $5.5
billion, excluding debt.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.D3)
2010 Jan 19, The British
government said it will ban drinking contests in bars and force pub
owners to offer patrons tap water in a bid to help tackle the country’s
boozy culture.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Belgium the
world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, shut down production
in its home country, in an escalation of a standoff over job cuts with
its Belgian workers which is causing beer shortages in shops.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Feb 5, New Zealand explorers
said 5 crates of whisky and brandy belonging to polar explorer Ernest
Shackleton have been recovered after being buried for more than 100
years under the Antarctic ice. The excavation of the whisky followed
the discovery last month of two blocks of butter in an Antarctic hut
used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12
expedition.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 9, Indonesian police said
8 people have died after drinking liquor laced with methanol on the
country's main island of Java. The victims had bought the drink from
the same stall on Feb 5.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 24, Germany's top
Protestant cleric, Margot Kaessmann (51), resigned after she was caught
driving with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, an
incident that she said had undermined her authority.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Mar 22, Dubai Media reported
that authorities planned to step up enforcement of a 2003 law
prohibiting restaurants from using booze in food preparation.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Ireland a judge in
Limerick ruled that the city’s 110 pubs can open on April 2 because the
city is hosting a major Irish rugby match. This will be the 1st time
that pubs anywhere in Ireland will open on Good Friday.
(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 8, In Denmark scores of
Carlsberg brewery workers walked off the job after the company
tightened rules on workplace drinking. A new policy only allowed them
to drink beer during lunch in the canteen.
(SFC, 4/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 27, It was reported that
Fritz Maytag, owner of the SF-based Anchor Brewing Co., has sold the
company to the Griffon Group, run by Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio.
(SFC, 4/27/10, p.A1)
2010 Jun 10, Venezuela’s Pres.
Hugo Chavez said he wants Venezuelans to stop drinking so much alcohol
and ordered the military to crack down on businesses selling beer on
the streets or after legal hours.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 12, In Mexico a
government media tour to promote tourism in the southwest went awry
when machete-wielding Indians briefly kidnapped 13 reporters on the
trip. 15 people trying to film a beer commercial were also abducted.
The indigenous communal landowners were upset that Grupo Modelo, the
maker of Corona beer, had not asked their permission to film the
commercial on their property. They were all released unharmed but the
Indians refused to return cameras and other equipment.
(AP, 6/14/10)
2010 Aug 3, In Nigeria Islamic
police smashed 80,000 bottles of beer in the city of Kano to enforce a
sharia law ban on consumption of alcohol that exists in much of the
country's north.
(AFP, 8/4/10)
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Subject = Beer, Liquor, Wine
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