Beer and Spirits

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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)

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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)

1366        The Den Hoorn brewery was founded in Leuven (Belgium). In 1717 Sebastian Artois brought his name to the brewery.
    (Econ, 12/17/11, p.124)

1420        Brewers in Bavaria about this time discovered a way to brew beer in the winter beginning the lager revolution.
    (Econ, 8/27/11, p.71)

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 (purity 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)(Econ, 10/9/10, p.76)

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)

1553        Bavaria outlawed summer-made beer because wintertime brews had outstripped them in quality. In 2011 a yeast from Patagonia, Saccharomyces eubayanus, was identified as being 99.5% identical to the non-ale half of the lager yeast genome. It was believed that over time Saccharomyces eubayanus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae hybridized to form Saccharomyces pastorianus, used by lager brewers today.
    (Econ, 8/27/11, p.71)

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)

1643        The English parliament first introduced levies on beer and meat to finance its fight against the Crown.
    (Econ, 12/31/11, p.39)

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)

1698        The British pint, a 568 milliliter pour, was introduced. Bars were allowed to serve beer only as a pint, or a third or half of that measure. This became the standard size for beer and cider.
    (SFC, 1/5/11, p.A2)

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)

1745        Richard Hennessey arrived in France from Ireland as an exile from wars with England.
    (SSFC, 10/16/11, p.N4)

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        Richard Hennessey, an exile Ireland, founded a spirits export business in the Cognac region of France.
    (SSFC, 10/16/11, p.N4)

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)

1810        Oct 12, Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.  In honor of the wedding a horse race took place at the Theresienwiese (the Theresien meadow). The decision to repeat the horse races in subsequent years gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest.
    (www.ofest.com/history.html)

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        Aug 25, Belgium rebelled against Netherlands. Among the reasons for rebelling were heavy taxes on beer.
    (chblue.com, 8/25/01)(Econ, 12/17/11, p.125)

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 India the Murree Brewery Co. Ltd. was founded by British colonialists. It became a listed company in 1902. In 1947 it came under the control of Pakistan.
    (SFC, 7/10/00, p.A8)(Econ, 4/21/12, p.58)

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)

1895        South African Breweries (SAB) was founded to quench the thirst of gold prospectors around Johannesburg.
    (Econ, 3/24/12, p.67)

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)

1903        London gin distiller George Gilbey began selling aristocrats do-it-yourself gadgets to carbonate tap water.
    (SFC, 7/9/11, p.D2)

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        Apr 6, In San Francisco the Police Board examined 9 Mission saloon keepers who were cited for selling liquor to women decoys. Mission District Police Capt. Henry Gleeson faced a possible charge of neglect of duty.
    (SSFC, 4/3/11, DB p.46)

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        Jun 16, In San Francisco the 13-foot neon schooner atop the new Hamm’s Brewery building at 1550 Bryant St. was turned on. Brewing at the facility ended in 1974.
    (SFC, 4/10/12, p.E2)

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)

1960        Dec 10, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a third of a million fifths of an exotic moonshine, known as bok chow, were being distilled in Chinatown. A recent raid at 1555 Mason St. gave up 22 gallons.
    (SSFC, 12/5/10, DB p.50)

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        May 8, San Francisco Supervisor Richard Hongisto was slapped with a DUI by a Marin County judge. His sentence included a $784 fine and a 90-day driving restriction. A breath test measured his blood-alcohol level at .11, just abort the .10 limit.
    (SSFC, 5/8/11, DB p.46)

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)

1995        Belgium based Interbrew bought Labatts of Canada.
    (Econ, 12/17/11, p.125)

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)

2004        Aug, An $11 billion merger between Belgium’s Interbrew and Brazil’s largest brewer AmBev formed InBev.
    (Econ, 10/29/05, p.66)

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        Jan, Liquor company Diageo PLC signed a long-term lease to build a Captain Morgan rum distillery in the Virgin Islands in exchange for a portion of the territory's excise-tax revenue, estimated at $2.7 billion over 30 years. The distillery opened in late 2010 on the island of St. Croix. Puerto Rico expected to lose $140 million in 2012 as a result of the lucrative production of Captain Morgan rum moving to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
    (AP, 7/6/11)
2009        Jan, In Sharjah, UAE, a mob of up to 50 people beat Masri Khan, a Pakistani man, to death with metal bars in a fight over control of an illegal liquor business. In March, 2010, 17 Indians were sentenced to death for the beating. In 2011 the victim’s family accepted over $900,000 in "blood money," allowing the men to return to their families.
    (AFP, 3/30/10)(AP, 7/21/11)

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        Jul 13, Divers found bottles of champagne in a wreck near the Aland Islands between Finland and Sweden. 5 bottles of dark, foamy beer wee later recovered while salvaging the champagne. The shipwreck was believed to be from the early 19th century. In 2011 Finnish scientists said they hoped to re-brew an old ale after studying the ancient beer found in the shipwreck.
    (http://tinyurl.com/4kawd2n)(AP, 2/8/11)

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)

2010        Aug 21, In Bangladesh at least 15 people died over the last 24 hours after drinking toxic home-brewed liquor in the northeast. They had consumed alcohol mixed with toxic methanol in the Sylhet district late Aug 18.
    (AP, 8/21/10)

2010        Sep 5, In Ecuador 15 people were killed and at least seven injured when a drunken Luis Alberto Hessmer Vargas drove an SUV into a crowded bus stop in the coastal city of Guayaquil.
    (AP, 9/6/10)

2010        Nov 1, British scientists said alcohol is a more dangerous drug than both crack and heroin when the combined harms to the user and to others are assessed.
    (Reuters, 11/1/10)

2010        Nov 14, NY Gov. David Patterson announced an agreement with Phusion Products to stop shipments into NY state of Four Loko, a caffeinated alcoholic drink already banned in 4 states.
    (SFC, 11/15/10, p.A8)

2010        Dec 23, It was reported that the first pill designed to curb a person’s urge to have more than a few drinks of alcohol was undergoing tests in Europe. The drug (nalmafene) was developed by H. Lundbeck A/S in Valby, Denmark.
    (SFC, 12/23/10, p.A2)

2010        New Hampshire boasted the highest beer sales per person in the US with an average of 32.7 gallons of beer sold per legal-age drinking person. Cross-border sales contributed.
    (SFC, 6/25/11, p.D2)

2011        Mar 15, In Oman Sheik Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalili, highest religious authority in the Persian Gulf kingdom, called for a nationwide alcohol ban and strict monitoring of health clubs in this Muslim country. Al-Khalili told state television that "drunk people are unproductive people who sink into vice."
    (AP, 3/17/11)

2011        Apr 8, According to a study about one in 10 cancers in men and one in 33 in women in western European countries are caused by current and past alcohol consumption.
    (AP, 4/8/11)

2011        Jul 12, Australia's major alcohol brands launched voluntary health warnings on their labels targeting children, pregnant women and excessive boozing in a country famed for its binge-drinking culture.
    (AFP, 7/12/11)

2011        Jul 13, In eastern England a powerful explosion at a suspected illegal alcohol distillery in Lincolnshire killed five men and seriously injured another.
    (AP, 7/14/11)

2011        Jul 16, Authorities in Ecuador banned the sale of alcohol in the coastal municipality of Urdaneta in Los Rios province after at least 19 people died after drinking adulterated alcohol. The victims began drinking the alcohol on July 7. Adulterated liquor was later traced to a factory near Guayaquil, where methanol was being added to fruity wines. By September some 51 were dead and 771 poisoned.
    (AP, 7/15/11)(AP, 7/17/11)(Econ, 9/24/11, p.49)

2011        Jul 17, Christian Martinez, an Australian convert to Islam, was pinned down and lashed 40 times for drinking alcohol by a group of 4 Muslim men who broke into his Sidney home to punish him for breaking sharia law. Two of the men were soon charged with aggravated breaking and entering with intent to commit an indictable offense.
    (AFP, 7/19/11)(AP, 7/20/11)

2011        Aug 1, In Germany a Berlin state court ordered breweries to stop advertising beer as something good for peoples’ looks and health.
    (SFC, 8/2/11, p.A2)

2011        Aug 17, SABMiller, one of the world's largest brewers, said it will take a $10 billion bid for rival Foster's Group Ltd. straight to the Australian company's shareholders after the board rejected its offer as too low.
    (AP, 8/17/11)

2011        Aug 24, Youths torched a bar on Tanzania's Zanzibar archipelago in a reported protest against alcohol sales, the third bar attacked this month on the popular tourist island.
    (AFP, 8/25/11)

2011        Sep 14, Kenya police said two women and 15 men have died since Sep 11 in different bars in Nyahururu town after ingesting a locally brewed alcoholic drink. 9 people were reported arrested in connection with the mass poisoning.
    (AP, 9/14/11)

2011        Sep 21, Australian beer giant Foster's said it has accepted an improved takeover worth Aus$9.9 billion (£6.5 billion) from British-based brewer SABMiller.
    (AFP, 9/21/11)

2011        Oct 3, US whiskey maker Jim Beam was spun off from Fortune Brands. It planned to gear future marketing toward women.
    (SFC, 10/15/11, p.D3)

2011        Nov 8, Georgia voters in 105 of 127 voted to end a century-old ban on the sale of alcohol on Sundays. 
    (SFC, 11/12/11, p.A8)
2011        Nov 8, Washington state voters approved plans to privatize the states 328 liquor outlets and open the business to warehouse stores and supermarkets.
    (Econ, 11/19/11, p.43)

2011        Dec 2, Royal Bank of Scotland said it has sold its 918 tenanted pubs in Britain to Dutch brewer Heineken for 422 million pounds, another step in its exit from non-core businesses following a government bailout.
    (Reuters, 12/2/11)

2011        Dec 15, Indian officials said at least 143 people have died after consuming toxic home-made liquor in West Bengal state. Police arrested 10 suspected bootleggers. Khonra Badshah, the suspected kingpin behind the illegal liquor racket that left 172 people dead, surrendered to police on Jan 16.
    (AP, 12/15/11)(AFP, 1/16/12)

2011        SABMiller launched the world’s first commercially produced cassava beer. It was brewed in Mozambique.
    (Econ, 3/24/12, p.67)

2012        Jan 9, Britons were urged to avoid drinking alcohol for at least two days a week to protect their health, a committee of MPs said in a report published today.
    (Reuters, 1/9/12)

2012        Jan 16, In India Khonra Badshah, accused of making toxic home-brewed alcohol that killed 172 people, surrendered to authorities after a month-long hunt by police.
    (AFP, 1/16/12)

2012        Feb 8, In India officials said at least 30 people have died and more are sick after drinking toxic bootleg liquor made from cough medicine in Orissa state.
    (AP, 2/8/12)(AFP, 2/9/12)

2012        Feb 10, Mayor Boris Johnson said London will be the first city in England to test electronic monitoring to force persistent alcohol offenders to stop drinking. The trial program was expected to start later this year. Electronic devices which continuously monitor alcohol are used in several US states. Offenders who break their no-drink order can be sent to jail.
    (AP, 2/10/12)

2012        Mar 6, Georgia voters lifted a ban on Sunday sales of alcohol in 24 of 27 cities that put the issue on the ballot.
    (Econ, 3/17/12, p.33)

2012        Mar 22, Deaths from liver disease have risen 25 percent in England in less than a decade, mainly due to increased alcohol consumption, a study revealed. Alcohol-related liver disease accounted for over a third (37 percent) of the deaths, according to the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network report.
    (AFP, 3/22/12)

2012        Mar 23, Britain’s PM David Cameron announced that the government will introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol in England and Wales to tackle binge-drinking.
    (AFP, 3/23/12)

2012        Mar, Washington state began auctioning the licenses to 167 liquor stores it runs. By June 1 it will be out the liquor business altogether.
    (Econ, 3/17/12, p.33)

2012        Apr 9, Pres. Obama met with Brazil’s Pres. Dilma Rouseff. She called on the US to invest more in the world’s 6th biggest economy. Obama confirmed that the US would recognize cachaca, a sugarcane spirit, as a distinct product, no longer calling it Brazilian rum.
    (SFC, 4/10/12, p.A5)(Econ, 4/14/12, p.48)

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