Thousands of champagne corks popped, and hundreds of thousands of glasses clinked to toast drinkers’ regained freedom. Delivery truck engines purred as they left liquor warehouses.

Within minutes of Utah’s ratification, liquor legally began to flow in some American cities as patrons purchased their first authorized drinks since 1920. Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring the end of Prohibition while also admonishing the country to drink responsibly and not abuse “this return of individual freedom.” “I trust in the good sense of the American people,” the president said, “that they will not bring upon themselves the curse of excessive use of intoxicating liquors, to the detriment of health, morals and social integrity.” Moments later, in a low-key event held under the blaze of motion-picture Klieg lights, Under Secretary of State William Phillips thrust his pen into an inkstand and inscribed his signature to certify the passage of the 21st Amendment.Īn hour later, with little pomp and circumstance, President Franklin D. For the first time in American history, a Constitutional amendment had been repealed. Scrambling to beat Maine as the state to legalize liquor, Utah’s convention unanimously ratified the amendment at the precise local time of 3:32 p.m.

That afternoon, Pennsylvania and Ohio gave their assents, but the identity of the thirty-sixth state that approved the 21st Amendment and drove the final spike into Prohibition was an unlikely one-Utah.

Last call prohibition