Category:Alcohol

1831: Little Rock Temperance Society is founded.

1853: State Legislature bans alcohol sales to slaves without their owners' explicit permission.

1862: Confederate state Legislature forbids the manufacture of corn whiskey.

1876: State's first Women's Christian Temperance Union chapter is founded.

1879: General Assembly passes local-option law that requires communities to vote every two years on whether to go dry.

1915: Law prohibits the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages statewide.

1917: "Bone-dry" law forbids even the shipment of liquor into the state.

1919: Arkansas is 27 th state to ratify the 18 th Amendment establishing national Prohibition.

1933: Referendum on repealing national Prohibition, authorized by General Assembly, favors repeal by 67,622 to 46,091.

1935: Legislature repeals 1915 state prohibition law, while making local-option elections difficult.

1942: Easing of local-option petition requirement ushers in wave of county and community votes to go dry.

1943: General Assembly makes it legal to sell beer to be drunk on the premises of hotel or restaurant.

1950: Initiated Act to restore statewide prohibition, drafted by Temperance League of Arkansas, is defeated 167,578 to 122,252.

1965: Sale of wine with meals is approved by Legislature 1969: Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller's mixed-drinks bill passes General Assembly.

1993: Legislation makes local-option votes more difficult by raising petition requirement to 38 percent of registered voters.

2003: Criteria for private clubs eligible to be licensed by state Alcohol and Beverage Control board is expanded by law to include "community hospitality, professional association, entertainment."

2005: Pro-liquor group in Benton County begins petition effort for a November 2006 vote on changing the county from dry to wet.

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