Responding to arguments that those old enough to be drafted for military service, should be able to exercise the right to vote, Congress lowered the voting age as part of the Voting Rights Act of 1970. Endorsed by Speaker Carl Albert of Oklahoma, the amendment passed the House by a vote of 401 to 19, on March 23, 1971.

The amendment grants the district electors in the Electoral College as though it were a state, though the district can never have more electors than the least-populous state. The ratification of the amendment made the district the only entity other than the states to have any representation in the Electoral College.

Congress passed the Twenty-Third Amendment on June 16, 1960. The Amendment allows American citizens residing in the District of Columbia to vote for presidential electors, who in turn vote in the Electoral College for President and Vice President.

Passed by Congress March 23, 1971, and ratified July 1, 1971, the 26th amendment granted the right to vote to American citizens aged eighteen or older.

On this date, the 26th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. In the turmoil surrounding the unpopular Vietnam War, lowering the national voting age became a controversial topic. The Supreme Court upheld the legislation in a 5 to 4 vote in applying the lowered voting age to federal elections only.

In 1942, the slogan prompted Congressman Jennings Randolph of West Virginia to propose an amendment to the Constitution lowering the voting age to 18. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson both championed the cause.

Forty years ago, the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution took effect, lowering the universal voting age in America from 21 years to 18 years. Millions of young Americans were extended the right to vote, empowering more young people than ever before to help shape our country.

National prohibition of alcohol (1920–33) — the “noble experiment” — was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America.

On December 5, 1933, three states voted to repeal Prohibition, putting the ratification of the 21st Amendment into place.

People found clever ways to evade Prohibition agents. They carried hip flasks, hollowed canes, false books, and the like. Neither federal nor local authorities would commit the resources necessary to enforce the Volstead Act.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Although prohibition did decrease the amount of alcohol Americans consumed, it failed utterly to stop that consumption. Many people thought that prohibition would affect only liquor distilleries, as had long been true of many state and local alcohol regulations.

Perhaps the most dramatic consequence of Prohibition was the effect it had on organized crime in the United States: as the production and sale of alcohol went further underground, it began to be controlled by the Mafia and other gangs, who transformed themselves into sophisticated criminal enterprises that reaped huge …

18th Amendment