April 7 is National Beer Day. The unofficial holiday (sorry, you won’t get the day off) marks the date that beer was allowed to be legally manufactured and sold following a long, dry Prohibition. On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Cullen–Harrison Act into law, which moved the U.S. away from Prohibition. After he signed, Roosevelt reportedly remarked to his aide Louis Howe, “I think this would be a good time for a beer.”
Prohibition—which remained in place for a few more months—reportedly cost the federal government $11 billion in lost tax revenue, not counting the ...