Besançon poisonings
Wikipedia Current Events →A poisoning incident occurred in Besançon, France, drawing significant public and law enforcement attention.
Poisoned Alcohol Deaths Total 80 In N.Y. and Ontario
![Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.), July 28, 1926 — front page](/img/service:ndnp:me:batch_me_iceboro_ver01:data:sn82014248:00513683388:1926072801:0287)
Buffalo, N.Y., July 27—(AP)—The death toll from the flood of poisoned alcohol in western New York and Ontario today had mounted to 80 as legal machinery began to grind out punishment for the vendors responsible. A highlight in the developments was the surrender and arrest on a charge of first degree murder of Hans F. Voelker, alleged distributor of poisonous liquor which caused several deaths in Buffalo. Voelker, reportedly wealthy through his liquor business, was taken into custody. More than 20 persons are under arrest in this state and in Ontario. W.D. Hale of Washington, chief of the Alcohol regulation division, came to New York to seek the man from whom Voelker purchased the alcohol which he is alleged to have distributed. Federal authorities described this as the work of one big distributor who gets supplies from Germany. Word came from Toronto that provincial police had learned the liquor that caused 18 deaths in the province was secreted in a cargo of denatured alcohol according to officials—radium type used in automobile manufacturing.
Original Newspaper Page
![Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.), July 28, 1926 — front page](https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:ndnp:me:batch_me_iceboro_ver01:data:sn82014248:00513683388:1926072801:0287/full/full/0/default.jpg)
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Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The seven men were lined up facing a wall and shot with Thompson submachine guns and a sawed-off shotgun; seventy rounds were fired from the Thompsons, and one cartridge was discharged from the shotgun.
Wikipedia →Wickersham Commission
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The Blaine Act, formally titled Joint Resolution Proposing the Twenty-First Amendment to the United States Constitution, is a joint resolution adopted by the United States Congress on February 20, 1933, initiating repeal of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which established Prohibition in the United States. Repeal was finalized when the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by the required minimum number of states on December 5, 1933.
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