History of Vermont - The Twentieth Century

The Twentieth Century

In 1902, Vermonters approved a law for local option on the sale of alcoholic beverages, countermanding the prior law of 1853 which banned them entirely. That year 94 towns approved the sale of alcoholic beverages locally. The number of approving towns fell each year until there were only 18 in 1917, shortly before national prohibition became law.

In 1923, the state passed a law limiting the regular workweek of women and children to 58 hours.

Large-scale flooding occurred in early November 1927. During this incident, 85 people died, 84 of them in Vermont. Another flood occurred in 1973, when the flood caused the death of two people and millions of dollars in property damage.

The US Supreme Court decided that New Hampshire's boundary included most of the Connecticut River, establishing Vermont's eastern boundary in Vermont v. New Hampshire - 290 US 579 (1934).

A eugenics project apparently targeted Indians, Indian-French Canadians, and Afro-Americans in the state for forced sterilization between 1931 and 1936.

Hydropower supplied 90% of the state's power needs in 1940.

About 6,000 Vermonters were in the military during World War II. About 874 of these died.

94 Vermonters died fighting the Korean War.

In 1964, the US Supreme Court forced “one-man, one-vote” redistricting on Vermont, giving cities an equitable share of votes in both houses for the entire country. Until that time, counties were often represented by area in state senates and were often unsympathetic to urban problems requiring increased taxes.

In 1965, the Northeast Blackout of 1965, the worse blackout until then, left Vermont without electricity for about 12 hours.

In 1968, the state took over welfare support for the indigent. This had formerly been the responsibility of the towns, under the Overseer of the Poor. This had been a nearly insupportable burden for many small towns.

On April 25, 2000, as a result of the Vermont Supreme Court's decision in Baker v. Vermont, the Vermont General Assembly passed and Governor Howard Dean signed into law H.0847, which provided the state-sanctioned benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples in the form of civil unions. Controversy over the civil unions bill was a central issue in the subsequent 2000 elections.