FDR's greatest contribution

You can have Social Security, his public works program, the SEC and his whole laundry list of accomplishments, but none were more critical during the Great Depression than ending Prohibition, which officially concluded 75 years ago today.

An America without any legal alcohol is hard to fathom. But it last for more than a decade, fueling speakeasies and organized crime, the end result of suddenly banning nearly any commodity.

Roosevelt even said, "It would be a good time for America to have a beer." This was unlike his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, who was known to stop off at the Belgium embassy, where he could imbibe legally while no one else could (embassies are technically territory of their home country, so it was subject to Belgian law, not American temperance).

So if you're drinking tonight, remember that it wasn't always so simple.