73-Year Beer Ban Lifted in Iceland

A narrow majority of Parliament voted Tuesday to end Iceland’s 73-year ban on beer, making the brew legal by next March 1.

An emotional debate at the Althing’s upper chamber kept interested Icelanders listening to the live broadcast until the early morning hours before the 13-8 vote ended decades of struggle to repeal the 1915 prohibition on beer.

Prohibitionists had argued that teen-agers would be more likely to take up drinking if beer were available. Wine and liquor were already legal.