June 10, 1935: The Founding of Alcoholics Anonymous

Bill Wilson

June 10, 1935: A meeting is held in Akron, Ohio, where people seak about their shared affliction: Alcoholism. The meeting is regarded as the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous, and of similar addiction treatments worldwide.

William Griffith Wilson was born on November 26, 1895 in East Dorset, Vermont. He served in World War I, and became a stock speculator, traveling the country, and drinking wherever he went. In 1933, he was hospitalized for excessive drinking, but he relapsed. Hospitalized again in 1934, he cried out, "I'll do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let Him show Himself!" He then had the sensation of a bright light, a feeling of ecstasy, and a new serenity.

On May 12, 1935, a failed business trip to Akron led him back into temptation. He decided that, to remain, sober he needed to help another alcoholic. He called phone numbers in a church directory and eventually secured an introduction to Bob Smith.

Robert Holbrook Smith was born on August 8, 1879 -- oddly enough, also in Vermont, in St. Johnsbury. He began drinking at Dartmouth College, became a doctor, but 12 times, he checked himself into hospitals to stop his drinking. Prohibition didn't stop him.

He took Wilson's call, and they met face-to-face, and talked about their common problem. Smith invited Wilson to stay at his house. A trip to a professional convention in Atlantic City led to Smith relapsing. Returning to Akron on June 9, he was given a few drinks by Wilson to avoid delirium tremens. He drank one beer the next morning, to settle his nerves so he could perform an operation, which proved to be the last alcoholic drink he would ever have. The date, June 10, 1935, is celebrated as the anniversary of the founding of AA.

The "Anonymous" part was considered key: By putting one's identity aside, one was equal to everyone else. The traditional greeting is to announce your first name and the initial of your last name, and admit your affliction, depending on the nature of your addiction. In Wilson's case, it was, "Hello, my name is Bill W., and I'm an alcoholic." Followers of AA became known as "Friends of Bill W." (In 1989, CBS produced the Hallmark Hall of Fame film My Name Is Bill W. James Woods won an Emmy Award for playing Wilson, and James Garner played Smith.)

In 1939, the fellowship that grew out of that 1935 meeting published Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism, colloquially known as "the Big Book." This publication introduced the twelve-step program, and provided the basis for the organization's name. Later editions of the book expanded its subtitle to reflect the inclusion of "Thousands of Men and Women."

The 12 steps, as listed in the 2001 version of the Big Book:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him. (This allowed for believers in religions other than Christianity.)
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Dr. Bob Smith died on November 16, 1950 -- ironically, from the very thing his practice had tended to, colon cancer. He was 71, 15 years sober, and had helped over 5,000 people stay off booze.

William Griffith Wilson died on January 24, 1971, of emphysema in Miami. He was 75. For all he had done in founding Alcoholics Anonymous, in the end, the man publicly known as “Bill W.” still died due to the abuse of a drug: Nicotine.

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June 10, 1935 was a Sunday. Although playing professional sports on Sunday was now legal in all 48 States of the Union, only 1 game was played that day. And, ironically, it was in the last State to legalize Sunday ball, Pennsylvania: The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 14-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Arky Vaughan hit 2 home runs for the Pirates, and 1 each was added by Paul Waner, Gus Surh and Pep Young.