February 16 in A.A. History

1938: Rockefeller associate Frank Amos [left] returned home from his trip to Akron, Ohio, where he evaluated the members and program of Alcoholics Anonymous. According to reports, he left with a positive impression of A.A. in Akron. The following day, Dr. Bob S. would write to Bill W., describing “a very delightful visit from Mr. Amos” and noting that “he seemed very favorably impressed.”
    Frank would spend the next four days preparing a four-page report titled “Notes on Akron, Ohio Survey” for John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his other associates.

1941: Maryland’s The Baltimore Sunday Sun published Harrison Johnston’s article on Alcoholics Anonymous titled “John Barleycorn’s Victims Seek Strength in Unity” [right]. The article featured a rearview photo of an A.A. group and read, in part:

    The story of “Alcoholics Anonymous,” which now includes a Baltimore group, is the story, in the words of one of its members, of a “bunch of drunks trying to help one another stop drinking.…”
    “Alcoholics Anonymous” meet regularly as a group twice a week—once in a semi-formal “business” meeting, once in a completely informal and spontaneous social gathering—without benefit of alcohol. They base their hopes of success on a mystical belief in aid from without themselves (all else having failed), from God, “as we understand Him,” and on constant association with other alcoholics who can understand and help them and whom they in turn can understand and try to help. They may thereby draw upon the companionship of other alcoholics, men and women like themselves with whom they alone are psychologically able to discuss their difficulties, and try to lose themselves in the rehabilitation of others even less controlled than they, a proven form of uplift characteristic of all group organizations, the church itself not least among them.
    From out this mixture, without any recourse whatsoever to medicine, “Alcoholics Anonymous” claims complete success—with no relapses—with about fifty per cent of its members (always supposing them to be sincere in their efforts to stop), and eventual success—after occasional relapses—with an additional twenty-five per cent.…
    The Baltimore group was founded only eight months ago, in June, 1940, and now numbers about forty members, of whom five are women.

1945: Charles Welch, a non-alcoholic [left], was appointed Honorary Lifetime Vice President [near right: certificate] of the first A.A. group in Vancouver, British Columbia. After his wife’s earlier death from alcoholism, he had opened his home [far right] to host the group’s meetings for the first six months.
    Welch also initiated advertising for A.A. in Vancouver. The first ads [left: example] appeared in The Vancouver Daily Province from 16 November 1944, to 1 February 1952, helping to increase membership from just 4 to 41. Subsequently, similar ads ran in The Vancouver Sun from 2 January 1945, to 27 June 1951, and in The Vancouver News-Herald from 20 September 1949, to 6 July 1951, further broadening A.A.’s presence in Vancouver.

1978: The Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS), recognized as the first public dial-up BBS, officially went online [right: original CBBS hardware]. Developed by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, members of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists’ Exchange (CACHE), CBBS transformed early digital communication.
    This system maintained a running tally of callers, recording a total of 253,301 connections before its retirement around 1990. Although no supporting documentation exists, it seems likely that some A.A. members who were knew each other would have used CBBS to share experience, strength and during the early days of online interaction.