May 22 in A.A. History

1940: Works Publishing, Inc. was legally established as the publishing arm of the Alcoholic Foundation. Bill W. [near right] and Hank P. [far right] had been asked to surrender their stock [left: one share]. As a condition of this surrender, Dr. Bob and Anne S. would receive 10% royalties for life on sales of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous (35¢ per book [~$8.33 in 2026]), royalties that would normally have gone to Bill as the author. Hank had been persuaded to give up his shares in exchange for a $200 payment [~$4,760 in 2026] for office furniture he asserted was his even though he had likely already sold it to them once.

1943:  Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio celebrated its 4th anniversary. The June 1943 Central Bulletin reported [right] on the event:

FOUNDERS’ ANNIVERSARY PARTY

    Over 300 [?] persons jammed Masonic Hall in Cleveland Heights when the originators of the AA movement in Cleveland helped sponsor the Fourth Anniversary party, Saturday evening, May 22, in conjunction with the Lee Mayfield Group. After an excellent dinner, where the choice was steak or chicken, various speakers arose and spoke on the progress of the AA movement in Cleveland. These speakers included the first Clevelander in AA and the several others who were convinced by him as well as well-known Akronites.
    Excellent entertainment was also supplied and with the singing of Old [sic] Lang Syne, the crowd disbanded united in praise for the committee who arranged this inspiring evening.

1948: New Jersey’s Atlantic City Group [left: brochure for this group] celebrated its second anniversary. The event featured talks by several A.A. members and Dr. C. Nelson Davis, the non-alcoholic co-founder of the Saul Clinic. Dr. Davis established the clinic—the first private treatment center for alcoholism in the U.S.—in 1946 with C. Dudley Saul at St. Luke’s Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1986: The 29th International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA) convened at the Hyatt Regency in Miami, Florida [near right: registration form; far right: press release].

May in A.A. History—day unknown

1956: The first issue of the A.A. Exchange Bulletin—Volume 1, Number 1 [left: page 1]—was published. This publication consolidated several existing newsletters, among them The General Service Bulletin. The General Service Bulletin had previously been known as The Group Secretary, and was originally called The A.A. Bulletin. It described itself this way:

    This new General Service Headquarters publication, which will be distributed to all groups and to lone members and Internationalists throughout the world, replaces the single-sheet “General Service Bulletin” which, in one form at or another, carried Headquarters news to the movement for more than a decade.
    The “Exchange Bulletin” was created to fill many requests for a concise, movement-wide publication that would combine Headquarters news, basic information on A.A. as a whole and brief accounts indicating how particular problems are being met by groups throughout the world. It is also designed to give loners, Internationalists (seamen) and groups in prisons and hospitals a monthly forum through which they can keep in touch with developments in their areas of A.A. activity.
    The “Exchange Bulletin” is not a substitute for “The A.A. Grapevine” which, because of its greater size and different editorial approach, will continue to be the movement’s international interpretive journal.

    In December 1966, the A.A. Exchange Bulletin would be renamed Box 4-5-9.