July 6 in A.A. History

1985: During A.A.’s 8th International Convention and 50th-anniversary celebration in Montreal, Quebec, Ruth Crecelius (née Hock) was presented with the 5,000,000th copy of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous [right: Ruth holding 5,000,000th copy of the Big Book]. Ruth was the non-alcoholic typist of the Big Book’s first edition and A.A.’s first national secretary.

July in A.A. History—day unknown

1908: Exhausted and depressed after resigning due to a budget dispute, Rev. Frank Buchman [left], the future founder of the Oxford Group, arrived in England to attend the Keswick Convention of Evangelicals. He hoped to meet the renowned Quaker-influenced Baptist evangelist F. B. Meyer [right], believing Meyer could offer him guidance. Although Meyer was absent, Buchman experienced a profound spiritual surrender after hearing evangelist Jessie Penn-Lewis [left] (a descendant of William Penn) deliver a sermon titled “The Cross of Christ.” As he later recalled:

    She pictured the dying Christ as I had never seen him pictured before. I saw the nails in the palms of His hands, I saw the bigger nail which held His feet. I saw the spear thrust in His side, and I saw the look of sorrow and infinite suffering in His face. I knew that I had wounded Him, that there was a great distance between myself and Him, and I knew that it was my sin of nursing ill-will.…
    I thought of those six men back in Philadelphia who I felt had wronged me. They probably had, but I'd got so mixed up in the wrong that I was the seventh wrong man. Right in my conviction, I was wrong in harbouring ill-will. I wanted my own way and my feelings were hurt.
    I began to see myself as God saw me, which was a very different picture than the one I had of myself. I don't know how you explain it, I can only tell you I sat there and realised how my sin, my pride, my selfishness and my ill-will, had eclipsed me from God in Christ.

    Buchman later helped another participant undergo the same experience. These experiences became pivotal to the rest of his life’s work. Upon returning to the U.S., he entered his “laboratory years,” where he developed the principles he would later implement on a global scale.

1918: Bill W. sailed from Boston to New York Harbor aboard the H.M.T. Lancashire (a hired military transport, i.e., non-commissioned) [right].
    During the subsequent voyage to England, an officer offered him brandy, which Bill immediately took to.
     On the eve of their arrival, while Bill was on watch, a sudden crashing thud sent the soldiers into a panic, thinking the ship might have been torpedoed. Bill, pistol drawn, barked orders and took control of the situation, thus proving to himself, at least, that he was no the coward he feared.
    After reaching shore, his unit was delayed by a minor epidemic near Winchester. During this time, Bill visited Winchester Cathedral, where he felt a “tremendous sense of presence.” This experience was partly inspired by an epitaph on the headstone [left] of Thomas Thetcher, a Hampshire Grenadier. Bill later quoted this epitaph, likely from memory, in “Bill’s Story” in the book Alcoholics Anonymous.