October 7 in A.A. History

1903: Test pilot Charles Manly attempted to make the first-ever manned flight, in Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley’s heavier-than-air craft, which was launched by catapult [right: both men, respectively]. Although it had been largely designed and built by others, Manly contributed to the design and engineering. The craft lacked landing gear and had controls only for pitch and yaw, but none for roll [left]. It plunged into the Potomac River “like a handful of mortar,” according to one reporter.  Langley claimed that the crash resulted from a wing clipping part of the catapult.

Seven and a half years earlier, on 6 May 1896, Langley had launched, also from a catapult, the 25-pound [~11 kg] Aerodrome Number Five [right]. The model made two flights, one of 1,005 meters [~3,300 feet] and another of 700 meters [~2,300 feet], at 40 kph [~25 mph], landing in the water as planned. This was 10 times farther than any previous heavier-than-air flying machine, making it the world’s first successful flight of an unpiloted, engine-driven, heavier-than-air craft of substantial size. Six months later, on 11 November, his Number 6 model flew more than 1,500 meters [>5,000 feet].

In 1898, based on these successes, Langley received two War Department grants to develop a piloted airplane, totaling $70,000 [~$2.8 million in 2026]. The funds came through the Smithsonian Institution, of which he was secretary (top executive).

Langley would make a second attempt in December, which would also end in failure. Newspapers would mock the unsuccessful flights, and some members of Congress would harshly criticize the project. Remarkably, Manly would survive both crashes.

The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, makes reference to these events in “We Agnostics” (p. 51).

1978: The Finnish Alcoholics Anonymous Convention, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of A.A. in Finland, was convened with several delegates from the 5th World Service Meeting, held in Finland in the days prior, in attendance.

2009: The Red Book [far left: cover; near left: p. 119], a red leather-bound folio manuscript created by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung [near right, c. 1905–15] between 1915 and about 1930, was published in both German and English. Although it is considered a central work in Jung’s œuvre, his estate (Jung died in 1961) would not permit its publication before 2000, when it began preparations for its release.

The book recounts and comments on Jung’s psychological experiments conducted between 1913 and 1916, drawing on earlier manuscripts, seven private journals known collectively as the Black Books [far right], which he first drafted in 1913–15 and 1917.

October 6 in A.A. History

1937: Paul [left] and Hildreth S. wrote to Bill and Lois W. [right, mid-late 1930s] about their upcoming visit to Akron, Ohio, on October 10. The letter said, in part:

Dr. Smith just told me that we are to expect a visit from you over the week-end, and that two other couples, the Parkers and the Ruddells, are coming with you. Needless to say, we are looking forward to this visit with a great deal of anticipation and pleasure, as are all the folks with whom we spend so much time…

We have made arrangements for a little dinner party at our house on Sunday. There may be a few of us who will be tied up in a little meeting for an hour or so. Then we are planning on having an evening session at T. Henry [Williams]'s house after that.

We hope we are not laying out a program that would seem to be too strenuous for you, but we feel certain that you will be amply repaid for the inconvenience that such a trip may cause by the pleasure that you will afford us by your coming.

1941: A dinner honoring Dr. Bob S. [right], attended by 900 guests, was held in Cleveland, Ohio.

1944: The first A.A. meeting in Maine took place at Chan R.'s house in Cape Elizabeth [left: U.S.S. Constitution passes Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth on 23 July 1931], attended by Chan, Jim M., Clint W., and one other person. Chan had gotten sober in A.A. in Florida before relocating to Cape Elizabeth. Clint had written to the New York City Alcoholic Foundation office for help; they referred him to Chan. Meanwhile, Jim M. from Newport, Maine, had attempted a geographic cure by moving in with his sister in Brooklyn, New York, but his drinking only worsened. In desperation, he contacted Kings County Hospital in 1942, and they directed him to A.A. He attended meetings in New York City for two years before returning to Newport in 1944.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1939: Membership in the Alcoholics Anonymous Group in Cleveland, Ohio, surged from 12 to 100 in the month following the publication of “Alcoholics and God” [far left] by Morris Markey [right], which appeared in the September issue [near left: cover] of Liberty magazine.

1939: Clarence S. [right, 1942], who founded the first group in Cleveland, Ohio, and named it “Alcoholics Anonymous,” began to identify himself as a “founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.” This may have been partly in response to the positive publicity from Morris Markey’s article “Alcoholics and God,” which appeared in the September issue of Liberty magazine, and partly because he wanted to be associated with the successful group he had started.

October 5 in A.A. History

1988: Lois Burnham W. [left], 97, Bill’s widow, died peacefully at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, New York, near Stepping Stones, her home in Bedford Hills. She made significant contributions to Alcoholics Anonymous and was a founder of Al-Anon Family Groups. Michael Alexander, former Class A trustee and chairman of the General Service Board of Alcoholics remarked, “Many A.A.s today feel their lives are owed to Lois as well as Bill, Dr. Bob and Anne S—–.”

Today in A.A. History—October 5–6

1943: [November?] The Bangor Daily News (Maine) published an interview with Jack Alexander titled “Writer Whose Saturday Evening Post Article First Made ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ Known Tells Daily News of Early Skepticism” [right]. Here is an excerpt from the interview; the speaker is Mr Alexander:

“Four AA’s called to see me one afternoon,” he said. “They were well dressed and seemed affluent—apparently men of affairs. And as they sat drinking Coca-Cola, which was all they seemed to want, they talked smoothly of their own experiences.

“Was I convinced? Far from it. My skepticism only grew. I remember thinking: ‘They could be Broadway actors from some casting bureau.’

“I had talks with a man I will call Bill—a disarming guy, who, as I once wrote, knew the folklore of alcoholism. And, with him, I attended two meetings of an AA group in downtown New York—West 22nd Street, I believe. Here, anyway, were men it was easy to recognize as genuine alcoholics. And I learned that once a week they were bringing from a certain asylum for the insane some supposedly helpless inmates—sufferers from ‘wet brain’—and working on them. I learned, too, from asylum officials, that some were being cured.

“Well, I was impressed—quite deeply impressed—but the skepticism remained. I didn’t want the Post victimized, intentionally or through a mistaken crusading spirit. And yet, and yet— 

“Was I being unjust? Was I trying to shut my eyes to something big and vital and needed by suffering humanity? I decided to investigate in other cities.

“I first drove to Philadelphia, where two AAs took me to the psychopathic ward of the Philadelphia General Hospital. I saw how the AAs worked upon the alcoholic patients, some of them shaken from tremendous ‘binges.’ When they got out, I was told, they would be taken to a general meeting, and it would be the start of their cooperative cure.

“Deeply interested by this time, I next went to Akron, where the movement had started. And it was in this Ohio city, I believe, that I at last became convinced. Here I paid hospital visits, attended meetings, heard testimonials. I began to see that it all fell into a general pattern, whatever the community.

“Followed, then, a visit to Cleveland, where the movement was growing like a snowball rolling down hill [sic]; and to Chicago, where my conversion was complete. For here I met a man who had been assistant city editor of a daily paper at a time when I was supposed to be the star reporter. He was a city editor now and getting along well. Yes, he had been an alcoholic: and he told me how he had walked through the shadows. We talked the same language and it was a language that didn’t lie.

“The climax for me came in St. Louis, which is my home town. Here, in A. A. group meetings, I met old friends—school chums, some of them. Even I hadn’t guessed they were alcoholics. What they told me was convincing: I was sold, if ever a man was sold.”

Today in A.A. History—October 5–7

1972: The 2nd World Service Meeting (WSM) took place at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. The theme was “Our Primary Purpose.” The meeting was attended by twenty-nine delegates from the fifteen countries listed below (counting Canada and the U.S. separately), spanning five continents, and included trustees and staff from the U.S./Canada General Service Office (GSO) and the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. office:

Australia	Belgium	Colombia	England	Finland
France	Germany	Ireland*	Mexico	New Zealand
Nicaragua*†	Norway	South Africa	Sweden*	U.S./Canada

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^*First-time attendees

^†Representing Central America, in place of Costa Rica and Guatemala, who did so at the 1st WSM.

Holland had been represented at the 1st WSM in 1969, but sent no one to the 2nd.

Discussion topics included anonymity, the A.A. Grapevine, professional relations, publishing and literature policies, finance, and the service structures of the fifteen General Service Offices represented. For the first time, the delegates also addressed the internal organization and procedures of the WSM; their recommendations have been followed ever since, with certain amendments. However, the agenda items of greatest interest were likely the location and timing of the next WSM—if there was to be one—as well as financing and voting procedures.

1978: The 5th World Service Meeting (WSM) took place at the Hanasaari^* Hotel on Hanasaari Island [right], in Espoo, Finland, near Helsinki. The theme was “Recovery, Unity, Service—Worldwide.” The countries represented were:

Australia	Belgium†	Brazil	Canada	Colombia
El Salvador	Finland	French Europe†	Guatemala	Honduras
Mexico	New Zealand	Nicaragua	Norway	South Africa
Sweden	United Kingdom	United States	West Germany

---

^†Delegates from Belgium and France represented all of French-speaking Europe.

A proposal for an Asia-Oceania Service Meeting (AOSM) was introduced by Bob P. from New Zealand, who first conceived the idea. This marked the beginning of discussions that ultimately led to the first AOSM meeting in Tokyo, Japan, in 1995.

---

^*Hanaholmen in Swedish, literally meaning “rooster-hen.”

October 4 in A.A. History

1943: John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [right], 46, died of cancer. He was one of Bill W.’s first two sponsees in New York City and died eight years sober.

Fitz had run away from school to join the Army during World War I, registering for the draft on 24 August 1918. However, the Armistice was signed on the day he arrived in Atlanta to enlist. He registered again for the draft for World War II on 16 February 1942, and reported for military service on 12 September 1942. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with cancer. He died less than a month later. Fitz was buried [left: headstone] on the grounds of Christ Episcopal Church in Owensville, Maryland, where his father had served as pastor. When his good friend Jimmy B. died in 1974, he was buried in the same cemetery, just a few feet away from Fitz.

Fitz’s story, “Our Southern Friend,” appears in all four editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1927: [September?] On their way home from Havana, Cuba, where Bill W. had gone to investigate the Cuban Sugar Co., he and his wife, his wife, Lois, stopped in Miami Beach, Florida, to see Bill’s father, Gilman W. [right], and his second wife, Christine Bock W. There, Bill met his half‑sister, Helen W. [left, 1931], who had been born in 1915, when he was nine days short of being 21 years old.

1935: [November?] John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [top right], of Cumberland, Maryland, left Towns Hospital to become the second, third, or possibly even fourth A.A. member in New York City, following Bill W., Hank P., and perhaps Bill R.

Fitz’s story, “Our Southern Friend,” has appeared in all four editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

1938: The term “Alcoholics Anonymous” was first used, according to Bill W., whose recollection was notoriously poor, especially when it came to dates.

1938: [November?] Hank P. [right] created a 14-page prospectus [left: p. 14, subscription form] for a “One Hundred Men Corporation,” aimed at producing a book titled One Hundred Men, which would eventually be published as the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. He then began selling shares. The prospectus said, in part:

It is an indisputable fact that over the past four years over one hundred true alcoholics have recovered, who from the standpoint of medicine and psychiatry, were considered hopeless. These men have dubbed themselves Alcoholics Anonymous.

Regarding the book, he said, “Ten chapters have now been written.”

October 3 in A.A. History

1945: Bill W. wrote a letter to the secretaries of more than 600 groups, announcing that the A.A. Grapevine had been adopted as the national periodical of Alcoholics Anonymous [right: the announcement in the November 1945 Grapevine].

1973: M’Cready “James” H. [left, c. 1925], 82, died in Los Gatos, California. He had been a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1940.

He had worked as a teacher, a writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, an editor of the South Bend Times (Indiana), a contributor to humor magazines, and an author of many short stories and at least thirteen books: Huling’s Quest (1925), The Big Show (1927), Dear Senator (1928), The King of Spain’s Daughter (1930), Salesman from the Sidelines (1932), The Family Meal Ticket (1933), Solid Citizen (1933), The Right People (1949), The Prodigal Brother (1952), Saving Grace (1954), The Gates of Brass (1956), The Clouded Fountain (1959), and The Platinum Yoke (1963).

2021: The first episode of the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. podcast, The Half-Hour Variety Hour, was released [right: the first podcast as it appeared on the A.A. Grapevine website]. The hosts, longtime Alcoholics Anonymous member Don and Sam, introduced themselves to listeners. Their guest was Michael M. from New York, whose story “We Showed Them” had been featured in the October 2021 issue of the A.A. Grapevine.

For the previous four years, Don and Sam had anonymously produced their own biweekly podcast about sobriety in A.A., The Boiled Owl, from what they called “The Boiled Owl Coffee Club” [left: logo]. The club was a virtual location, as Don lived in North Carolina and Sam in California.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1916: The Bureau of Municipal Research and Training School for Public Service published Part I of The Engineer in Public Service [right], by Dr. Frederick Ernest B. [left, 1919] A prefatory note calls it

an introductory review of the whole field of engineering as a career and a picture of the engineering service of the government of the United States.

Here are some excerpts from Dr. B.’s conclusions:

Taking it all in all, public service in engineering is a good stepping stone but a poor career.…

There is another thing which ought to be considered. President Wilson recently called attention to the fact that the dominating problems of our early history were of a legal nature. In consequence we find the lawyer omnipresent in government. But it is equally true, as the President also points out, that the governmental problems of the present are those which are calling more and more for men of other vocations. For the solution of these problems, the engineer is singularly well fitted.

A comparison of the governmental budgets of late years with those of some time ago will show that the newer functions of government call, more and more, for technically trained men. Water systems, the control of gas and electricity, sanitation, public health, street cleaning, bridges, canals, docks, ferries, the control of railroads, reclamation, the mobilization of natural and social forces, all these involve problems of an engineering nature.

In 2015, Nabu Press republished it [right], saying,

We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

October 2 in A.A. History

1944: The National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA), founded by Margaret “Marty” M. [right], opened a tiny office in the New York Academy of Medicine building [left, 1927] on E. 103rd Street in New York City. For the next four years, the office was staffed by Marty and a secretary. The first-year budget was $13,000 [~$247,000 in 2026]. In 1950, the NCEA was renamed the National Council on Alcoholism (NCA); in 1990, it became the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD); and in 2021, it was acquired by JBKM Ltd. and rebranded as “Recovered.”

1958: CBS-TV aired a live production of “Days of Wine and Roses” on Playhouse 90 (season 3, episode 3). It starred Cliff Robertson [far right] as Joe Clay; Piper Laurie [center right] as Joe’s wife, Kirsten Arnesen Clay; and Charles Bickford [near right] as Kirsten’s father, Ellis Arnesen. A.A. contributed to the making of both this production [left: scene from near the end of the Playhouse 90 production] and the later movie version. The story centers on Joe’s testimony at an A.A. meeting. It ends with Joe in recovery while Kirsten continues to drink, abandoning Joe and their daughter.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1906: During a picnic, Bill Wilson and his sister Dorothy [left, 1905] were told by their mother, Emily [right, 1905], that their father had left for good. The news devastated Bill. The next day, Emily left for Boston, Massachusetts, to attend osteopathic medical school, leaving Bill and Dorothy in the care of her parents, Gardner Fayette and Ella Brock Griffith.

1913: After separating from the Emmanuel Movement, the Jacoby Club established its own clubhouse at 127 Newbury St. [left, recent] in Boston, Massachusetts, and incorporated. This anticipated move was reported in a small notice titled “Jacoby Club [right], Takes Larger Quarters,” on p. 11 of the Boston Post on 1 October. It read:

The Jacoby Club… took a step forward yesterday when it was announced that beginning today the club’s quarters will be at 127 Newbury Street, Boston, because of the increased growth of the club. The membership now has increased to 65.

The Jacoby Club’s motto was “A club for men to help themselves by helping others.” Membership was free; the sole requirement was “an expressed desire to lead an honorable life and a willingness to aid other men less fortunate.” The club provided social services to individuals struggling with alcoholism and to needy older men. Meetings, held each Saturday night, offered food, entertainment, and lectures on relevant topics.

October 1 in A.A. History

1941: Local news organizations reported the establishment of the first Alcoholics Anonymous group in New Haven, Connecticut, [right: aerial view, c. 1944], which had actually formed 6½ months earlier, on 15 March.

2022: William “Bill” G. B. [left: with Lois W. near the end of her life], 89, died at his home in Stratford, Connecticut. He had been sober since 8 April 1962, and was a close friend of Lois W., Bill W.’s wife, for the last 16 years of her life.

Bill began his career at the New York Journal-American newspaper and went on to work for several newspapers and magazines, as well as creating syndicated radio shows. In 1969, he founded Borchert-Barrett Associates, a public relations firm in New York City.

Three years later, he became a partner in Artists Entertainment Complex, an independent film and talent management company that produced films such as Kansas City Bomber (1972), Serpico (1973), and Dog Day Afternoon (1975).

In the community of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill is best known as the screenwriter and author of the film My Name Is Bill W. (1989), based on the true story of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W.; he was nominated for an Emmy for this work. He later wrote a book about Lois, titled The Lois W―― Story: When Love Is Not Enough (2005). A CBS-Hallmark TV movie of the same name, based on his book, was released in 2010.

Bill’s other books include 50 Quiet Miracles That Changed Lives (2009); 1,000 Years of Sobriety: 20 People x 50 Years, co-authored with Michael F., which tells the stories of twenty Alcoholics Anonymous pioneers from the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (2010); When Two Loves Collide: The Inspiring Story of Dr. John and Dot Mooney (2013); and How I Became My Father … a Drunk (2015).

Bill was a member of the Writers Guild of America and a long-time volunteer at Stepping Stones Foundation, the former home of Bill and Lois in Katonah, New York. He also served on the Board of Directors of Stepping Stones Foundation from 1997 to 2006.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1872: Jerry McAuley [near right] opened the Water Street Mission [far right, c. 1899] in New York City’s notorious Fourth Ward [left: coffee & sandwiches before a Mission meeting, 1892]. This marked the beginning of the urban mission movement that would spread across America, with The Salvation Army leading the way. The movement focused its message on the alcoholics of Skid Row, a population largely ignored by traditional religious institutions. In 1884, after McAuley’s death, S. H. Hadley [right] succeeded him.

Hadley’s example of recovery from alcoholism was cited in William James’ book The Varieties of Religious Experience. Hadley’s son, Harry Harrison Hadley II, would later work with Rev. Sam Shoemaker to establish the Calvary Mission at 246 East 3rd Street, not far from Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City.