September 5 in A.A. History

In 1907, Nancy F. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She would come to A.A. in New York City in June 1945 at the age of 38, and struggle to stop drinking. Her story, “The Independent Blonde,” would be published in the second edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. However, according to her later account, she was not the author and did not even know her story would appear in the Big Book.

	In 1938, [Labor Day] Archie T. [left] arrived at Dr. Bob and Anne S.’s house [left: Bob and Anne on their porch] in Akron, Ohio, having had his last drink the day before. Sarah Klein and her husband had driven Archie down from Detroit. Bob admitted him to Akron City Hospital that day. Archie would later recall,

    I spent Labor Day in the hospital reading Emmet Fox’s [The] Sermon on the Mount [right]. It changed my entire outlook on life. It changed my direction.

He would stay with the Smiths for 10½ months before moving on to start A.A. in Detroit, Michigan. His story, “The Man Who Mastered Fear,” appeared in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and was retitled “The Fearful One” in the second and third editions.

In 1939, Lois W. [far left] wrote in her diary, “Kathleen [P.] [near left], phoned to say she thought Hank was drunk.”

In 1947, this is the “official” date of Brazil’s first A.A. group in Rio de Janeiro [right, Brazil with location of Rio de Janeiro marked], established by a tradition during a group meeting on 29 August 1950, around their third anniversary. While no one knows exactly how or when the Rio de Janeiro Group was formed, it is likely that Herbert “Herb” L. Daugherty, a sober American expatriate who had been living there since 1946, played some role in its creation.