May 24 in A.A. History

1893: Founded in Oberlin, Ohio, by a group of ministers and professors, the Anti-Saloon League became a key component of the Progressive Era. Its primary aim was to promote temperance and influence state government. The League garnered strong support in the South and rural North, particularly from Protestant ministers and their congregations, including Methodists, Baptists, Disciples, and Congregationalists. Focusing on legislation, it was concerned with how legislators voted, not whether they drank. Its motto was “The saloon must go” [right: Anti-Saloon League poster].
    Initially established as a state society in Ohio, the League’s influence quickly expanded, becoming a national organization in 1895. It rapidly emerged as the most powerful prohibition lobby in the United States, surpassing both the older Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Prohibition Party. The League’s ultimate success culminated in nationwide prohibition, enshrined in the Constitution through the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919.

1949: Bill W. [left: at a podium] delivered a talk titled “The Society of Alcoholics Anonymous” at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, held at the Windsor Hotel [right, c. 1949] in Montreal, Quebec. His presentation took place on the second day of the event, which ran from Monday, May 23, through Friday, May 27.
    During his presentation, Bill referenced an original six-step program—the earliest known mention of such a program. This was a significant detail, as it had been ten and a half years since he drafted the more widely known Twelve Steps for the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, in December 1938. He stated categorically that these six steps had not evolved over time but had been explicitly given to him by Ebby T. in November 1934:

    My former schoolmate [Ebby] did, however, ascribe his new sobriety to certain ideas that this alcoholic [Rowland Hazard] and other Oxford people had given him. The particular practices my friend had selected for himself were simple:

1. He admitted he was powerless to solve his own problem.
2. He got honest with himself as never before; made an examination of conscience.
3. He made a rigorous confession of his personal defects.
4. He surveyed his distorted relations with people, visiting them to make restitution.
5. He resolved to devote himself to helping others in need, without the usual demand for personal prestige or material gain.
6. By meditation he sought God’s direction for his life and help to practice these principles at all times.

    Most A.A. historians who have researched the subject believe that no formalized six-step program existed during the so-called ‘Flying Blind’ period, even though these six steps likely sum up and summarize the practices of that era.

1950: James “Jim” S. [far left], 63, chief librarian of the Akron Beacon Journal, died at his home in Akron, Ohio [near left: obituary]. He was the first Australian to achieve sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous, doing so in Akron in June 1937. Scott solicited, edited, and sometimes wrote several stories from Akron members that were included in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. His own story appeared in that edition as “Traveler, Editor, Scholar” and in the second and third editions as “The News Hawk."

A.A. History—month and day unknown

1880: Annie C. was born. She would join Alcoholics Anonymous in April 1947. Her story, “Annie the Cop Fighter” appeared in the second edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.