HISTORICAL DATA:
    THE BIRTH OF A.A. AND ITS GROWTH IN U.S./CANADA
    
.A. had its beginnings in 1935 at Akron, Ohio, as the outcome of a meeting 
    between Bill W., a New York stockbroker, and Dr. Bob S., an Akron surgeon. 
    Both had been hopeless alcoholics.
    Prior to that time, Bill and Dr. Bob had each been in contact with the 
    Oxford Group, a mostly nonalcoholic fellowship that emphasized universal 
    spiritual values in daily living. In that period, the Oxford Groups in 
    America were headed by the noted Episcopal clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. 
    Under this spiritual influence, and with the help of an old-time friend, 
    Ebby T., Bill had gotten sober and had then maintained his recovery by 
    working with other alcoholics, though none of these had actually recovered. 
    Meanwhile, Dr. Bob's Oxford Group membership at Akron had not helped him 
    enough to achieve sobriety.
    When Dr. Bob and Bill finally met, the effect on the doctor was immediate. 
    This time, he found himself face to face with a fellow sufferer who had made 
    good. Bill emphasized that alcoholism was a malady of mind, emotions and 
    body. This all-important fact he had learned from Dr. William D. Silkworth 
    of Towns Hospital in New York, where Bill had often been a patient. Though a 
    physician, Dr. Bob had not known alcoholism to be a disease. Responding to 
    Bill's convincing ideas, he soon got sober, never to drink again. The 
    founding spark of A.A. had been struck.
    Both men immediately set to work with alcoholics at Akron's City Hospital, 
    where one patient quickly achieved complete sobriety. Though the name 
    Alcoholics Anonymous had not yet been coined, these three men actually made 
    up the nucleus of the first A.A. group.In the fall of 1935, a second group 
    of alcoholics slowly took shape in New York. A third appeared at Cleveland 
    in 1939. It had taken over four years to produce 100 sober alcoholics in the 
    three founding groups.
    Early in 1939, the Fellowship published its basic textbook, Alcoholics 
    Anonymous. The text, written by Bill, explained A.A.'s philosophy and 
    methods, the core of which was the now well-known Twelve Steps of recovery. 
    The book was also reinforced by case histories of some thirty recovered 
    members. From this point, A.A.'s development was rapid.
    Also in 1939, the Cleveland Plain Dealer carried a series of articles about 
    A.A., supported by warm editorials. The Cleveland group of only twenty 
    members was deluged by countless pleas for help. Alcoholics sober only a few 
    weeks were set to work on brand-new cases. This was a new departure, and the 
    results were fantastic. A few months later, Cleveland's membership had 
    expanded to 500. For the first time, it was shown that sobriety could be 
    mass-produced.
    Meanwhile, in New York, Dr. Bob and Bill had in 1938 organized an over-all 
    trusteeship for the budding Fellowship. Friends of John D. Rockefeller Jr. 
    became board members alongside a contingent of A.A.s. This board was named 
    The Alcoholic Foundation. However, all efforts to raise large amounts of 
    money failed, because Mr. Rockefeller had wisely concluded that great sums 
    might spoil the infant society. Nevertheless, the foundation managed to open 
    a tiny office in New York to handle inquiries and to distribute the A.A. 
    book - an enterprise which, by the way, had been mostly financed by the 
    A.A.s themselves.
    The book and the new office were quickly put to use. An article about A.A. 
    was carried by Liberty magazine in the fall of 1939, resulting in some 800 
    urgent calls for help. In 1940, Mr. Rockefeller gave a dinner for many of 
    his prominent New York friends to publicize A.A. This brought yet another 
    flood of pleas. Each inquiry received a personal letter and a small 
    pamphlet. Attention was also drawn to the book Alcoholics Anonymous, which 
    soon moved into brisk circulation. Aided by mail from New York, and by A.A. 
    travelers from already-established centers, many new groups came alive. At 
    the year's end, the membership stood at 2,000.
    Then, in March 1941, the Saturday Evening Post featured an excellent article 
    about A.A., and the response was enormous. By the close of that year, the 
    membership had jumped to 6,000, and the number of groups multiplied in 
    proportion. Spreading across the U.S. and Canada, the Fellowship mushroomed.
    By 1950, 100,000 recovered alcoholics could be found worldwide. Spectacular 
    though this was, the period 1940-1950 was nonetheless one of great 
    uncertainty. The crucial question was whether all those mercurial alcoholics 
    could live and work together in groups. Could they hold together and 
    function effectively? This was the unsolved problem. Corresponding with 
    thousands of groups about their problems became a chief occupation of the 
    New York headquarters.
    By 1946, however, it had already become possible to draw sound conclusions 
    about the kinds of attitude, practice and function that would best suit 
    A.A.'s purpose. Those principles, which had emerged from strenuous group 
    experience, were codified by Bill in what are today the Twelve Traditions of 
    Alcoholics Anonymous. By 1950, the earlier chaos had largely disappeared. A 
    successful formula for A.A. unity and functioning had been achieved and put 
    into practice. (See The Structure of A.A.General Service in U.S./Canada.)
    During this hectic ten-year period, Dr. Bob devoted himself to the question 
    of hospital care for alcoholics, and to their indoctrination with A.A. 
    principles. Large numbers of alcoholics flocked to Akron to receive hospital 
    care at St. Thomas, a Catholic hospital. Dr. Bob became a member of its 
    staff. Subsequently, he and the remarkable Sister M. Ignatia, also of the 
    staff, cared for and brought A.A. to some 5,000 sufferers. After Dr. Bob's 
    death in 1950, Sister Ignatia continued to work at Cleveland's Charity 
    Hospital, where she was assisted by the local groups and where 10,000 more 
    sufferers first found A.A. This set a fine example of hospitalization 
    wherein A.A. could cooperate with both medicine and religion.
    In this same year of 1950, A.A. held its first International Convention at 
    Cleveland. There, Dr. Bob made his last appearance and keyed his final talk 
    to the need of keeping A.A. simple. Together with all present, he saw the 
    Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous enthusiastically adopted for the 
    permanent use of the A.A. Fellowship throughout the world. (He died on 
    November 16, 1950.)
    The following year witnessed still another significant event. The New York 
    office had greatly expanded its activities, and these now consisted of 
    public relations, advice to new groups, services to hospitals, prisons, 
    Loners, and Internationalists, and cooperation with other agencies in the 
    alcoholism field. The headquarters was also publishing "standard" A.A. books 
    and pamphlets, and it supervised their translation into other tongues. Our 
    international magazine, the A.A. Grapevine, had achieved a large 
    circulation. These and many other activities had become indispensable for 
    A.A. as a whole.
    Nevertheless, these vital services were still in the hands of an isolated 
    board of trustees, whose only link to the Fellowship had been Bill and Dr. 
    Bob. As the co-founders had foreseen years earlier, it became absolutely 
    necessary to link A.A.'s world trusteeship (now the General Service Board of 
    Alcoholics Anonymous) with the Fellowship that it served. Delegates from all 
    states and provinces of the U.S. and Canada were forthwith called in. Thus 
    composed, this body for world service first met in 1951. Despite earlier 
    misgivings, the gathering was a great success. For the first time, the 
    remote trusteeship became directly accountable to A.A. as a whole. The A.A. 
    General Service Conference had been created, and A.A.'s over-all functioning 
    was thereby assured for the future.
    A second International Convention was held in St. Louis in 1955 to celebrate 
    the Fellowship's 20th anniversary. The General Service Conference had by 
    then completely proved its worth. Here, on behalf of A.A.'s old-timers, Bill 
    turned the future care and custody of A.A. over to the Conference and its 
    trustees. At this moment, the Fellowship went on its own; A.A. had come of 
    age.
    Had it not been for A.A.'s early friends, Alcoholics Anonymous might never 
    have come into being. And without its host of well-wishers who have since 
    given of their time and effort - particularly those friends of medicine, 
    religion, and world communications - A.A. could never have grown and 
    prospered. The Fellowship here records its constant gratitude.
    It was on January 24, 1971, that Bill, a victim of pneumonia, died in Miami 
    Beach, Florida, where - seven months earlier - he had delivered at the 35th 
    Anniversary International Convention what proved to be his last words to 
    fellow A.A.s: "God bless you and Alcoholics Anonymous forever."
    Since then, A.A. has become truly global, and this has revealed that A.A.'s 
    way of life can today transcend most barriers of race, creed and language. A 
    World Service Meeting, started in 1969, has been held biennially since 1972. 
    Its locations alternate between New York and overseas. It has met in London, 
    England; Helsinki, Finland; San Juan del Rio, Mexico; Guatemala City, 
    Guatemala; Munich, Germany and Cartagena, Colombia.