Alcoholics Anonymous Founded (1935)
On June 10, 1935, Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith — "Dr. Bob" — had his last drink: a beer given to him before surgery to steady his hands. His sobriety that day, maintained for the rest of his life, marks the founding date of Alcoholics Anonymous. Smith and Bill Wilson, a New York stockbroker who had been sober since 1934 after a spiritual experience, had met in Akron, Ohio, several weeks earlier. Their conversations about staying sober by helping other alcoholics formed the seed of a fellowship that would eventually help millions of people worldwide.
Bill and Bob
William Griffith Wilson — "Bill W." — was a Wall Street stockbroker whose drinking had destroyed his career. In December 1934, while in a hospital for alcoholic detoxification, he had an intense spiritual experience that left him permanently sober and convinced that alcoholism was a disease that could only be overcome through spiritual surrender and mutual help. He worked with other alcoholics through the Oxford Group, a Christian fellowship, and had helped a few men stay sober. In May 1935, he was in Akron on a business trip that had failed; his sobriety felt threatened. He called the local Oxford Group contact, who connected him with Dr. Bob Smith, an Akron surgeon whose drinking had likewise devastated his professional and personal life. Their conversation lasted hours. Wilson told Smith what had worked for him; Smith listened and stayed sober. The two men began working with other alcoholics in Akron and, later, in New York and Cleveland. The fundamental insight was simple and revolutionary: one alcoholic could help another stay sober in ways that doctors, clergy, and family members could not, because a fellow alcoholic understood the experience from the inside.
Did You Know?
The name "Alcoholics Anonymous" came from the subtitle of the fellowship's foundational text — the "Big Book," formally titled Alcoholics Anonymous — published in 1939. The book's authorship was credited to "Bill W." and "the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous," establishing the tradition of anonymity that remains central to AA today. Bill Wilson was offered honorary degrees by Yale and Princeton; he turned them down to preserve his anonymity. He also famously declined being named Time magazine's "Man of the Century."
The Twelve Steps
Bill Wilson drafted AA's Twelve Steps in 1938 while writing the Big Book. The steps — beginning with an admission of powerlessness over alcohol and progressing through moral inventory, making amends, and carrying the message to other alcoholics — drew on Oxford Group principles, William James's psychology of religious experience, and the practical discoveries of the Akron group. They were controversial from the beginning: some found the spiritual language offputting; others found the emphasis on surrendering to a "Higher Power" too explicitly religious. Wilson, who wanted the fellowship to be inclusive, deliberately made the language of the steps vague enough to accommodate a wide range of spiritual interpretations, from orthodox Christianity to agnosticism. The Twelve Steps became, over the following decades, the most widely adopted framework for addiction recovery in the world — adapted for Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon (for families), Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and dozens of other fellowships.
A Global Fellowship
Alcoholics Anonymous grew slowly at first: the Big Book was published in 1939 with only about 100 members. A 1941 article in the Saturday Evening Post by journalist Jack Alexander brought national attention; membership jumped from 2,000 to 8,000 within months. By the 1970s, AA had hundreds of thousands of members; by the early 21st century, an estimated 2 million members in more than 180 countries attended roughly 120,000 groups worldwide. The scientific evidence for AA's effectiveness has been debated by researchers — controlled studies are difficult because of its anonymous, self-selected membership — but Stanford researchers published a 2020 Cochrane review concluding that AA is more effective than other treatments at achieving and maintaining sobriety. Bill Wilson died in 1971; Dr. Bob died in 1950. Both are buried under their full names, though by mutual agreement they are referred to in AA's literature only as "Bill W." and "Dr. Bob." Their partnership, forged in a parlor in Akron in the spring of 1935, created one of the most significant public health movements of the twentieth century.