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Why is A.A.'s birthday June 10, 1935?

In short:

  • June 10, 1935 is the day Dr. Bob had his last drink. In his own story, written in 1939, he says: "That was June 10, 1935, and that was my last drink." (p. 180).
  • Today's Big Book gives that as the fellowship's starting point: "The birth of our Society dates from his first day of permanent sobriety, June 10, 1935." (p. 171). That line is in the introduction to his story, written after his death in 1950, not in the 1939 text.
  • The reason, as the 1955 foreword puts it, is that his recovery seemed to prove that one alcoholic could reach another as no one else could. Bill W. had been sober about six months, but he had not yet helped anyone else stay sober.
  • Other dates could have been chosen, and the sources say so: the meeting of Bill and Dr. Bob on Mother's Day, May 1935, and the first group, which no one realized had formed until later.

The 1939 text

Dr. Bob's story, "Doctor Bob's Nightmare," was written "nearly four years" after he stopped (p. 180). After he met Bill, he stayed dry about three weeks, drank heavily at a medical meeting in Atlantic City, and was brought home by his new friend, who gave him a few drinks that night and a bottle of beer the next morning (pp. 179–180). "That was June 10, 1935, and that was my last drink." (p. 180).

Chapter 11, "A Vision for You," written the same year, tells the beginning without dates for Dr. Bob, and dates the third man's recovery: "That was in June, 1935." (p. 158). A footnote added in a later edition says the visit to that man resulted in "A.A.'s first group, at Akron, Ohio, in 1935" (p. 156).

Why that day (1955 and later)

  • The 1955 Foreword to the Second Edition. "The spark that was to flare into the first A.A. group was struck at Akron, Ohio, in June 1935" (p. xv). When the physician sobered for good, "This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no nonalcoholic could." (pp. xvi–xvii). It adds that by the time the broker went home that fall the first group had formed, "though no one realized it at the time" (p. xvii).
  • The introduction to Dr. Bob's story (today's edition; it mentions his death in 1950, so it was written after then): "The birth of our Society dates from his first day of permanent sobriety, June 10, 1935." (p. 171).
  • Dr. Bob, 1948 (his last major talk, in P-53) gave the same date for his last drink, "and that was on the 10th of June, 1935" (P-53).
  • A.A. Comes of Age (1957). The book opens with the 1955 St. Louis convention, held to commemorate "the twentieth anniversary of its founding" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill tells of the operation Dr. Bob performed that morning, and that "To the time of his death fifteen years later, Dr. Bob never took another drink of alcohol." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The timeline in our later printing lists the date as: "Dr. Bob has his last drink. Alcoholics Anonymous founded" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The 1951 memorial scroll says he "recovered from alcoholism on June 10, 1935" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980): "Although arguments have been and will be made for other significant occasions in A.A. history, it is generally agreed that Alcoholics Anonymous began there, in Akron, on that date: June 10, 1935." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
  • Pass It On (1984) calls it the date "now honored as the date when A.A. really began" (Pass It On, 1984).

The other candidates

  • The meeting. Bill and Dr. Bob met on a Sunday in May 1935, Mother's Day (p. 179; A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill's biographical sketch in P-53 (pamphlet © 2017) ties the birth to that meeting: Dr. Bob "became the second successful recovery — and Alcoholics Anonymous was born." (P-53). Akron members held a party each Mother's Day to celebrate the meeting (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). See How did Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet?
  • Bill's own sobriety. Bill writes that at the hospital he "was separated from alcohol for the last time" (p. 13); his 1957 account dates that hospital stay to December 1934 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The sources don't date A.A. from it; the 1955 foreword notes that before Akron he "had succeeded only in keeping sober himself" (p. xvi). See What happened to Bill W. at Towns Hospital?

Where the sources differ

  • The month of the meeting. The 1955 foreword says the spark was struck in June 1935 during a talk between the two men (p. xv); Dr. Bob's 1939 story puts that first talk on Mother's Day, in May, weeks before June 10 (pp. 179–180). Our sources don't explain the foreword's month.
  • The Atlantic City drinking. If June 10 is the founding date, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers notes, his Atlantic City drinking was before it and doesn't count as a slip, though "He, however, referred to it as a slip." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
  • Our sources don't record when or by whom June 10 was first called A.A.'s birthday; the earliest statement of it in our sources are the introduction to Dr. Bob's story, written after 1950 (p. 171).

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
"Doctor Bob's Nightmare," Personal Stories Part I 179–180 written 1939 ("nearly four years," p. 180)
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 11 (and a later footnote, p. 156) 156, 158 1939
Foreword to the Second Edition xv–xvii 1955
Introduction to "Doctor Bob's Nightmare" 171 written after 1950
P-53, Dr. Bob's last major talk; Bill W.'s biographical sketch — talk December 1948; pamphlet © 2017
A.A. Comes of Age (timeline, later printing), 7, 11–12, 36–38 1957
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers — 1980
Pass It On — 1984

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-53, A.A. Comes of Age, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; Dr. Bob's 1948 talk in P-53 is © AA Grapevine, Inc.*

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.