| June 1, 1949 |
Anne Smith, Dr. Bob’s wife, died. |
| June 4, 2002 |
Caroline Knapp, author of “Drinking: A Love Story” died sober of lung cancer. |
| June 5, 1940 |
Ebby Thatcher took a job at the NY Worlds Fair. |
| June 6, 1940 |
The first AA Group in Richmond, VA, was formed. |
| June 1979 |
AA gave the two-millionth copy of the Big Book to Joseph Califano, then Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. It was presented by Lois Wilson, Bill’s wife, in New York. |
| June 7, 1939 |
Bill and Lois Wilson had an argument, the first of two times Bill almost slipped. |
| June 1941 |
The first AA Group in St. Paul, Minnesota, was formed. |
| June 8, 1941 |
Three AA’s started a group in Kalamazoo, Michigan. |
| June 10, 1935 |
The date that is celebrated as Dr. Bob’s last drink and the official founding date of AA. There is some evidence that the founders, in trying to reconstruct the history, got the date wrong and it was actually June 17. |
| June 11, 1945 |
Twenty-five hundred attend AA’s 10th Anniversary in Cleveland, Ohio. |
| June 1969 |
Dr. Bob’s granddaughter, Bonna, daughter of Sue Smith and Ernie Galbraith (The Seven Month Slip in the First Edition) killed herself after first killing her six-year-old child. |
| June 1971 |
Ernie Galbraith died. |
| June 13, 1945 |
Morgan R. gave a radio appearance for AA with large audience. He was kept under surveillance to make sure he didn’t drink. |
| June 15, 1940 |
First AA Group in Baltimore, MD, was formed. |
| June 16, 1938 |
Jim Burwell, “The Vicious Cycle” in Big Book, had his last drink. |
| June 17, 1942 |
New York AA groups sponsored the first annual NY area meeting. Four hundred and twenty-four heard Dr. Silkworth and AA speakers. |
| June 18, 1940 |
One hundred attended the first meeting in the first AA clubhouse at 334-1/2 West 24th St., New York City. |
| June 19, 1942 |
Columnist Earl Wilson reported that NYC Police Chief Valentine sent six policemen to AA and they sobered up. “There are fewer suicides in my files,” he commented. |
| June 21, 1944 |
The first Issue of the AA Grapevine was published. |
| June 24, 1938 |
Two Rockefeller associates told the press about the Big Book “Not to bear any author’s name but to be by ‘Alcoholics Anonymous.'” |
| June 25, 1939 |
The New York Times reviewer wrote that the Big Book is “more soundly based psychologically than any other treatment I have ever come upon.” |
| June 26, 1935 |
Bill Dotson. (AA #3) entered Akron’s City Hospital for his last detox and his first day of sobriety. |
| June 28, 1935 |
Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson visited Bill Dotson at Akron’s City Hospital. |
| June 30, 1941 |
Ruth Hock showed Bill Wilson the Serenity Prayer and it was adopted readily by AA. |
| June 2000 |
More than 47,000 from 87 countries attended the opening meeting of the 65th AA Anniversary in Minneapolis, MN. |
| Other significant events in June for which we have no specific date: |
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| June 1948 |
A subscription to the AA Grapevine was donated to the Beloit, Wisconsin, Public Library by a local AA member. |
| June 1981 |
AA in Switzerland held its 25th Anniversary Convention with Lois Wilson and Nell Wing in attendance. |