On This Day
1934 – Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the final time.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship[1] whose stated purpose is to enable its members to “stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety.”[1][2][3] It was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. With other early members, Bill Wilson and Bob Smith developed AA’s Twelve Step program of spiritual and character development. AA’s initial Twelve Traditions were introduced in 1946 to help the fellowship be stable and unified while disengaged from “outside issues” and influences.
The Traditions recommend that members remain anonymous in public media, altruistically help other alcoholics, and that AA groups avoid official affiliations with other organizations. They also advise against dogma and coercive hierarchies. Subsequent fellowships such as Narcotics Anonymous have adopted and adapted the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions to their respective primary purposes.[4][5]
The first female member, Florence Rankin, joined AA in March 1937,[6][7] and the first non-Protestant member, a Roman Catholic, joined in 1939.[8] The first Black AA group was established in 1945 in Washington DC by Jim S., an African-American physician from Virginia.[9][10] AA membership has since spread internationally “across diverse cultures holding different beliefs and values”, including geopolitical areas resistant to grassroots movements.[11] Close to 2 million people worldwide are members of AA as of 2016.[12]
AA’s name is derived from its first book, informally called “The Big Book”, originally titled Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism.
Born On This Day
1863 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer and academic (d. 1941)
Annie Jump Cannon (/ˈkænən/; December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures and spectral types. She was nearly deaf throughout her career. She was a suffragist and a member of the National Women’s Party.[2]
FYI
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In September 1956, a young John Lennon took home a dismal report card–the kind that many smart, wayward kids can probably relate to.
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Ideas
By ESSOMAR: Cardboard Cat House With Scratcher
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for November 24 November 24, 2024Picture of the day The Scroll of Eighty-Seven Immortals, drawn by an unknown painter, measuring 30cm high and 292cm wide, is a line-drawing Chinese figure painting. Drawn on a long silk scroll with lines, the painting depicts 87 taoist immortals, including three supreme gods with halo, ten divine generals, seven deities and 67 celestial maidens […]
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for November 23 November 23, 2024Picture of the day Rainbow yarn for knitting displayed in front of a needlework shop in Graz, Austria
Recipes
By canida: How to Cut a Pomegranate
By Michaels Test Kitchen: Foolproof Biscuits
By ModernFarmhouseKitchen: Indian Garlic Naan
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