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Sobering Up
 May 12, 1935 - Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith met for what would become the first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. Wilson took his first drink in 1917 and quickly became a heavy drinker. Over the next two decades he was committed to the Charles B. Towns Hospital for Drug and Alcohol Addictions in New York City four times. On his fourth visit Wilson had a profound spiritual experience. From that day forward Wilson never drank again. Despite his commitment to sobriety Wilson found himself tempted to drink about a year later while on a failed business trip in Akron, Ohio. He realized that what he needed to keep him from drinking was another alcoholic to talk to. He phoned local ministers to ask if they knew any alcoholics and eventually got an introduction to Dr. Bob Smith. As the two men visited they realized that they could help other alcoholics the same way. In 1938, with about 100 alcoholics participating in the program, Wilson wrote a book entitled Alcoholics Anonymous, from which the group took its name. Today there are over two million members of Alcoholics Anonymous and the principals on which the organization is based have been adapted to help individuals struggling with other types of addiction. |
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Teenage Brides
May 16, 1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste in an arranged marriage at the Palace of Versailles. Four years later the couple would become King and Queen of France after King Louis XV died of smallpox. They reigned as monarchs until the French Revolution in 1792, when they were both executed by guillotine.
On this same day in 1836, 27-year-old, American poet Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old, first cousin Virginia Clemm. |
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Alcohol-Free Beer
 May 16, 1876 - Charles E. Hires, a pharmacist from Philadelphia, formulated a new beverage which he called Root Beer. He actually based his formula on Root Tea, a beverage that dates back to the Colonial Era, which he first tasted while on his honeymoon. Hires sold 25-cent packets of powder which, when combined with water, sugar and yeast, would yield five gallons of Root Beer. Hires introduced Root Beer at Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition in 1876 and garnered new customers by giving away free glasses of the beverage. By 1884 Hires began producing liquid extract and a syrup for use in soda fountains, and by 1890 he was selling the beverage in small bottles.
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