--- title: Alcoholics Anonymous History: Bill W's Last Drink on Dec. 11, 1934 description: The founder of AA had his last drink on Dec. 11, 1934 canonical: https://time.com/3624211/alcoholics-anonymous-1934/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-11T12:00:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:40:08.878Z article:section: History og:title: Alcoholics Anonymous History: Bill W's Last Drink on Dec. 11, 1934 og:description: The founder of AA had his last drink on Dec. 11, 1934 og:url: https://time.com/3624211/alcoholics-anonymous-1934/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f90cfc1430a2080/69876d7b2dce0154b99dc4d1/aa.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: AA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alcoholics Anonymous History: Bill W's Last Drink on Dec. 11, 1934 twitter:description: The founder of AA had his last drink on Dec. 11, 1934 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f90cfc1430a2080/69876d7b2dce0154b99dc4d1/aa.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Alcoholics Anonymous Got Its Start  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 11, 2014 12:00 PM UTC  An Alcoholics Anonymous Member points to available literature, in 1967 An Alcoholics Anonymous Member points to available literature, in 1967Duane Howell—Denver Post Archive/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 11, 2014 12:00 PM UTC Though anonymity is the hallmark of Alcoholics Anonymous, its founder’s name is well-known: Bill Wilson, often called Bill W., [bought his last drink](http://books.google.com/books?id=MADJj0a2-xsC&pg=PA61&dq=december+11+1934+bill+w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iRGGVKjEMYGdgwTyy4GoBw&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=december%2011%201934%20bill%20w&f=false) 80 years ago — on Dec. 11, 1934 — before entering the hospital where he had the epiphany that became the foundation of AA. Here’s how the magazine described what happened: --- > “” --- Today, AA [estimates](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/smf-53%5Fen.pdf) that it has over 2 million members worldwide. **_Read the full 1940 story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [“Alcoholics Anonymous”](http://time.com/vault/issue/1940-02-19/page/59/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3624211/alcoholics-anonymous-1934/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3624211/alcoholics-anonymous-1934/"},"headline":"How Alcoholics Anonymous Got Its Start","datePublished":"2014-12-11T12:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:40:08.878Z","description":"The founder of AA had his last drink 80 years ago on Dec. 11, 1934","url":"https://time.com/3624211/alcoholics-anonymous-1934/","keywords":["health","Food & Drink","Alcohol","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f90cfc1430a2080/69876d7b2dce0154b99dc4d1/aa.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f90cfc1430a2080/69876d7b2dce0154b99dc4d1/aa.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"AA","caption":"AA","creditText":"Duane Howell—Denver Post Archive/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3624211/alcoholics-anonymous-1934/","name":"How Alcoholics Anonymous Got Its Start"}}]}] ```