Milestones

1905 – First Rotary club organized in Chicago, Illinois, USA

1908 – Second club formed in San Francisco, California, USA

1910 – First Rotary convention held in Chicago, Illinois, USA

1912 – The Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, becomes the first club outside the United States to be officially chartered. (The club was formed in 1910.)

1917 – Endowment fund, forerunner of The Rotary Foundation, established

1932 – 4-Way Test formulated by Chicago Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor

1945 – Forty-nine Rotarians help draft United Nations Charter in San Francisco

1947 – Rotary founder Paul Harris dies; first 18 Rotary Foundation scholarships granted

1962 – First Interact club formed in Melbourne, Florida, USA

1965 – Rotary Foundation launches Matching Grants and Group Study Exchange programs

1985 – Rotary announces PolioPlus program to immunize all the children of the world against polio

1989 – Council on Legislation opens Rotary membership to women worldwide; Rotary clubs chartered in Budapest, Hungary, and Warsaw, Poland, for first time in almost 50 years

1990 – Rotary Club of Moscow chartered first club in Soviet Union

1990-91 – Preserve Planet Earth program inspires some 2,000 Rotary-sponsored environmental project

1994 – Western Hemisphere declared polio-fre

1999 – Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution established

2000 – Western Pacific declared polio-free

2001 – 30,000th Rotary club chartered

2002 – Europe declared polio-free; first class of 70 Rotary Peace Scholars begin study

2003 – Rotarians raise more than US$118 million to support the final stages of polio eradication

2004 – RI’s largest convention with 45,381 attendees, held in Osaka, Japan

2005 – Rotary Celebrates centennial in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Information provided by Rotary International: http://www.rotary.org/aboutrotary/milestones.html