Rotary 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 projects
1994 - Western Hemisphere declared polio-free
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/aboutrota
