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 the first time in almost 50 years.
1990 Rotary Club of Moscow charted first club in Soviet Union
1990 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 Peach Scholars begin study
2003 Rotarian’s raise more than US$118 million to support the final states of polio eradication.
2004 RI’s largest convention with 45,381 attendees, held in Osaka, Japan.
2005 Rotary Celebrates centennial in Chicago, Illinois, USA
2006 Only 4 Countries remain polio endemic: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakinstan.
New Zealander Rotarian Bill Boyd inducted as RI World President.
2007 Rotary Foundation celebrates millionth Paul Harris Award
2008 Rotary launches the Gates Foundation “End Polio” Challenge
2009 Rotary celebrates the 100th Rotary International Convention in Birmingham, England.
The worlds’ largest artificial reef was built by a Rotary Club in the Phillipines – in the shape
of a Rotary wheel http://district5110.org/Video/Reef.