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

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 Programmes

1978 RI's largest convention, with 39,834 registrants, held in Tokyo

1985 Rotary announces Polio Plus 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

1990/1 Preserve Planet Earth program inspires some 2,000 Rotary-sponsored environmental Projects

1994 Western Hemisphere declared polio-free

1999 Rotary Centres 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