TimelinePosted by admin on September 12th, 2008
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 First club outside US formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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
1978 RI’s largest convention, with 39,834 registrants, held in Tokyo
1985 Rotary announces PolioPlus program to immunize all the children of the world against polio
1989 Council on Legislation opens Rotary to women; 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