Rotary Milestones
Milestones in Rotary's History
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1905 First Rotary club organized in Chicago, Illinois, USA
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1908 Second club formed in San Francisco, California, USA
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1910 First Rotary convention held in Chicago, Illinois, USA
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1912 The Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, becomes the first club outside the United States to be officially chartered
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1917 Endowment fund, forerunner of The Rotary Foundation, established
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1932 4-Way Test formulated by Chicago Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor
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1945 Forty-nine Rotarians help draft United Nations Charter in San Francisco
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1947 Rotary founder Paul Harris dies; first 18 Rotary Foundation scholarships granted
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1962 First Interact club formed in Melbourne, Florida, USA
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1965 Rotary Foundation launches Matching Grants and Group Study Exchange programs
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1985 Rotary announces PolioPlus program to immunize all the children of the world against polio
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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
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1990 Rotary Club of Moscow chartered first club in Soviet Union
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1990/91 Preserve Planet Earth program inspires some 2,000 Rotary-sponsored environmental projects
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1994 Western Hemisphere declared polio-free
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1999 Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution established
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2000 Western Pacific declared polio-free
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2001 30,000th Rotary club chartered
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2002 Europe declared polio-free; first class of 70 Rotary Peace Scholars begin study
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2003 Rotarians raise more than US$118 million to support the final stages of polio eradication
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2004 RI's largest convention with 45,381 attendees, held in Osaka, Japan
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2005 Rotary Celebrates centennial in Chicago, Illinois, USA