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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 programs

1970

May 1970 The Rotary Club of Te Atatu North Rotary Club Chartered (Now Known as The Rotary Club of Waitakere City) (Name Changed 1990)

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 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

1991

Preserve Planet Earth program inspires some 2,000 Rotary-sponsored environmental projects

1994

Western Hemisphere declared polio-free

1999

Rotary Center 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

Rotary International hosts its largest Convention in Osaka, Japan. A record 45,881 Rotarians from 113 Countries attend

2005

Rotary Celebrates its 100th Anniversary

2006

Only 4 Countries remain polio endemic: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Parkinstan. 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

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