February 23, 1905 – Lawyer Paul Harris, coal dealer Silvester Schiele, merchant tailor Hiram Shorey, and mining engineer Gustavus Loehr convened the first Rotary club meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

1905 – International Workers of the World is formed.

1906 – Donald Carter joins Rotary and immediately shifts the focus to service, calling for the “advancement of the best interests of Chicago.”

1908 – At the San Francisco Hotel in San Francisco, a group of 10 of the city’s top business leaders start the second Rotary club.

1910 – 60 - Rotarians and their wives attend the first convention in Chicago. Delegates encourage Rotarians to “promote honorable business methods.”

1911 – The National Rotarian debuts, with an essay, “Rational Rotarianism,” by Paul Harris. The title of the magazine is shortened to The Rotarian in 1912.

1912 – Rotary moves beyond U.S. borders ands admits a club in Winnipeg, formed in 1910, unbeknownst to U.S. Rotarians.

1914 – Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated and World War I begins.

January 9, 1915 - The Fort Wayne Rotary Club was formally organized and Martin Luecke was selected as president and Frank Bohn as secretary-treasurer. The club was officially chartered with Rotary International on February 3, 1915. Early community projects of note included: the swimming pool at Lawton Park, a booster club for Fort Wayne’s entry into the Central Baseball League, and marking of the Lincoln Highway through Fort Wayne.

1916 – With the birth of Club Rotario de la Habana, Rotary enters in Latin America.

1917 – Rotary International President Arch C. Klumph calls for “endowments for the purpose of doing good in the World.” Kansas City Rotarians make the first contribution – US$26.50 – to what would become the Rotary Foundation.

1917 – The United States enters World War I.

1917 – 1920 – Fort Wayne Rotary members provide much needed civilian leadership over local civilian affairs associated with the war effort.

1920 – Station KDKA, Pittsburgh, transmits the first commercial radio broadcast. There are 758 Rotary clubs with 70,000 members world-wide. 1927 – Charles Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic Ocean, and The Jazz Singer is the first “talkie.” Danish Rotarian Sven Knudsen initiates a youth exchange project between Denmark and the United States. The idea catches on quickly.

1929 – On October 24th, “Black Thursday,” the stock market crashes. Hundreds of thousands lose their jobs in the Great Depression.

1932 – Chicago Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor creates the Rotary International ethics standard, the Four-Way Test.

1933 – Germany erects first concentration camps.

1934 – The first council on legislation is held, playing a central role in introducing the democratic process to many members.

1934 – Gangster John Dillinger is shot in Chicago, set up by “the lady in red.”

1937 - Germany’s 42 clubs are forced to disband, along with Austria’s 11 clubs. Italy’s 34 clubs withdraw in 1938, and Japan’s 41 clubs do so in 1940-41.

1940 – The Germans enter Paris.

1940 – Rotary International adopts the resolution, “Rotary Amid World Conflict,” to promote world order and peace. It will eventually serve as a model for the UN’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

1941 – Pearl Harbor is attacked. United States enters World War II.

1942 - Amid bombs falling on London, Rotarians hold a conference that lays the groundwork for UNESCO.

1945 – Victory in Europe & Japan.

1945 – More than 40 Rotarians serve as delegates, advisers, and consultants at the UN Charter conference in San Francisco.

1946 – The United Nations holds its first meeting.

1947 – Founder Paul Harris dies on January 27th, and in his honor, Rotarians grant 18 Rotary foundation Fellowships, the forerunner of the Ambassadorial Scholarships Program.

1950 – 51 – Rotarians hit the US$2 million mark in funds raised for The Rotary Foundation.

1953 – Korean armistice.

1955 – Bus boycott over segregation in Montgomery, Alabama.

1957 – Paul Harris Fellow recognition proposed to fund The Rotary Foundation programs.

1959 – Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba.

1962 – The first interact club, for ages 14 – 18, is formed in Melbourne, Florida. Today there are 10,000 clubs in 118 nations.

1962 – The World Community Service program is launched, pairing clubs in developing countries with those that have resources to help.

1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates John F. Kennedy; the Elysee Treaty is signed, encouraging Franco-German cooperation; Kenya elects its first prime minister, Jomo Kenyatta.

1965 – The Rotary Foundation establishes the Matching Grants program, supporting international service projects and Group Study Exchange, which sends teams of young professionals abroad.

1965 – Fort Wayne Rotary begins participation in RI’s Student Exchange programs.

1967 – The Six-Day War rocks the Middle East.

1968 – Rotary launches Rotaract, for young adults. The first club is chartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

1968 – Fort Wayne Rotary begins participation in RI’s Group Study Exchange program.

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy are slain. “Prague Spring” ends when Soviets invade Czechoslovakia.

1969 – Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon.

1970 – The Council on Legislation changes from an advisory to a legislative body, making Rotary’s “parliament.”

1971 – The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program is adopted, providing training for youth in leadership and conflict resolution.

1973 – The United States and North Vietnam sign a treaty in Paris, ending the Vietnam War. OPEC imposes an oil embargo.

1974 – Richard M. Nixon resigns; U.S. Little League allows girls to play.

1976 – The United States celebrates its bicentennial.

1978 – Rotary creates Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Grants to support large-scale humanitarian projects.

1979 – Iran hostage crisis.

1979 – With guidance from president Maclyn Parker and member William C. Lee, the Fort Wayne Rotary Foundation, Inc. was established.

1980 – The Rotary Foundation establishes an endowment, now called the Permanent Fund, to ensure its long-term effectiveness.

1981 – After 444 days, Iranian terrorists release 52 American hostages.

1985 – President-elect M.A.T. Caparas proposes Rotary Village Corps, known today as Rotary Community Corps.

1985 – Rotary announces the PolioPlus program and a campaign to raise US$120 million to immunize all the children of the world.

1985 – 1988 – The Fort Wayne Rotary Club through the leadership of Mark Slen, raises more than US$100,000.00 for PolioPlus.

1986 – Rotary membership tops one million.

1987 – Rotary clubs in the United States begin admitting women.

1988 – Through the PolioPlus campaign, Rotarians raise US$247 million.

1989 – The fall of the Berlin Wall leads to the demise of Communism in eastern Europe. Student protestors are killed in Tiananmen Square.

1989 – At a triennial meeting in Singapore, the Council on Legislation votes to allow all Rotary clubs to admit women.

1990 – Preserve Planet Earth is established on a pilot basis. More than 2,000 clubs adopt environmental projects during the Rotary year.

1991 – The World Wide Web debuts; the Soviet Union breaks apart; apartheid is abolished in South Africa.

1992 – The European Union forms; Bush and Yeltsin declare an official end to the Cold War; the Yugoslav Federation breaks up.

1993 – The 500 millionth child is symbolically immunized against polio at the 1993 RI Convention in Melbourne, Australia. 1994 – Genocide in Rwanda.

1994 – The Western Hemisphere is declared polio-free.

1994 – 1996 – Through Fort Wayne Rotary’s involvement and community service, “The Rotary Avenue of Trees” is planted in Headwaters Park along Clinton Street.

2000 – The Western Pacific Region is declared polio-free. The number of polio cases has declined 99 percent since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative began in 1988.

July 1, 2000 – Deanna Wilkirson takes office as the first female president of the Fort Wayne Rotary Club.

2000 – 2004 – The Fort Wayne Rotary Club raises another US$50,000.00 for the continued support of PolioPlus.

2001 – The 30,000th Rotary Club is chartered.

2001 – The World Trade Center in New York is attacked on September 11th.

2002 – The first members of the first class of Rotary World Peace Fellows begin studies at the Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution.

2002 – The European Region is declared polio-free.

2003 – The war in Iraq begins on March 19th.

2003 – The one-year polio fundraising campaign comes to an end. It ultimately raised more than US$123 million in cash and District Designated Fund allocations to help fill the funding gap for vaccine, surveillance, and operational support.

2004 – With leadership from President Irene Walters, The Fort Wayne Rotary Club adopts Washington Elementary School as our Signature Community Project: “STEPPING STONES” An alliance of Rotarians, Parents, Teachers and Staff investing time, experiences and resources in children to maximize their potential. “Transforming lives one step at a time.”

2004 – A tsunami devastates South Asia on December 26th.

February 3, 2005 - The Fort Wayne Rotary club celebrates its 90th Birthday.

February 23, 2005 - Rotary celebrates is centennial.

June 2005 - The Fort Wayne Rotary Club celebrates its centennial project in honor of Rotary International’s 100 Years, “The Circle of Hope,” a walking path around downtown and Headwaters Park. The path is dedicated to Hope in the Rotary spirit of building better understanding and supporting World peace and conflict resolution.

2006 – Charter Rotary Clubs are organized in North Korea and China and Iraq.