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W hen Rotarians gather in Birmingham, England, in June for Rotary’s annual festival of fellowship and fun, they will celebrate the second convention in that city and the 100th in Rotary history.

The world today might be different from the one encountered by Paul Harris and his first mates more than a century ago, but the original spirit of the organization they founded remains virtually unchanged. And while technological advances enabling instant global contact show that it is indeed a small world after all, millions of Rotarians have acquired a new sort of conventional wisdom: There is no substitute for the handshakes and the hugs, the renewing of old friendships and the forging of new ones.

Over 100 years, RI conventions have drawn some of the world’s most powerful and influential leaders – in government, commerce, science, and culture – and served as forums for historic dialogue about how to make the world a better and more peaceful place.

The events have also been personally rewarding for convention goers and, sometimes, just plain fun. Here are some that stand out.

1910 Chicago

On 15 August 1910, the Congress Hotel opened its doors to the first Rotary convention, with 60 men in attendance. Just five years after Paul Harris and three others held their first informal fellowship meeting a few blocks away, the organization had grown to 15 clubs and more than 1,000 members.

In calling the meeting to order, Harris made it clear that “the primary purpose of this convention is to transact business.” He added the hope that planners had “interspersed enough good time so that you will not remember it as a sad occasion.” The entry for Monday in the official Convention Proceedings indicated that needn’t have been a concern: “Most of the delegates took advantage of the opportunity to go out to the new American League baseball park and witness a game between the New York and Chicago teams. A lesser number of delegates and visitors went in the opposite direction and spent the afternoon bathing at Wilson Beach.”

The Tuesday entry made note of a luncheon that brought together convention guests and 150 local Rotary club members: “After the cigars had been lighted, former U.S. Senator William E. Mason was introduced. Senator Mason, with one of his witty, characteristic remarks, immediately set the crowd off in a roar of laughter and for 10 or 15 minutes kept both the Chicagoans and their visitors gasping for breath over his flashes of wit and humor and after-dinner stories.”

The most enduring contribution was Arthur Sheldon’s modest declaration that established the spirit of Rotary: “He profits most who serves his fellows best.” The first convention concluded, as nearly all others have since, with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.”

1917 Atlanta

With the United States having recently entered World War I, the eighth Rotary convention took on a notably serious tone and came to be known as the Great Patriotic Convention. RI President Arch Klumph’s words left little doubt that Rotary, now an international organization with 32,600 members, was destined to become a champion of peace: “There should be a realization that Rotary is … a world force that has taken on an impetus that cannot be diminished. And when the bugle shall sound taps for the last fallen soldier in this great world’s struggle and the death-dealing instruments of war shall be forever laid aside and in their place we shall again take up the more useful vocations, we shall face our greatest opportunity by bringing into the folds of Rotary the flags of every civilized nation throughout the world.”

Klumph proposed starting an endowment fund, and the Rotary Club of Kansas City, Mo., USA, made the first donation of $26.50. Eleven years later, when the fund reached $5,000, the RI Board approved The Rotary Foundation.

1931 Vienna

At the second convention held in Europe, delegates elected Rotary’s first European president: Sidney W. Pascall of London. The Vienna convention also marked the fourth time since the U.S. enactment of prohibition in 1920 that the convention was held outside the United States, and it featured the debut of Walter R. Jenkins of Houston as song leader, a role he would play for the next 35 years.

1946 Atlantic City, N.J., USA

Following two scaled-down conventions in Chicago during World War II, with only a few hundred in attendance, the mood at the first postwar convention was one of jubilation. Nearly 11,000 Rotarians flocked to the New Jersey shore. In his final convention address, Paul Harris noted that 50 Rotarians had served as delegates and consultants at the 1945 UN conference in San Francisco. “Let’s do all that we can to make the United Nations successful. The United Nations, my friends, is the answer to our prayers.” Harris died seven months later.

1948 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The first Rotary convention in the Southern Hemisphere drew 7,500 attendees. It also prompted the following report, damning with faint praise, in Time magazine: “As 1,300 U.S. Rotarians and their families descended on Rio de Janeiro last week for the 39th International Convention, Rio’s cariocas braced themselves for the worst. They had seen U.S. conventioneers in the movies – Shriners in outlandish costumes and rowdy, boisterous Legionnaires. Shopkeepers hopefully put ‘Welcome, Rotary’ signs in their windows, fearfully wondered if they should board them up.

“But the Rotarians let them down. Staid, stout, and respectable, they ignored the hotspots, loosed not a wolf whistle .... After five days, the Rotarians departed, leaving Rio pleased, relieved, and vaguely disappointed. The cariocas had expected antics and amusement, maybe a few Lana Turners and Betty Grables. Instead they had seen middle-aged, middle-class North America.”

1955 Chicago

All was golden at the convention marking Rotary’s 50th anniversary, starting with the giant birthday “cake” with 50 golden candles at the House of Friendship in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Sherman. Nearby, commemorative Rotary stamps issued by 16 countries were prominently displayed.

The warmth of fellowship temporarily gave way to the chill of the Cold War during a keynote address by the most famous Rotarian from the Rotary Club of Whittier, Calif.: U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon. He congratulated Rotary for its support of the UN, which he saw as a potential vehicle for peace. “Another force for peace,” he said, “is the bomb itself, the greatest destructive instrument man has ever created, but an instrument so great in its destructive power that no leader of the world is going to begin a war when he realizes that it might mean complete destruction for his own country. He will not begin a war unless he is mad.”

1959 New York City

The marquee on Madison Square Garden lit up to welcome Rotary International’s 50th convention. Music on opening night featured performances by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, Metropolitan Opera soprano Heidi Krall, and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. A “Best of Broadway” revue featured Eddy Arnold and Minnie Pearl, Vivienne Della Chiesa and Robert Merrill, and Victor Borge. At the president’s reception and ball, there were alternating bands led by Sammy Kaye and Tito Puente.

Speakers included Pearl S. Buck, winner of the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes for literature; Dag Hammarskjold, secretary general of the UN; and Wernher von Braun, rocket scientist and champion of space exploration.

1961 Tokyo

The first RI Convention in Asia eclipsed the previous attendance record by 7,000, drawing more than 23,000 visitors from 74 countries. It was the largest international meeting ever held in Japan and reportedly increased Japanese tourism by 31 percent. Convention Hall in Tokyo was not large enough to accommodate all of the visitors, necessitating a technological first for a Rotary convention: closed-circuit TV broadcasts to an annex.

1984 Birmingham, England

The 75th convention took place in the same city that will host the 100th. In a keynote address, James P. Grant, executive director of UNICEF, spoke warmly of Rotary’s “long history of shared interests and aspirations.” One speaker who truly moved the convention was Sir John Wilson, founder of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind (now known as Sightsavers). Wilson, who himself was blind, said: “Imagine 250,000 people. That is the number of blind people to whom Rotarians restored sight over the past eight years. They were not privileged, award-winning people. They are village farmers, shantytown people, some of the poorest people in the world. You gave them an incomparable gift: sight, hope, independence.”

1985 Kansas City, Mo., USA

Urging Rotarians not to give up their commitment to global polio immunization, Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, concluded his address with a quotation from the English admiral Sir Francis Drake: “Grant us to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it is thoroughly finished that yieldeth the true glory.” Sabin added: “I hope you will dedicate yourself to the true glory – to continue to work until your worthy objectives will be achieved.”

1988 Philadelphia

If there was any doubt that Rotarians would achieve what Sabin urged upon them in Kansas City, it was eliminated at the Philadelphia convention. Rotary had established a fundraising goal of US$120 million for the PolioPlus campaign. Each chair of the 44 campaign committees was called upon, one at a time, to report his group’s total. The tally reached $100 million with only one committee – United States, Bahamas, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico – left to report. The total for that committee was nearly $120 million. Those in attendance were rewarded with a fireworks display and 15,000 balloons descending from the ceiling. The grand total: $219,350,449. It was, said outgoing RI President Charles Keller, “Rotary’s finest hour.”

1995 Nice, France

King Hussein of Jordan received the Rotary International Award of Honor, and his recorded message of thanks was played to an appreciative audience. This convention recognized the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and emphasized Rotary’s shared commitment to world peace. Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, commended Rotary for having “united individuals of far-flung geographies and the most diverse cultures and beliefs, even before the communications and technological revolutions.”

2007 Salt Lake City

The House of Friendship has been a welcoming fixture at Rotary conventions since at least 1933. This year, the central attraction was a 16 x 32 foot Peace Wall, on which visitors of all ages wrote messages in different colors and languages. Peace was the prominent theme: The first Rotary World Peace Symposium was held before the convention. It brought together hundreds of current and former students of the Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution.

William Gates Sr., cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, received the Polio Eradication Champion Award. “Given what I know about Rotary, I want to urge you in the strongest possible terms: Think big ,” he told the audience. “Think big, because anything less would be a waste of your potential. Think big, because thinking smaller would betray the optimism you have earned the right to. Think big, because big ideas are what the world needs from you.”