Rotary was founded in 1905 by Paul Percy Harris, with the idea of forming a club of "the best" who, through their own commitment, could inspire and improve a Chicago that had recently been rebuilt and was made up of pioneers.
19th-century Chicago was a frontier city, full of vice and lacking laws, which returned to splendour thanks to the initiative of great figures who fought decay and mismanagement. On the evening of 23 February 1905, at the Unity Building, right in the city centre, a Rotary Club met for the first time.
The first meeting was attended by mining engineer Gustavus Loehr (owner of the office), tailor Hiram Shorey, coal merchant Silvester Schiele, and Paul Harris.
Paul Harris himself stated that "the object of Rotary is to bring together businessmen and professionals of different social standing, religion and nationality, so that they may understand each other, and be more supportive, cordial and of service to one another."
It was only at the third meeting that the fledgling club of friends was named Rotary. Paul Harris was not the first president, but the third. As a symbol, he chose a wheel, from the idea of "rotation" — the logo underwent slight graphic variations but has remained the same since 1923.
A little over three years after the first meeting, on 12 November 1908 the second Rotary Club was founded in San Francisco; the first Canadian Rotary Club was founded that same year, and the first in Dublin in 1911.
Paul Harris had always wanted to expand this idea of his, but his fellow members were initially opposed. In 1912 the name International Association of Rotary Clubs was adopted, which became Rotary International in 1922.
The first Italian club was founded on 20 November 1923 in Milan, in the Sala Manzoni of the Caffè Cova. In the following two years, 12 more clubs were founded. In 1926 the first Rotary Club of Cremona was founded, which would become the centre of District 2050.
Rotary activity was suspended during the Second World War. A first territorial division into districts emerged in the 1980s, and in 1992 our district received its official name as District 2050.