A steady institution through years of economic ups and downs, the Economic Club of New York celebrates its centennial tonight at a sold-out dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria.

In honor of the anniversary, and at the suggestion of a club member and founder of the Burson-Marsteller public relations firm, Harold Burson, the nonpartisan speaking forum compiled a list of what it considers the most significant achievements of the past century. While the Internet and moon landing made the top 10, Mr. Burson’s committee decided that the most important achievements were the civil rights movement and the women’s movement.

As a result, they invited Secretary of State Rice to deliver their centennial’s keynote speech, as she is a world leader and someone whose personal story exemplifies the advancement of women and minorities. The chairman of the Economic Club, Barbara Hackman Franklin, said Ms. Rice’s talk “really launches our next 100 years.”

President Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House when the Economic Club first met at the Astor Hotel in June 1907. The first dinner had eight courses and seven speakers. “It’s more streamlined now,” a president of the club for 19 years, Ray Price, said. The current president of the club is Paul Bateman.

The stellar list of speakers who have addressed the club over the years is a Who’s Who: The American leaders have included Presidents Taft, Wilson, Nixon, Kennedy, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, as well as such Oval Office aspirants Wendell Willkie, Vice President Mondale, and Senator Dole. World leaders have included Winston Churchill, Nikita Khrushchev, Indira Gandhi, Pierre Trudeau, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Anwar Sadat, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Margaret Thatcher, as well as business titans from Rockefeller to Carnegie.

Asked about being the first woman chairman of the club, Ms. Franklin, who served as secretary of commerce under President George H.W. Bush, said having a woman as chairman sends a signal that the club is contemporary. Women were first admitted as members in 1974.

At the centennial dinner, the senior chairman of the Blackstone Group, Peter Peterson, will present the centennial award to a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan. Ms. Franklin noted the rarity of the honor: “We don’t give out awards — the last one we gave out was 50 years ago.”

Evenings at the Economic Club usually consist of a speaker talking from a dais, flanked by two recognized authorities on the topic who take turns asking questions following the talk. Mr. Price said a key to the club’s success is the way the evening is structured, which promotes “informed discussion among serious people about serious issues for a serious audience.”

Mr. Price, who ran the writing staff in the Nixon White House, said members recall the time when Nixon, after he had left office, spoke before the club and gave a brilliant, comprehensive talk on world affairs, tying everything together at the end — all while speaking without notes.