Month Calendar View

Richard John Seddon became premier following the death of John Ballance. Immortalised as ‘King Dick’, Seddon was to dominate the New Zealand political landscape for the next 13 years. He remains this country’s longest-serving premier or prime minister.

Five Vampire fighter aircraft of No. 14 Squadron carried out the RNZAF’s first combat strike since the Second World War against guerrillas in the Malayan jungle.

The clipper Celestial Queen arrived at Port Chalmers carrying the first shipment of live fish ova from England. These fish were intended to provide sport for the settlers, but none survived in New Zealand.

Tram no. 252, displaying the message ‘end of the line’ and driven by Wellington Mayor Frank Kitts, travelled from Thorndon to Newtown zoo. Large crowds lined the streets to witness the end of electric trams in New Zealand.

The missionary John Butler turned New Zealand's first furrow at Kerikeri, writing: ‘I trust that this day will be remembered with gratitude, and its anniversary kept by ages yet unborn.’

Margaret Cruickshank, the first female doctor registered in New Zealand, practised in Waimate, South Canterbury, until her death from influenza in 1918.

Charles Ewing Mackay, the disgraced former mayor of Whanganui, was shot dead by Berlin police during May Day riots in the German capital.

Marion du Fresne’s was the second French expedition to visit New Zealand, following that of Jean François Marie de Surville in 1769. Du Fresne’s acceptance of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s beliefs about ‘noble savages’ was to have unfortunate consequences for him and his crew.

The engineer-in-charge and the overseer were killed when the second avalanche to hit the Homer tunnel project in less than 12 months struck without warning.

James Busby’s arrival in the Bay of Islands was the first tentative step along a path that led to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi seven years later.

War threatened sleepy Hokianga as government troops marched towards armed Māori ‘rebels’.

The main purpose of the operation was to punish Tūhoe for supporting Te Kooti Rikirangi, whose ‘rebel’ force they had sheltered after it was defeated at Ngātapa, inland from Poverty Bay, in January.

A devastating landslide obliterated the Ngāti Tūwharetoa village of Te Rapa on the south-west shore of Lake Taupō.

Sewell held the position for just 14 days before being replaced by his provincialist rival William Fox, whose ministry lasted just over a week.

A meeting in Dunedin presided over by the mayor unanimously called for a ban on further Chinese immigrants.

Originally intended as a journal for the Railways Department’s 18,000 staff and their major customers, the New Zealand Railways Magazine evolved into a hugely popular general-interest periodical.

Pop singer John Rowles established himself as an international star in the late 1960s. His hit single ‘Cheryl Moana Marie’ sold a million copies worldwide.

New Zealand pupils were for the first time able to read a schoolbook published in their own country.

New Zealand's most successful tennis player, Anthony Wilding was one of the stars of the sport in the decade before the First World War.

Germany surrendered on 7 May, New Zealand time, but acting Prime Minister Walter Nash insisted that celebrations wait until after British Prime Minister Winston Churchill officially announced peace at 1 a.m. on 9 May, New Zealand time.

Following the passage of the Female Law Practitioners Act 1896, Ethel Benjamin became the first woman to be admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

A gruff Ulsterman from South Auckland, William Ferguson Massey (‘Farmer Bill’) is New Zealand’s second-longest-serving prime minister.

Despite protests, the controversial rugby tour went ahead. The issue of sporting ties with South Africa would eventually split the country in 1981.

New Zealand’s most-decorated soldier, Charles Upham, received the first of his two VCs – for outstanding gallantry and leadership during the Battle of Crete in 1941 – from King George VI at Buckingham Palace.

Anti-war protesters disrupted a civic reception in Auckland for New Zealand soldiers returning from the Vietnam War.

Following their crushing defeat by the Labour Party in the 1935 general election, the remnants of the United–Reform coalition government met in Wellington to establish a new ‘anti-socialist’ party.

One of this country's most celebrated artists, Frances Hodgkins spent most of her life overseas. She earned a place among the British avant-garde of the 1930s and 1940s – the first New Zealand-born artist to achieve such stature. 

Few New Zealanders in 1995 could have avoided television commentator Peter Montgomery’s famous line, ‘the America’s Cup is now New Zealand’s cup!’ 

Sailing from Melbourne to London, the General Grant hit cliffs on the west coast of the main island in the subantarctic Auckland Islands. Fifteen of the 83 people on board survived the sinking, but only 10 of them were ultimately rescued 18 months later.

Around 200 people were on hand at Nelson’s Botanic Reserve to watch a game of football played under Rugby rules.

Dr Frederic Truby King helped form the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children at a meeting in Dunedin Town Hall.

The minesweeper HMS Puriri was the second victim of mines laid off the Northland coast by the German raider Orion. Five of its crew were killed.

Nicholas Oates appeared in the Christchurch Magistrate's Court charged with driving ‘a motor car within the city at a speed greater than four miles an hour’ on Lincoln Road, Christchurch.

The victim of the shooting, poet Walter D’Arcy Cresswell, alleged that Mayor Charles Mackay had made homosexual advances towards him in the mayoral office and panicked when faced with the prospect of public exposure.

Disagreements over the validity of land purchases by the New Zealand Company led to a series of skirmishes between Māori and government troops in the Wellington region in 1846.

The New Zealand football team's famous 2-0 victory in Sydney was a defining moment in their epic qualifying campaign for the 1982 World Cup finals.

Hundreds of Māori greeted the new British Resident in New Zealand, James Busby, when he landed at the Paihia mission station on 17 May 1833. The ceremony that followed was the first formal meeting between Māori chiefs and the representative of a great power.

James Liston, the assistant bishop of Auckland, was found not guilty of sedition following a high-profile court case.

George Wilder was a burglar who left apology and thank-you notes for his victims. He was at large for 65 days, becoming a folk hero in the process.

Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia, a prominent advocate for Māori women, addressed the Kotahitanga Māori parliament - the first woman known to have done so.

The only organised New Zealand contingent to serve in the Spanish Civil War comprised New Zealand Spanish Medical Aid Committee (SMAC) nurses René Shadbolt, Isobel Dodds and Millicent Sharples.

Korokī Te Rata Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was the fifth head of the Kīngitanga movement founded in 1858 in response to European colonisation.

This journey was part of Thomas Brunner's epic 1846-48 exploration of the South Island. He was guided by Kehu of Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri and accompanied by Charles Heaphy, a draftsman and artist with the New Zealand Company.

An attempted hijacking of an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 at Nadi airport, Fiji, was thwarted when a member of the cabin crew struck the hijacker on the head with a whisky bottle.

During his second voisit to New Zealand in 1773, James Cook released a ewe and a ram in Queen Charlotte Sound. They survived only a few days – an inauspicious start to this country’s long association with sheep.

The paddle steamer City of Dunedin left Wellington at around 5 p.m. on Saturday 20 May. It was never heard from again and no trace was ever found of the four dozen people on board.

New Zealand received its first known shipload of labourers from the Pacific Islands when the clipper schooner Lulu docked in Waitematā Harbour

The Battle for Crete raged for 12 days before the Allies were driven off the island. Casualties were high on both sides. More than 650 New Zealanders were killed and 2000 taken prisoner.

Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty over all of New Zealand – the North Island on the basis of cession through the Treaty of Waitangi, and South and Stewart Islands by right of discovery.

The first representative New Zealand rugby team played its first match, defeating a Wellington XV 9-0 before embarking on a tour of New South Wales.

Waikato–Tainui was the first iwi to reach a Treaty of Waitangi settlement with the Crown for injustices that went back to the 1860s. The Deed of Settlement included cash and land valued at a total of $170 million.

Gabriel Read gained fame and fortune when he found gold near the Tuapeka River, a tributary of the Clutha River in Otago.

Princess Piki, the daughter of King Koroki, was selected as the sixth Maori monarch − and first Queen − during her father's tangi, in accordance with Kingitanga protocol. She assumed her mother’s name, Te Atairangikaahu.

In the Battle of the Atlantic, one of the most important campaigns of the Second World War, 24 May 1943 was a crucial date. Thousands of New Zealanders took part in this long and bitter struggle.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake centred near Īnangahua Junction, 40 km east of Westport, struck at 5.24 a.m., shaking many people from their beds.

Published from a cottage in Montreal Street, the first edition was a six-page tabloid which sold for sixpence.

Police and army personal removed 222 people from Bastion Point, Auckland, ending an occupation that had begun in January 1977. Ngāti Whātua were protesting against the loss of land in the Ōrakei Block, which had once been declared ‘absolutely inalienable’.

Shortland Street is New Zealand’s longest-running television drama series

Dixon's victory at the Brickyard in 2008, the first Indianapolis 500 win by a New Zealander, helped him secure his second Indy Racing League championship.

Under the leadership of Te Whiti-o-Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi, Parihaka Māori began a ploughing campaign in protest against European settlement on land confiscated from Māori.

The world’s best-known ballerina performed her famed ‘Dying Swan’ and ‘Fairy Doll’ to a full house in His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland.

The Tasmanian-born confidence trickster topped a long career impersonating well-off men for financial gain by claiming to be a sheepfarmer and the nephew of a bishop.

Colin McCahon is regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest painters. A risk-taker and a nonconformist, he engaged with questions of religion, faith and the human condition through his art.

In what may have been a world first for a capital crime, the conviction of Dennis Gunn was based almost entirely on fingerprint evidence.

As well as providing care for expectant mothers, the new St Helens hospital in Wellington trained midwifery students.

When mabel Howard was appointed minister of health and minister in charge of child welfare, she became the first woman to serve as a Cabinet minister in New Zealand.

A beekeeper from New Zealand, Edmund Hillary, and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people to stand on the summit of the world’s highest peak.

A 10-man Royal Commission reported unanimously that New Zealand should not become a state of the new Commonwealth of Australia.

New Zealand’s best-known bridge opened after four years of construction. The need for better transport links between Auckland city and the North Shore had long been the subject of inquiry and agitation.

A totally New Zealand Royal Honours System was established with the institution of the New Zealand Order of Merit, which replaced the various British State Orders of Chivalry.

In the misty North Sea on the last day of May 1916, 250 warships from Britain’s Royal Navy and Germany’s High Seas Fleet clashed in the First World War’s greatest and bloodiest sea battle.

Eighteen-year-old Mona Blades was last seen sitting in the back seat of an orange Datsun station wagon. Her body was never found and her disappearance has never been explained.