Events In History
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14 December 2009Cabinet endorses Tino Rangatiratanga flag
The government recognised the Māori (Tino Rangatiratanga) flag as the preferred national Māori flag. Read more...
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16 August 2008Evers-Swindell twins defend Olympic rowing title at Beijing
While Kiwis had high expectations of their rowing squad at the Beijing Olympics, few expected identical twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell to successfully defend the double sculls title they had won in Athens in 2004. Read more...
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28 March 2004Māori Television launched
A dawn pōwhiri at Māori Television’s new offices in Newmarket, Auckland, was covered in the first transmission next day. Read more...
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29 July 2003Moana Mackey joins mother Janet in Parliament
Twenty-nine-year-old Moana Mackey entered the House of Representatives as a Labour Party list MP. She joined her mother, Janet Mackey, who had been a Labour MP since 1993. They were the first mother and daughter to serve together in New Zealand’s Parliament. Read more...
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10 December 1999Georgina Beyer becomes first transgender woman elected to Parliament
Georgina Beyer won the Wairarapa electorate for Labour in 1999 by a margin of 3033 votes. Read more...
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7 August 1997Beatrice Faumuina wins athletics world championship gold
Beatrice Faumuina became the first New Zealander to win an event at a World Athletics Championships when she threw the discus 66.82 m at Athens in 1997. Read more...
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29 June 1990First female Anglican diocesan bishop appointed
Dr Penny Jamieson’s rise through church ranks was rapid. The first women were ordained to the Anglican priesthood in New Zealand in 1977. Jamieson was ordained and appointed to a Wellington parish in 1985. Read more...
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20 June 1987All Blacks win the first World Cup
With Michael Jones, John Kirwan and David Kirk scoring tries, the All Blacks defeated France 29–9 at Eden Park, Auckland. Kirk became the first captain to lift the Webb Ellis Cup. Read more...
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10 September 1984Te Maori exhibition opens in New York
The landmark Te Maori exhibition was a milestone in the Māori cultural renaissance. Featuring traditional Māori artwork, it toured the United States between 1984 and 1986 before returning to New Zealand for a nationwide tour in 1987. Read more...
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26 July 1984Ann Hercus becomes first Minister of Women's Affairs
Ann Hercus became New Zealand’s first Minister of Women’s Affairs following the election of the fourth Labour government. Read more...
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10 April 1984Susan Devoy wins British Open squash tournament
In 1984, Susan Devoy became the first New Zealander to win the women’s title at the prestigious British Open squash tournament, the ‘Wimbledon of Squash’. Read more...
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11 July 1983Lorraine Downes crowned Miss Universe
Lorraine Downes became a household name overnight and spent the next 12 months travelling the world accompanied by a chaperone, carrying out the duties of Miss Universe Read more...
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2 September 1979Ivan Mauger wins sixth world speedway title
As well as a record six individual world titles between 1968 and 1979, including three in a row from 1968 to 1970, Mauger also won the long track world championship three times between 1971 and 1976. Read more...
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1 July 1978Beatrice Tinsley made professor of astronomy at Yale
Tinsley became the first woman to be appointed as Professor of Astronomy at Yale University in the United States Read more...
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15 February 1978New Zealand beats England in a cricket test for the first time
Chasing 137 for victory in the first test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, England was bowled out for 64, with Richard Hadlee taking 6 for 26. Read more...
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10 October 1975Waitangi Tribunal created
The Labour government created the Tribunal to hear Māori claims of breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. It has evolved ever since, adapting to the demands of claimants, government and public. Read more...
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12 August 1975John Walker breaks world mile record
John Walker became history’s first sub-3:50 miler, running 3:49.4 at Gothenburg, Sweden. Read more...
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4 February 1975First woman swims Cook Strait
American Lynne Cox swam from the North Island to the South in 12 hours 7 minutes. The fourth person to do so, she battled heavy seas and strong winds. Read more...
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8 December 1972Whetu Tirikātene-Sullivan becomes first Māori woman Cabinet minister
Whetu Tirikātene-Sullivan became the first female Māori Cabinet minister when she was sworn in as Minister of Tourism in Norman Kirk’s third Labour government Read more...
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2 September 1972New Zealand’s rowing eight wins gold
In 2008 the well-known sports writer Joseph Romanos chose the victory of the 1972 rowing eight as the best team performance by New Zealanders at an Olympic Games. Read more...
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8 February 1972Women cricketers triumph
New Zealand’s women cricketers achieved their first test victory at the 17th attempt. They had lost seven and drawn nine of their previous tests, all against either England or Australia. Read more...
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7 November 1970Last unclimbed face of Aoraki/Mt Cook conquered
Long-haired Christchurch mountaineers John Glasgow and Peter Gough became the first people known to have scaled the 2000-m Caroline Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook. They declared it a ‘triumph for the hippies’. Read more...
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10 February 1967End of free school milk
New Zealand schoolchildren received free milk between 1937 and 1967. The first Labour government introduced the scheme – a world first – to improve the health of young New Zealanders (and make use of surplus milk). Read more...
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4 December 1966Radio Hauraki rules the waves
Pirate station Radio Hauraki broadcast its first scheduled transmission from beyond New Zealand’s 3-mile territorial limit. Read more...
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1 October 1962Government watchdog appointed
Sir Guy Powles was New Zealand's first Ombudsman. In a loose translation from Swedish, the word means ‘grievance person’. The office was created to investigate complaints about government departments and other national public sector organisations. Read more...
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3 September 1958First open-heart surgery in New Zealand
Pioneering heart surgeon Brian Barratt-Boyes performed the surgery using a heart-lung bypass machine. The procedure, at Green Lane Hospital in Auckland, was carried out on an 11-year-old girl with a hole in her heart. Read more...
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4 January 1958Hillary leads New Zealand party to South Pole
Sir Edmund Hillary’s New Zealand team became the first to reach the South Pole overland since Robert Falcon Scott in 1912, and the first to do so in motor vehicles. Read more...
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13 March 1956New Zealand's first test cricket victory
New Zealand was already 3–0 down in the series going into the fourth and final test at Eden Park in Auckland. Their West Indies opponents included household names such as Gary Sobers and Everton Weekes, who had broken batting records for a New Zealand season. Read more...
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29 May 1947Mabel Howard becomes first female Cabinet minister
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. Read more...
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16 October 1936Jean Batten reaches Auckland after epic solo flight
Jean Batten left for New Zealand from Kent, England, at 4.20 a.m. on 5 October 1936. Despite the early hour, a large media contingent gathered to see her off; Batten was already famous for her successful solo flights from England to Australia in May 1934, and to South America in November 1935. Read more...
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1 December 1933First flight from North Cape to Invercargill
Twenty-two-year-old pilot E.F. ('Teddy') Harvie and his female passenger, 18-year-old Trevor Hunter, set a record for the longest flight within New Zealand in a single day. They completed the 1880-km journey in 16 hours 10 minutes. Read more...
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13 September 1933New Zealand's first woman MP elected
The Labour Party’s Elizabeth McCombs became New Zealand’s first female Member of Parliament, winning a by-election in the Lyttelton seat caused by the death of her husband, James McCombs. Read more...
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18 October 1924First trans-global radio transmission to London
From the family sheep station in Shag Valley, East Otago, amateur radio operator Frank Bell sent a groundbreaking Morse code transmission that was received and replied to by London-based amateur operator Cecil Goyder. Read more...
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29 February 1924Intelligence tests arrive in New Zealand schools
Following a US study tour by Frank Milner, the rector of Waitaki Boys’ High School in Ōamaru, the Education Department began applying the Terman Group Test of Mental Ability to all first-year post-primary school students Read more...
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4 April 1921First school dental nurses begin training
In a world first, 30 women began training as dental nurses for the state-funded School Dental Service. Read more...
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25 August 1920First flight across Cook Strait
Captain Euan Dickson completed the first air crossing of Cook Strait, flying a 110-hp Le Rhone Avro from Christchurch to Upper Hutt with the first air mail between the South and North Islands. Read more...
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23 August 1920New Zealand's first female Olympian
Violet Waldron was New Zealand’s first female Olympian, and part of New Zealand’s first Olympic team of four. She competed in freestyle swimming in the 1920 Antwerp Summer Olympics. Read more...
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28 May 1920Fingerprints help convict murderer
In what may have been a world first for a capital crime, the conviction of Dennis Gunn was based almost entirely on fingerprint evidence. Read more...
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3 December 1910First female ascent of Aoraki/Mt Cook
Freda du Faur was the first female to complete the ascent of Aoraki/Mt Cook. Read more...
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7 August 1908First train runs length of main trunk line
The 'Parliament Special' travelled over a makeshift track in the central section of the still-unfinished main trunk line. It carried MPs north to greet the American navy's 'Great White Fleet'. Read more...
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6 December 1905Special votes cast in general election
For the first time in New Zealand’s electoral history, registered voters who were away from their electorate on polling day were able to cast a ‘special’ absentee vote at any polling booth in the country. Read more...
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16 September 1905'Originals' kick off All Black tradition
The first fully representative New Zealand rugby team to tour the northern hemisphere was known as the ‘Originals’. They won 34 of their 35 matches and popularised both the haka and the ‘All Blacks’ nickname. Read more...
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10 January 1902World's first state-registered nurses
Ellen Dougherty was one of the world’s first state-registered nurses. Grace Neill, Assistant Inspector in the Department of Asylums and Hospitals, advocated state registration of trained nurses, which was introduced by the Nurses’ Registration Act 1901. Read more...
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1 December 1898First movie shot in New Zealand
The first motion pictures known to have been taken in New Zealand were made by photographer W.H. Bartlett for the entrepreneur Alfred Whitehouse, who in 1895 had imported the colony’s first ‘kinetoscope’. Read more...
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1 November 1898Old-age Pensions Act becomes law
A world first, the act gave a small means-tested pension to elderly men and women with few assets who were ‘of good moral character’ and were leading a ‘sober and reputable life’. It was one of the major achievements of Richard Seddon’s Liberal government. Read more...
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10 May 1897NZ's first woman barrister and solicitor appointed
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. Read more...
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25 December 1894First ascent of Mt Cook
At 1.30 on the afternoon of Christmas Day 1894, three young men became the first to stand atop Aoraki/Mt Cook, the highest mountain in the colony. Read more...
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20 December 1893Women vote in Māori seats for first time
Just over three weeks after New Zealand women became the first in the world to vote in a national parliamentary election, voting was held in the four Māori electorates. Read more...
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29 November 1893First woman mayor in British Empire elected
By becoming mayor of Onehunga, Auckland, Elizabeth Yates struck another blow for women’s rights in local-body polls held the day after the first general election in which women could vote. Read more...
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28 November 1893Women vote in first general election
New Zealand women went to the polls for the first time, just 10 weeks after the governor signed the Electoral Act 1893, making this country the first in in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Read more...
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5 December 1890First 'one man one vote' election
New Zealand’s electoral law had been changed so that no one could vote in more than one general electoral district. This ended the long-standing practice of ‘plural voting’ by those who owned property in more than one electorate. Read more...
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28 October 1890First Labour Day celebrations
The first Labour Day celebrated the struggle for an eight-hour working day. Parades in the main centres were attended by several thousand trade union members and supporters. Read more...
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9 March 1890Sutherland Falls climbed
Young surveyor William Quill needed only basic climbing equipment, including a billhook and an alpenstock, to scale the side of the ‘great Sutherland waterfall’, which cascades down for 580 m near Milford Sound. Read more...
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3 October 1888New Zealand Natives team plays first game in UK
The privately organised rugby team was the first to wear the silver fern and an all-black uniform. Read more...
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23 September 1887Tongariro mountains protected
In February 1887 newspapers reported Ngāti Tūwharetoa’s proposal to ‘gift’ the British Crown the mountaintops of Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe and Ruapehu to form the basis of a national park. Read more...
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15 August 1881First woman Master of Arts in British Empire graduates
Helen Connon was the first woman in the British Empire to gain her Master of Arts degree. Her academic career started with edcuation in Dunedin, New Zealand. Read more...
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6 February 1871First public girls' secondary school
The first public girls’ secondary school in the southern hemisphere was Otago Girls’ High School, which opened eight years after the local public boys’ high school. Read more...
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19 June 1869First game of rugby played in NZ?
The first game of football in New Zealand played under Rugby rules may have been a match between Whanganui Town and Countr at suburban Aramoho on Saturday 19 June 1869 Read more...
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2 November 1868New Zealand becomes first country to adopt a standard time
On 2 November 1868, New Zealand discarded its numerous local times and became the first country to regulate its time in relation to Greenwich mean time (GMT). Read more...
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15 April 1868First Māori MPs elected to Parliament
The Maori Representation Act 1867 established four Māori seats in the House of Representatives, initially for a period of five years. The act gave the vote to all Māori males aged 21 and over. Read more...
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9 December 1867First passengers traverse Lyttelton rail tunnel
After 6½ years of construction, it took just 6½ minutes for the first trainload of passengers to speed through the 2.6- km tunnel linking the Canterbury plains to the port of Lyttelton. Read more...
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29 September 1862New Zealand's first professional opera performance
Dunedin's Royal Princess Theatre was the venue for a performance of Donizetti's Daughter of the regiment by the visiting English Opera Troupe, supplemented by local performers. Read more...
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1 January 1859New Zealand’s first lighthouse lit
Pencarrow Head lighthouse, at the entrance to Wellington Harbour, was lit for the first time amid great celebration. Read more...
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12 August 1816New Zealand’s first mission school opens
The simple building measured about 10m x 6m and included an area for Māori students to sleep and a cordoned-off platform for teachers and Pākehā students Read more...
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25 December 1814First Christian mission established
At Hohi (Oihi) Beach in the Bay of Islands, Samuel Marsden preached in English to a largely Māori gathering, launching New Zealand’s first Christian mission. Read more...
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27 April 1806Moehanga becomes first Māori to visit England
Moehanga of Ngāpuhi became the first recorded Māori visitor to England when the whaler Ferret berthed in London. Moehanga (Te Mahanga) had boarded the Ferret when it visited the Bay of Islands late in 1805. Read more...
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1 April 1773First beer brewed in New Zealand
In an attempt to concoct a preventative against scurvy, Captain James Cook brewed a batch of beer on Resolution Island in Dusky Sound, using rimu branches and leaves. Read more...
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18 December 1642First known encounter between Māori and Europeans
Abel Tasman’s Dutch East India Company expedition had the first known European contact with Māori. It did not go well. Read more...
Articles
Women and the vote
On 19 September 1893 the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result of this landmark legislation, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
- Page 1 - New Zealand women and the voteOn 19 September 1893 the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result of this landmark legislation, New Zealand became the first self-governing country
Antarctica and New Zealand
NZ and Antarctica share a long and rich history. From Tuati in 1840 to Edmund Hillary in the 1950s and more recent scientists, Kiwis have explored, examined and endured the frozen continent.
- Page 2 - First among menNew Zealanders were involved in a number of significant Antarctic firsts - notably, the first landing on the continent proper in 1895 and the first overland crossing between 1955
Biographies
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McCombs, Elizabeth Reid
Forty years after women in New Zealand received the right to vote, Elizabeth McCombs became the first female Member of Parliament.
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Yates, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Yates was elected mayor of Onehunga on 29 November 1893, becoming the first woman in the British Empire to hold the office.
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Knox, Frederick John
Dr Frederick Knox was the librarian of New Zealand's first public library.
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Pulman, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Pulman was quite possibly New Zealand’s first female professional photographer.
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Burn, William Wallace Allison
William Wallace Allison Burn was the first New Zealander to qualify as a military aviator. During the First World War he served in the Middle East, where he became the first New Zealand pilot to be killed in action.
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Barratt-Boyes, Brian
At Green Lane Hospital Barratt-Boyes pioneered new surgical techniques involving the replacement of defective heart valves.
Read more...
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Main image: Elizabeth Pulman
Elizabeth Pulman was quite possibly New Zealand’s first female professional photographer.