Events on this Day – 4 February
1950
Forty thousand spectators packed Eden Park for the opening ceremony of the fourth British Empire Games – the first staged since the Second World War.
1975
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.
1985
New Zealand's Labour government refused the USS Buchanan entry because the United States would neither confirm nor deny that the warship had nuclear capability.