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1916, HMS
New Zealand
fights at Jutland
May
31
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Date
Calendar month
January
February
1 Feb 1842
New Zealand Company settlers arrive in Nelson
1 Feb 1922
Correspondence School founded
1 Feb 1981
Trevor Chappell bowls underarm
2 Feb 1939
Welfare plan gets baptism of fire
2 Feb 1974
'The greatest middle distance race of all time'
3 Feb 1868
Killer storm sweeps the country
3 Feb 1931
Deadly Hawke's Bay earthquake
4 Feb 1975
First woman swims Cook Strait
4 Feb 1985
USS
Buchanan
refused entry to New Zealand
5 Feb 1867
Opening of railway from Invercargill to Bluff
5 Feb 1911
New Zealand’s first controlled powered flight
5 Feb 1994
First Big Day Out in New Zealand
6 Feb 1840
Treaty of Waitangi signed
6 Feb 1871
First public girls' secondary school
6 Feb 1947
Liner
Wanganella
refloated in Wellington Harbour
7 Feb 1863
New Zealand’s worst shipwreck
7 Feb 1963
Fifteen die in Northland bus tragedy
8 Feb 1915
Turkish ambush kills New Zealand seaman
8 Feb 1931
First fatal accident on a scheduled air service in New Zealand
8 Feb 1972
Women cricketers triumph
9 Feb 1770
Cook completes circumnavigation of North Island
9 Feb 1900
Wanganui Opera House opened
10 Feb 1967
End of free school milk
11 Feb 1864
Charles Heaphy earns Victoria Cross
12 Feb 1909
SS
Penguin
wrecked in Cook Strait
13 Feb 1869
Killings at Pukearuhe
13 Feb 1974
New Zealand soldier's brave sacrifice
13 Feb 1983
Lance Cairns hits six sixes at Melbourne Cricket Ground
14 Feb 1915
Māori soldiers sail to war
14 Feb 1998
Te Papa museum opens
15 Feb 1882
First frozen meat shipment leaves New Zealand
15 Feb 1978
New Zealand beats England in a cricket test for the first time
16 Feb 1770
Cook sights Banks 'Island'
16 Feb 1986
Sinking of the
Mikhail Lermontov
17 Feb 1873
'The Russians are coming!'
18 Feb 1957
New Zealand's last execution
18 Feb 1982
'Queen of Crime' Ngaio Marsh dies
19 Feb 1938
Kōpuawhara flood kills 21
20 Feb 1914
Scotland crosses Southland in pioneering flight
20 Feb 1954
Yvette Williams sets world long jump record
21 Feb 1879
Kaitangata mining disaster
22 Feb 1902
Kelburn cable car opens
22 Feb 2011
Christchurch earthquake kills 185
23 Feb 1904
First step in creation of Fiordland National Park
23 Feb 1940
100,000 Aucklanders welcome home HMS
Achilles
24 Feb 1902
Battle of Langverwacht Hill
24 Feb 1912
TSS
Earnslaw
launched on Lake Wakatipu
25 Feb 1943
49 killed in Featherston POW incident
26 Feb 1844
'Pistols at dawn': deadly duel in Wellington
27 Feb 1951
Troops deployed in waterfront dispute
28 Feb 1945
Kiwi soldier faces firing squad
29 Feb 1924
Intelligence tests arrive in New Zealand schools
29 Feb 1964
Opening of first road to Maungapōhatu
29 Feb 2004
The return of the king
wins 11 Oscars
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