At Wharehunga Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, 10 men serving on the ship accompanying James Cook's Resolution died at the hands of Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne.
Events on this Day – 17 December
1889
Just 8½ months after Gustave Eiffel’s famous Paris tower was officially completed in March 1889, a wooden replica Eiffel Tower opened at the 1889–90 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin.
1944
Major Major, No. 1 Dog, 2NZEF, a member/mascot of 19 Battalion since 1939, died of sickness in Italy. He was buried with full military honours at Rimini.