Historic NZ events in January
Jan
1859 New 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...1951 Legislative Council abolished
The Legislative Council was New Zealand's Upper House, to which members were appointed, not elected. It ceased to exist on New Year's Day 1951.
Read more...Jan
1938 First official airmail flight to San Francisco
The first official New Zealand airmail to the United States left Auckland for San Francisco on Pan American Airways’ Samoan Clipper.
Read more...Jan
1930 First New Zealand-made 'talkie' screened
Coubray-tone news, the work of the inventive Ted Coubray, had its first public screening at Auckland's Plaza Theatre.
Read more...Jan
1958 Hillary 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...1869 Te Kooti defeated at Ngātapa
Pursued by Māori and colonial troops to Ngātapa, an old hilltop pā inland from Poverty Bay, Te Kooti narrowly avoided capture after a three-day siege. Many of those with him were captured and executed the following day.
Read more...Jan
1977 Occupation of Bastion Point begins
Led by Joe Hawke, the Ōrākei Māori Action Committee occupied Takaparawhā (Bastion Point reserve), a promontory overlooking Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour.
Read more...Jan
1953 Godfrey Bowen sets world sheep-shearing record
At Akers Station at Ōpiki, Manawatū, Godfrey Bowen set a new world record, shearing 456 full-wool ewes in nine hours. Read more...
Jan
1931 Bumpy landing for Tasman’s first solo flyer
Australian Guy Menzies’ flight from Sydney ended awkwardly when he crash-landed in a swamp at Harihari on the West Coast.
Read more...Jan
1863 Haast begins West Coast expedition
In January 1863, geologist Julius von Haast led an expedition in search of an overland route from the east to the west coast of the South Island.
Read more...Jan
1923 Death of Katherine Mansfield
Internationally acclaimed author Katherine Mansfield revolutionised 20th-century English short-story writing. She died from tuberculosis in France, aged just 34.
Read more...Jan
1838 Catholic missionaries arrive in Hokianga
French Bishop Jean Baptiste François Pompallier arrived in Hokianga. His party celebrated their first mass three days later.
Read more...1902 World'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...1928 Pioneer aviators vanish over the Tasman
New Zealanders George Hood and John Moncrieff disappeared during a ‘gallant if somewhat ill-organised attempt’ to complete the first flight across the Tasman Sea.
Read more...Jan
1846 Ruapekapeka pā occupied by British and Māori forces
The battle at Ruapekapeka (‘the bats’ nest’), a sophisticated pā built by the Ngāpuhi chief Kawiti, ended the Northern War. Debate soon raged as to whether the fortress had been deliberately abandoned or captured.
Read more...Jan
1954 Queen Elizabeth II opens Parliament
A crowd of 50,000 greeted Queen Elizabeth II, resplendent in her coronation gown, when she opened a special session of the New Zealand Parliament in its centennial year.
Read more...Jan
1890 'Torpedo Billy' Murphy wins world featherweight boxing title
By defeating Irishman Ike Weir at San Francisco, Murphy became the first New Zealander to win a world professional boxing title.
Read more...Jan
1891 Bob Fitzsimmons wins world middleweight boxing title
Fitzsimmons knocked out Jack Dempsey in New Orleans to become the second New Zealander to hold a world boxing title. Read more...
1948 14-year-old finds New Zealand’s oldest fossils
In 1948, a 14-year-old Nelson schoolboy discovered the oldest fossils ever found in New Zealand.
Read more...Jan
1970 Vietnam War protesters greet US Vice-President
United States Vice-President Spiro Agnew’s three-day visit to New Zealand sparked some of the most violent anti-Vietnam War demonstrations seen in this country.
Read more...Jan
1941 Women's Auxiliary Air Force founded
The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was formed to enable the Royal New Zealand Air Force to release more men for service overseas during the Second World War.
Read more...Jan
1853 New Zealand Constitution Act comes into force
Governor Sir George Grey issued a proclamation to bring the New Zealand Constitution Act (UK) 1852 into operation, establishing a system of representative government for the colony.
Read more...Jan
1980 'Montego Bay' hits number one
Upper Hutt’s Jon Stevens achieved back-to-back no. 1 singles when ‘Montego Bay’ bumped ‘Jezebel’ from the top of the New Zealand charts.
Read more...Jan
1845 Hōne Heke cuts down the British flagstaff - again
The first Māori to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, Ngāpuhi chief Hōne Heke Pōkai soon became disenchanted with the consequences of colonisation.
Read more...1967 Nineteen killed in Strongman mine explosion at Rūnanga
Nineteen men were killed when an explosion ripped through the Strongman coal mine at Rūnanga. An inquiry found that safety regulations had not been followed and a shot hole for a charge had been incorrectly fired.
Read more...Jan
1957 Scott Base opens in Antarctica
Captain Harold Ruegg, Administrator for the Ross Dependency, opened Scott Base, New Zealand’s permanent Antarctic research station, during a ceremony on Ross Island.
Read more...Jan
1859 Ice comes to Nelson
Enjoying a cold drink on a hot afternoon was not always as simple as adding ice from the freezer to water from the refrigerator. At one time the ice made a much longer journey.
Read more...1889 American daredevil parachutes from balloon
‘Professor’ Thomas Baldwin landed safely by parachute from a balloon floating high above South Dunedin.
Read more...1944 New Zealand and Australia sign the Canberra Pact
The Canberra Pact was an undertaking by the two countries to co-operate on international matters, especially in the Pacific.
Read more...Jan
1840 European settlers arrive in Wellington
The New Zealand Company's first settler ship, the Aurora, arrived at Petone to found the settlement that would become Wellington.
Read more...1863 Slave trader competes in Wellington Anniversary Regatta
Slave trader Captain Thomas McGrath skippered the winning whaleboat in a race on Lambton Harbour which carried a £10 prize
Read more...Jan
1855 Massive earthquake hits southern North Island
The magnitude 8.2 earthquake had a profound impact on the development of Wellington city.
Read more...1951 Tragic centennial yacht race begins
Twenty yachts left Wellington for Lyttelton in a race to celebrate Canterbury's centenary. The fleet ran into a severe southerly storm and only one yacht officially finished the race. Two others were lost, along with their 10 crew members.
Read more...Jan
1865 British troops invade south Taranaki
Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron set out on what was to prove to be his final campaign in New Zealand with more than a thousand troops under his command.
Read more...1980 Soviet ambassador expelled
The New Zealand government ordered the Soviet Union‘s ambassador, Vsevolod Sofinsky, to leave the country within 72 hours after he allegedly delivered money to the pro-Soviet Socialist Unity Party.
Read more...Jan
1974 First day of competition at Christchurch Commonwealth Games
The opening ceremony of the ‘Friendly Games’ had featured performances by schoolchildren and a Māori concert party. Next day, Canterbury runner Dick Tayler ensured the success of the Games with a surprise victory for the host nation in the 10,000 m track race.
Read more...Jan
1844 Governor FitzRoy arrives in Wellington to investigate Wairau incident
Faced with demands for revenge after 22 settlers were killed in an incident in the Wairau Valley, Governor Robert FitzRoy decided that Māori had been provoked by the unreasonable actions of the Europeans.
Read more...1984 Floods devastate Southland
A record one-day total of up to 84.8 mm of rain caused extensive surface flooding in the streets of Invercargill, Riverton, Ōtautau, Tūātapere and Bluff.
Read more...Jan
1962 Peter Snell breaks world mile record
The 23-year-old Olympic 800-m champion hoped to run the first four-minute mile on New Zealand soil. In fact, he broke Australian Herb Elliott’s 3½-year-old world record by the smallest possible margin, 0.1 seconds.
Read more...Jan
1827 D'Urville sails through 'French Pass'
In a feat of navigational daring – and after several attempts – the French explorer Jules Sébastien César Dumont d’Urville sailed the Astrolabe from Tasman Bay through the narrow ‘French Pass’ into Admiralty Bay in the Marlborough Sounds.
Read more...1901 Hardham wins Victoria Cross in South Africa
Wellington blacksmith William Hardham served in South Africa with the fourth New Zealand contingent. He was the only New Zealander awarded a Victoria Cross during the South African War.
Read more...Jan
1842 Auckland's first Anniversary Day Regatta
Auckland’s Anniversary Day commemorates the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson in the Bay of Islands in 1840.
Read more...Jan
1911 Bookies take last bets on New Zealand racecourses
A 1910 amendment to the Gaming Act banned bookmakers from New Zealand racecourses, other public places and hotels.
Read more...Jan
1921 New Zealand's first regular airmail service begins
Piloted by Captain Euan Dickson, the first flight of the Canterbury Aviation Company’s new airmail service left Christchurch at 8 a.m., carrying several hundred letters to Ashburton and Timaru into the teeth of a south-westerly gale.
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