2015 The All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup

Rugby union - almost universally referred to as rugby in New Zealand - was introduced to New Zealand by Charles Monro in 1870. The first recorded game in New Zealand took place in May 1870 in Nelson between the Nelson club and Nelson College. The first provincial union, the Canterbury Rugby Football Union, was formed in 1879, and in 1882 New Zealand's first internationals were played when New South Wales toured the country. The team entered the 2015 Rugby World Cup and they defeated France 62-13 in the Quarter-Final, South Africa 20-18 in the Semi-Final and Australia 34-17 in the Final to become the first nation to retain their World Champion title and the first to win the Rugby World Cup three times (the only team to ever win the tournament twice in a row).

2011 Christchurch earthquakes

On Saturday 4 September 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Christchurch. It caused widespread damage to the city and minor injuries, but no direct fatalities. Nearly six months later on Tuesday 22 February 2011, a second earthquake measuring magnitude 6.3 struck the city. The intensity and violence of the ground shaking was measured to be among the strongest ever recorded globally in an urban area and in total 185 people were killed. On 13 June 2011 Christchurch was hit by two more large aftershocks. A magnitude 5.6 quake followed by another quake at magnitude 6.3. There were no fatalities though it resulted in further liquefaction and building damage. Christchurch was again rattled awake on 2 January 2012. 4,558 earthquakes were recorded in the Canterbury region above a magnitude 3.0, from 4 September 2010 to 3 September 2014.

2010 Pike River mine explosion

The Pike River Mine disaster was a coal mining accident that began on 19 November 2010 in the Pike River Mine, 46 kilometres (29 mi) northeast of Greymouth, in the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. At the time of the explosion 31 miners and contractors were present in the mine. Two miners managed to walk from the mine, the remaining 16 miners and 13 contractors, were believed to be at least 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) from the mine's entrance. The Pike River Mine incident ranks as New Zealand's worst mining disaster since 1914, when 43 men died at Ralph's Mine in Huntly. 

2009 First confirmed case in the 2009 swine flu outbreak

The 2009 flu pandemic or swine flu was an influenza pandemic, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the first of them being the 1918 flu pandemic), albeit in a new version. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1 which resulted when a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine and human flu viruses further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus, leading to the term "swine flu".

2002 The population of Canterbury reaches half a million

Canterbury is a region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of 44,508 square kilometres (17,185 sq mi), and is home to a population of 586,500 (June 2015 estimate). Christchurch, the South Island's largest city and the country's third-largest urban area, is the seat of the region and home to 65 percent of the region's population. Canterbury is served by 292 primary and secondary schools educating around 94,000 students from ages 5 to 18. Canterbury has two universities: the University of Canterbury located in western Christchurch, and Lincoln University located in Lincoln.

1997 Auckland's Sky Tower is opened

The Sky Tower is an observation and telecommunications tower located at the corner of Victoria and Federal Streets in Auckland City, New Zealand. It is 328 metres (1,076 ft) tall, as measured from ground level to the top of the mast, making it the tallest man-made structure in the Southern Hemisphere and the 25th tallest tower in the world. The tower is designed to withstand wind in excess of 200 km/h (120 mph) and designed to sway up to 1 metre (39 in) in excessively high winds. The Sky Tower is built to withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake located within a 20-kilometre (12 mi) radius.

1995 Team New Zealand wins America's Cup

The America's Cup, affectionately known as the "Auld Mug", is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two sailing yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging for the cup. In 1995, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron syndicate Team New Zealand, skippered by Russell Coutts, first won the challenger series in NZL 32, dubbed "Black Magic" because of her black hull and uncanny speed. The America's Cup is the oldest international sporting trophy.

1987 New Zealand wins Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament was first held in 1987, when the tournament was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand are the current champions, having defeated Australia in the final of the 2015 tournament in England. New Zealand have won it three times (1987, 2011, 2015), two teams have won twice, Australia (1991, 1999) and South Africa (1995, 2007), while England (2003) have won it once. The winners are awarded the William Webb Ellis Cup, named after William Webb Ellis, the Rugby School pupil who - according to a popular legend - invented rugby by picking up the ball during a football game.

1979 Air New Zealand Flight 901

Air New Zealand Flight 901 was a scheduled Air New Zealand Antarctic sightseeing flight that operated between 1977 and 1979. The flight would leave Auckland Airport in the morning and spend a few hours flying over the Antarctic continent, before returning to Auckland in the evening via Christchurch. On 28 November 1979, the fourteenth flight of TE-901, a McDonnell Douglas flew into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board. The accident became known as the Mount Erebus disaster. The commission concluded that the accident was caused by a correction made to the coordinates of the flight path the night before the disaster, coupled with a failure to inform the flight crew of the change.

1967 New Zealand's first Formula 1 World Champion

Denis Clive "Denny" Hulme, (1936 - 1992) was a New Zealand racing driver who won the 1967 Formula One World Drivers' Championship for the Brabham team. Between his debut at Monaco in 1965 and his final race in the 1974 US Grand Prix, he started 112 Grand Prix, resulting eight victories and 33 trips to the podium. Following his Formula One tenure with Brabham, Hulme raced for McLaren in multiple formats - Formula One, Can-Am, and at the Indianapolis 500. Hulme was nicknamed 'The Bear', because of his "gruff nature" and "rugged features".

1965 National Library of New Zealand

The National Library of New Zealand is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations". The library supports schools through its Services to Schools business unit, which has curriculum and advisory branches around New Zealand. The Legal Deposit Office is New Zealand's agency for ISBN and ISSN. The National Library's collections are stored in the main building in Wellington and several other cities in New Zealand. The library has three main groups: the General Collections, the Schools Collection, and the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library. 

1959 Antarctic Treaty

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The twelve countries that had significant interests in Antarctica at the time were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. The treaty, entering into force in 1961 and having 53 parties as of 2016, sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on that continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.

1951 ANZUS

The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS or ANZUS Treaty) is the 1951 collective security agreement which binds Australia and New Zealand and, separately, Australia and the United States, to co-operate on military matters in the Pacific Ocean region. It provides that an armed attack on any of the three parties would be dangerous to the others, and that each should act to meet the common threat. The treaty was one of the series that the United States formed in the 1949-55 era as part of its collective response to the threat of communism during the Cold War. New Zealand was suspended from ANZUS in 1986 as it initiated a nuclear-free zone in its territorial waters.

1950 Wool boom

The New Zealand Wool Boom of 1951 was one of the greatest economic booms in the history of New Zealand, and the direct result of United States policy in the 1950–53 Korean War. In 1950, as a result of the Korean War, the United States sought to buy large quantities of wool to complete its strategic stockpiles. This led to the greatest wool boom in New Zealand's history, with prices tripling overnight. In 1951 New Zealand experienced economic growth such as has never been seen again since. The echoes of the boom reverberated into the late 1950s. The export price of wool declined by 40% in 1966, however New Zealand's sheep population continued to rise. From a total of 34.8 million in 1951, sheep numbers rose dramatically to peak at 70.3 million in 1982.

1947 New Zealand Constitution Amendment

The New Zealand Constitution Amendment (Request and Consent) Act 1947 and New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1947 were two enactments passed by the Parliament of New Zealand and Parliament of the United Kingdom respectively. The Acts contributed to the independence of New Zealand, by granting the Parliament of New Zealand the complete ability to amend the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, an enactment of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established the institutions of responsible government in New Zealand.

1940 Home Guard established

The Home Guard was a wartime armed service during World War II that was established with the primary objective of defending New Zealand from the threat posed by the Empire of Japan. One of the key responsibilities of the Home Guard was the mission of destroying any infrastructure, particularly bridges, that could be used by invading Japanese forces. The Home Guard, modelled on its British equivalent, was formed in 1940. Membership was initially voluntary, with a minimum age of 15 but no upper limit. From 1942, membership was compulsory for those in the 35 to 50 age bracket.

1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake

The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand on 3 February, killing 256, injuring thousands and devastating the Hawke's Bay region. It remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster. Centred 15 km north of Napier, it lasted for two and a half minutes and measured magnitude 7.8. The local landscape changed dramatically, with the coastal areas around Napier being lifted by around two metres. The most noticeable land change was the uplifting of some 40 km² of sea-bed to become dry land.

1928 Trans-Pacific flight

Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (1897 - 1935), often called by his nickname Smithy, was an early Australian aviator. In 1928, he earned global fame when he made the first trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Australia. He also made the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland, the first flights between Australia and New Zealand, and the first eastward Pacific crossing from Australia to the United States. He also made a flight from Australia to London, setting a new record of 10.5 days. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and co-pilot John Thompson "Tommy" Pethybridge were flying the Lady Southern Cross overnight from Allahabad, India, to Singapore, when they disappeared over the Andaman Sea in the early hours of 8 November 1935. Despite a brave search for 74 hours over Bay of Bengal by test pilot Eric Stanley Greenwood, their bodies were never recovered.

1917 Battle of Passchendaele

The Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres, Flandernschlacht and Deuxième Bataille des Flandres) was a major campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front, from July to November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders. Matters of dispute by the participants, writers and historians since the war, have included the wisdom of pursuing an offensive strategy in the wake of the Nivelle Offensive, rather than waiting for the arrival of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France. 3,700 New Zealanders killed.

1912 Malcolm Champion

Malcolm Eadie Champion (1883 - 1939) was New Zealand's first Olympic gold medallist, and the first swimmer to represent New Zealand at an Olympic Games. He won a gold medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden as part of a combined team with Australia, competing as Australasia. Between 1901 and 1914, Champion won thirty-two New Zealand national titles, at one point holding the titles for every distance between 220 yards (200 m) and one mile (1.6 km).