Koroki Te Rata Mahuta Tawhiao Potatau Te Wherowhero was the fifth Maori monarch to head the Kingitanga movement that began in 1858 in response to European colonisation.

Police and army removed all 218 occupants of Bastion Point, Auckland, ending an occupation that began in January 1977. Ngati Whatua were protesting the loss of land in the Orakei Block, which had once been declared ‘absolutely inalienable’.

A 21-gun salute from Fort Britomart marked the opening of New Zealand's first Parliament. The 37 parliamentarians gave their oaths of allegiance to the Crown via the acting governor, R.H. Wynyard.

Princess Piki, the daughter of King Koroki, was selected as the sixth Maori monarch − and first Queen − during her father's funeral, in accordance with Kingitanga protocol. She assumed her mothers name, Te Atairangikaahu.

The paddle steamer City of Dunedin departed Wellington at around 5 p.m. on Saturday 20 May. It was never heard from again and no trace was ever found of its 25 crew and at least 22 passengers.

James Liston, the assistant bishop of Auckland, was found not guilty of sedition after it was alleged he had made anti-British remarks in a St Patrick’s Day address.

Six soldiers were killed and two more Europeans were mortally wounded when Ngāti Haua-te-rangi leader Te Mamaku attacked the British post at Boulcott's Farm in the Hutt Valley.

The first representative New Zealand rugby team played its first match, defeating a Wellington XV 9-0 before embarking on a tour of New South Wales.

Nicholas Oates appeared in the Christchurch Magistrates Court charged with driving ‘a motor car within the city at a speed greater than four miles an hour’ on Lincoln Road, Christchurch

An ancient and priceless book, a murky history of evasions and coverups, an underground of sinister and possibly violent dealers, a former spy who drops tantalizing hints and a wily 84-year-old millionaire who says stuff like, "The problem with this story is that it could damage your health": Are these the ingredients for a cheesy, improbable historical thriller? Yet "The Aleppo Codex," Matti Friedman's account of his attempts to learn the history of one of the world's most precious books, sports all of these assets, and it's nonfiction. If reporting this story damaged Friedman's health, it probably happened when he realized what he'd stumbled into and his reporter's heart started beating in doubletime.Continue Reading...

Hobson proclaimed sovereignty over all of New Zealand: over the North Island on the basis of cession through the Treaty of Waitangi and over the southern islands by right of discovery.

During his second voyage to New Zealand James Cook released a ewe and a ram from the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) in Queen Charlotte Sound. They survived only a few days, an inauspicious start to this country's long association with sheep.

The Battle for Crete raged for 12 days before the Allies were driven off the island. Casualties were high on both sides. More than 650 New Zealanders were killed and 2000 taken prisoner.

This journey was part of Thomas Brunner's epic 1846-48 exploration of the South Island. He was accompanied by Kehu, a Ngati Tumatakokiri Maori, and Charles Heaphy, a draftsman and artist with the New Zealand Company.

An attempted hijacking of an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 at Nadi airport, Fiji, was thwarted when a member of the cabin crew struck the hijacker on the head with a whisky bottle.