Around 200 people were on hand at Nelson’s Botanic Reserve to watch a new version of rugby football brought to New Zealand by Charles Monro.

Sailing from Melbourne to London, the General Grant hit cliffs on the west coast of the main island in the subantarctic Auckland Islands. Fifteen of the 83 people on board survived the sinking, but only ten of these were ultimately rescued 18 months la...

When Howard was appointed minister of health and minister in charge of child welfare, she became the first woman to serve as a Cabinet minister in any Commonwealth country.

Who can forget hearing television commentator Peter Montgomery’s famous line - ‘the America’s Cup is now New Zealand’s cup!’ - as New Zealand enjoyed one of its greatest sporting moments.

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.

Of the small group of New Zealanders who served in the Spanish Civil War, most made their own way to Spain from Britain and Australia. The only organised New Zealand contingent comprised three nurses: René Shadbolt, Isobel Dodds and Millicent Sha...

A gruff Ulsterman from South Auckland, William Ferguson Massey, or ‘Farmer Bill’ as he was known by many, is our second-longest serving prime minister

Wilder was a burglar who left apology and thank-you notes for his victims. He was at large for 65 days, becoming a renegade folk hero in the process. His second (and longer) period on the run the following year won him even greater notoriety.

Following the passage of the Female Law Practitioners Act 1896, on 10 May 1897 Ethel Benjamin became the first woman to be admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

The New Zealand football team's famous 2-0 victory in Sydney was a defining moment in their epic qualifying campaign for the 1982 World Cup finals.

Walter D'Arcy Cresswell alleged that Mayor Charles Mackay had made homosexual advances. Mackay was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour.

The Ngati Tuwharetoa village of Te Rapa on the south-western shore of Lake Taupo was obliterated in this landslide. Sixty people were killed, including the paramount chief Mananui, Te Heuheu Tukino II

The Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children was founded at a meeting in the Dunedin Town Hall. It came to be known as the Plunket Society after its first patron, Lady Victoria Plunket, the wife of the governor.

The minesweeper HMS Puriri was the second victim of mines laid off the Northland coast by the German raider Orion. Five of its crew were killed.

Established at a conference in Wellington on 13-14 May 1936, the National Party was to dominate New Zealand politics in the second half of the 20th century.