1908 The North Island’s trunk was completed
1910 Freda du Faur becomes the first woman to climb Mount Cook/Aoraki
1914-1918 The first world war
1920 The first olympic games in Antwerp Belgium
1921 The first dental nurse scheme begins
1921 Anzac day is commemorated for the first time
1928 Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first flight across the Tasman
1931 256 people were killed in napier/hastings earthquake
1936 Jean Batten makes the first solo flight from England to New Zealand
1937 The first state house is opened in Miramar Wellington
1938 New Zealand gets its first pedestrian crossing in petone
1945 The second world war ends
1947 41 people died in ballantynes fire in Christchurch
1948 Takahe are discovered in the Murchison mountain by dr Geoffrey Orbell
1953 151 people died in the Tangiwai rail disaster
1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to climb Mount Everest
1959 The Auckland harbour bridge opens
1959 The chinese gooseberry was renamed kiwi fruit
1962 Samoa becomes independent to New Zealand
1963 President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas Texas
1966 Te Arikinui Dame te Atairangikaahu becomes first maori queen
1967 Decimal currency is introduced in New Zealand
1973 New Zealand's population reaches three million people
1977 Elvis Presley dies
1973 Color television begins in NZ
1979 An air New Zealand plane crashes into mount Erebus in antarctica killing all 257 people on board
1980 kura kaupapa maori became part of the education system
1985 The greenpeace boat rainbow warrior was sunk in Auckland Harbour by fresh agents
1987 Te reo Maori becomes an official language
1989 Shops in NZ were allowed to open on sunday
1990 NZ one-and two- cent coins are withdrawn from use
1990 NZ celebrates the 150th
1991 Starship child hospital opens in Auckland
1997 Jenny Shipley biomes NZ first woman prime minister
2001 Sir Peter Blake is killed by pirates in South America
2001 The Tampa refugees arrive in NZ
2004 All NZ workplaces become smokefree
2004 A tsunami STRIKES South and Southeast Asia boxing day, killing thousands of people