Historic NZ events in September
Sep
1987 New Zealander sentenced to death in Malaysia
Lorraine Cohen was sentenced to death by a Malaysian judge for heroin trafficking. On appeal her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The trial of Lorraine and her son Aaron, who was arrested at the same time, gained worldwide attention. Read more...
Sep
1960 Golden day for Kiwi runners in Rome
It was one of New Zealand's greatest days at the Olympics. Peter Snell won gold in the 800 m and Murray Halberg followed up 30 minutes later to win the 5000 m, completing a remarkable track double in Rome's Olympic Stadium. Read more...
1972 New Zealand’s rowing eight wins gold in Munich
In 2008 the well-known sports writer Joseph Romanos chose the victory of the 1972 rowing eight as the best team performance by New Zealanders at an Olympic Games. Read more...
1979 Ivan Mauger wins a record sixth world speedway title in Katowice, Poland
As well as a record six individual world championships between 1968 and 1979, including three titles in a row between 1968 and 1970, Mauger also won the long track world championship three times between 1971 and 1976. Read more...
Sep
1939 New Zealand declares war on Germany
Alongside Britain and Australia, New Zealand was one of the first countries to become involved in the global conflict precipitated by Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Read more...
1958 First open-heart surgery in NZ
Pioneering heart surgeon Brian Barratt-Boyes performed the surgery using a heart-lung bypass machine. The procedure, at Green Lane Hospital in Auckland, was performed on an 11-year-old girl with a hole in her heart. Read more...
Sep
2010 Magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocks Canterbury
The earthquake struck at 4.35 a.m. on Saturday 4 September and was felt by many people in the South Island and the southern North Island. There was considerable damage in central Canterbury, especially in Christchurch, but no loss of life. Read more...
1863 The wreck of the Delaware
Soon after leaving Nelson for Napier, the Delaware was wrecked in what is now known as Delaware Bay. Accounts of the incident often focus on the heroism of Hūria Mātenga, the only woman among five local Māori who helped the crew get ashore. Read more...
2010 Fox Glacier plane crash
On 4 September 2010 a plane crashed soon after taking off from Fox Glacier airstrip, killing all nine people on board. The Walter Fletcher FU-24 was piloted by 33-year-old Chaminda Senadhira and carried four skydiving instructors and four skydivers who had been touring the West Coast on a Kiwi Experience bus trip. Read more...
Sep
1939 PM declares NZ's support for Britain
In declaring New Zealand's support for Britain in the war with Germany that had just begun, an ailing Michael Joseph Savage famously told the nation that, 'Where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand'. Read more...
Sep
1948 New Zealand citizenship established
Prior to this legislation, New Zealanders were classified as British subjects. Separate New Zealand citizenship became an option on 1 January 1949. This change was not sought by New Zealand. Read more...
Sep
1868 Von Tempsky killed at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu
Gustavus von Tempsky was killed during an assault on Tītokowaru's south Taranaki pā. His exploits during the New Zealand Wars had made the Prussian soldier of fortune a folk hero for many European settlers. Read more...
1909 NZ’s heaviest ever gold nugget discovered
New Zealand’s heaviest recorded nugget was found at Ross on the West Coast. Weighing 3.09 kg, the nugget was named the 'Honourable Roddy' after the minister of mines, Roderick McKenzie. Read more...
1921 Springboks play NZ Maoris for first time
‘Bad enough having play team officially designated New Zealand Natives’, a South African journalist wrote of the match between the Springboks and a New Zealand Maoris XV at Napier. Read more...
Sep
1954 NZ signs Manila Pact
The South-East Asia Collective Defence Treaty, or Manila Pact, aimed to contain the spread of communism in the region. The South-East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) was the institutional expression of this treaty. Read more...
Sep
1976 Wanganui Computer legislation enacted
'Big Brother is watching'? The government's establishment of New Zealand's first centralised electronic database through the Wanganui Computer Centre Act raised questions about the state's ability to gather information on its citizens. Read more...
Sep
1914 Eruption on White Island kills 10 people
On 10 September 1914, 10 miners working on White Island were killed when part of the crater wall collapsed, causing a landslide Read more...
1984 Te Maori exhibition opens in New York
This exhibition was a milestone in the Māori cultural renaissance. After huge success in New York, St Louis, San Francisco and Chicago, it returned to tour New Zealand to great acclaim. Read more...
Sep
1880 Rail tragedy on the Rimutaka Incline
Four children were killed and 13 adults injured when two rail carriages were blown off the tracks by severe winds on a notoriously exposed part of the Rimutaka Incline railway. This was the first major loss of life on New Zealand’s railways. Read more...
1928 First trans-Tasman flight
Australians Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm, in their Southern Cross monoplane, landed at Wigram, Christchurch, 14 hours 25 minutes after leaving Sydney. More than 30,000 people gathered to greet them. Read more...
Sep
1914 Forty-three miners killed in explosion at Huntly
At 7.20 a.m. an explosion at Ralph's mine on Raynor Rd rocked Huntly. It was caused by a miner's naked acetylene cap-lamp igniting firedamp (methane gas given off by coal) Read more...
1981 'Flour-bomb test' ends Springbok tour
The third and deciding test at Eden Park, Auckland, is best remembered for the flares and flour bombs dropped onto the pitch from a light plane. Outside the ground, violence erupted on a scale unprecedented during the tour. Read more...
Sep
1933 NZ's first woman MP elected
The Labour Party's Elizabeth McCombs became the first woman Member of Parliament, winning a by-election in the Lyttelton seat caused by the death of her husband, James McCombs. Read more...
Sep
1938 Social Security Act passed
The cornerstone of the first Labour government's welfare policies, the Social Security Act overhauled the pension system and extended benefits for families, invalids and the unemployed. Read more...
Sep
1969 First steel produced from local ironsand
New Zealand Steel's mill at Glenbrook, south of Auckland, began producing a range of iron and steel products for both domestic and export markets. Using local ironsand and coal, the mill today produces about 600,000 tonnes of steel a year. Read more...
1976 Lyttelton–Wellington ferry service ends
The last sailing of the Rangatira brought to an end more than 80 years of regular passenger ferry services between Lyttelton and Wellington. Read more...
Sep
1905 'Originals' kick off All Black tradition
The first fully representative New Zealand rugby team to tour the northern hemisphere was known as the 'Originals'. They won 34 of their 35 matches and popularised both the haka and the 'All Blacks' nickname. Read more...
Sep
1941 Death penalty abolished ... for the time being
This law change also ended flogging and whipping as judicial punishments. National reintroduced the death penalty in 1950 but it was finally abolished as the penalty for murder in 1961. Read more...
Sep
1937 First state house opened in Miramar
Most of the Labour Cabinet helped the McGregor family move into 12 Fife Lane in Miramar, Wellington. The government's aim was to rid New Zealand of sub-standard housing by building 5000 new homes a year. Read more...
Sep
1893 Women's suffrage day
The governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law, making New Zealand the first self-governing country in the world to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Read more...
Sep
1954 Mazengarb report released
The Mazengarb report into 'juvenile delinquency' blamed the perceived promiscuity of the nation's youth on the absence from home of working mothers, the easy availability of contraceptives, and young women enticing men into having sex. Read more...
Sep
1834 Rescue of Harriet survivors begins
Betty Guard and her children were rescued from Ngāti Ruanui (who had held them captive in Taranaki since April) by troops landed from HMS Alligator and the Isabella. It was the first clash between British forces and Māori. Read more...
Sep
1906 Domestic workers call for 68-hour week
The labour reforms of the Liberal government had earned New Zealand a reputation as a 'working man's paradise'. But what about working women? A 68-hour working week hardly seemed an unreasonable demand. Read more...
1931 Coalition formed to combat Depression
United Party Prime Minister George Forbes had convened an inter-party conference with the goal of forming a coalition government that would 'share the responsibility' of dealing with the Depression. Read more...
Sep
1887 Tongariro mountains gifted to Crown
Horonuku (Te Heuheu Tūkino IV), the paramount chief of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, signed a deed presenting the mountain tops of Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe and Ruapehu to the Crown for the purpose of establishing a national park. Read more...
Sep
1905 Race killing in Haining St, Wellington
Lionel Terry killed Joe Kum Yung to draw attention to his crusade to rid New Zealand of Chinese people. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds of insanity. Read more...
1917 Bere Ferrers rail accident
Ten New Zealand soldiers were killed when they were hit by a train at Bere Ferrers in southern England. The accident occurred as troops from the 28th Reinforcements for the NZ Expeditionary Force were being transported from Plymouth to Sling Camp on Salisbury Plain. Read more...
Sep
1819 NZ's first grapevines planted?
The Anglican missionary Samuel Marsden noted in his journal that he had just planted 100 vines at Kerikeri and that 'New Zealand promises to be very favourable to the vine.' Read more...
Sep
1865 Native Rights Act declares Māori British subjects
The Act deemed all Māori to be natural-born subjects of the Crown, confirming in law the treaty promise that Māori were to be accorded the same status as other British subjects. Read more...
1907 Joseph Ward proclaims Dominion status
The prime minister read the proclamation to the gathered crowd from the steps of the General Assembly Library in Wellington. This first Dominion Day was a public holiday. Read more...
Sep
1974 William Sutch charged with spying
Economist Dr W.B. Sutch was acquitted of spying in 1975 after his 'surreptitious and clandestine' meetings with a Russian diplomat were observed by the Security Intelligence Service. Continuing speculation on the matter has been fuelled in recent years by the release of SIS and KGB files. Read more...
Sep
1899 NZ answers Empire's call to arms in South Africa
Premier R.J. Seddon asked Parliament to approve an offer to the British government of a contingent of mounted riflemen. Amid emotional scenes, the motion was overwhelmingly endorsed - only five members voted against it. Read more...
Sep
1862 NZ's first professional opera performance
Dunedin's Royal Princess Theatre was the venue for a performance of Donizetti's Daughter of the regiment by the visiting English Opera Troupe, supplemented by local performers. Read more...
Sep
1878 Great Flood hits South Island
The ‘Great Flood’ of 1878 killed at least three people and thousands of animals as it swept across the southern South Island Read more...
1962 Government watchdog appointed
Sir Guy Powles was New Zealand's first Ombudsman. In a loose translation from Swedish, the word means ‘grievance person’. The office was created to investigate complaints about government departments and other national public sector organisations. Read more...
