What happened that day?

Search event by date

See historic events for any day of the year by entering the date below. Why not try your birthday?

Visit the full Calendar

Kiwi of the Week

Arthur Lydiard

Arthur Lydiard was a marathon runner and athletics coach, whose most notable trainees included Olympic and Commonwealth Games champions.

more

Get KotW as RSS

Today in History

14 May

1941 NZ minesweeper sunk off Bream Head

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. more...

Internal links

Counting the cost - NZ in the Second World War Second World War - Royal NZ Navy

External links

Minesweeping in New Zealand Waters (Royal New Zealand Navy, NZETC)

1907 Plunket Society formed

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. more...

External links

History of Plunket (Plunket Society)
Frederic Truby King biography (DNZB)
Lord Plunket (1966 encyclopaedia)
Humane societies (1966 encyclopaedia)
The Plunket clock (Te Ara)

1866 Wreck of the General Grant

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 later.

more...