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...
