Events on this Day – 23 November

No other event has killed so many New Zealanders in such a short time as the 1918 influenza pandemic.

The attack was part of Operation Crusader, an ambitious attempt by the British Eighth Army to both recapture Tobruk and destroy General Erwin Rommel’s elite Afrika Korps.

On 18 November 1947 Ballantynes, a Christchurch department store that was a local institution, was razed by the deadliest fires in New Zealand history. The bodies of the 41 victims were buried at Ruru Lawn Cemetery, Bromley, after a civic funeral five days later.

The first and so far only visit to New Zealand by a Bishop of Rome was significant for both Catholics and the wider community.