Heritage

Christchurch: a chronology

A timeline of Christchurch events in chronological order from pre-European times to 1989.

Go to a year between 1700 & 1989

Begin at the beginning Start here

This week in history

January 16, 1871
Meat preserving works opens.
January 16, 1936
Inauguration of inter-island air service by Union Airways.
January 17, 1877
Council swimming pool in the Avon River opens. Not one of the Council’s better projects - the pool was only a few hundred metres downstream from the hospital’s effluent outfall.
January 17, 1966
City Council grants charter to 2nd Battalion, RNZIR.
January 18, 1851
First bank, the Union Bank of Australia, opens at Lyttelton.
January 18, 1877
First meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board.
January 18, 1894
New Brighton pier opens.
January 18, 1974
Ramada Inn (now Vacation Hotel) opens.
January 19-21, 1935
Visit by the Duke of Gloucester.
January 19-22, 1954
Visit by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh (the first New Zealand visit by a reigning monarch).
January 19, 1935
River carnival on the Avon near Park Terrace.
January 19, 1983
Tornado and hailstorm strike western City. Damage severe at Halswell.
January 20, 1882
First drainage pumping station in operation. This was the beginning of New Zealand’s first sewage farm.
January 21, 1906
Hailstorm causes widespread damage.
January 21, 1951
New Zealand’s worst yachting disaster. 10 people lost when 2 yachts "Husky" and "Argo" sink in a storm during the Wellington to Christchurch centennial race. Only one of the 22 starters finished the course.

Notes