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A timeline of some Christchurch events in chronological order from 1700s to 1989.
Go to a year between 1700 & 1989
Begin at the beginning 
This week in history
- November 5, 1886
- New Zealand Kennel Club inaugurated in Christchurch.
- November 5, 1913
- "Battle of Featherston Street" in Wellington as strikers try to stop racehorses being shipped to Christchurch.
- November 5, 1979
- Regent Theatre gutted by fire.
- November 5, 1984
- The Christchurch Civic Trust Board buys the Mt Vernon property for a public park.
- November 6, 1830
- Te Rauparaha’s war party massacres the inhabitants of Akaroa and returns to Kapiti Island with captives and a cargo of human flesh.
- November 6, 1852
- First Canterbury sitting of the Supreme Court at Lyttelton.
- November 6, 1866
- Serious fire on the north-east corner of Armagh and Colombo Streets.
- November 6, 1899
- Addington Raceway holds inaugural meeting.
- November 6, 1918
- Beginning of the influenza epidemic which was eventually to kill 466 people in Christchurch.
- November 6, 1930
- Weekly air service (New Zealands first regular service) begins to Dunedin.
- November 7, 1896
- First commercial screening of "Edison’s Cinematograph".
- November 8, 1918
- Huge crowds gather in streets after false reports of World War I armistice. The Canterbury Battalion’s losses in the war had been 2353 dead.
- November 8, 1956
- Last trolley bus runs.
- November 8, 1983
- Opening of Canterbury Centre. The building (55m) becomes the city’s tallest, above the Police Station (53m) and the University Hight Library (51m). But the Cathedral spire at 62m remains the highest structure.
- November 9, 1965
- Opening of the city’s first parking building on the corner of Manchester and Gloucester Streets.
- November 10, 1839
- Captain William B. Rhodes lands 50 cattle at Akaroa.
- November 10, 1863
- First Cobb & Co. coach to Timaru.
- November 10, 1958
- Museum centennial extensions open.
- November 11-13, 1980
- Visit by Duke and Duchess of Kent.
- November 11, 1880
- Christchurch Amateur Swimming Club formed (the first in New Zealand).
- November 11, 1904
- Christchurch Cathedral completed. Architect George Gilbert Scott.
- November 11, 1924
- Bridge of Remembrance opens.
- November 11, 1929
- Edmonds band rotunda opens.
- November 11, 1978
- Radio Rhema, New Zealand’s first religious radio station, begins regular transmission.
- November 11, 1980
- $25 million Thyssen Bornemisza exhibition of modern painting opens at Robert McDougall Art Gallery.
