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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
- 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.
- January 22, 1903
- Christchurch Tramway Board (now the Christchurch Transport Board) holds its first meeting.
- January 22, 1929
- Death of Professor Bickerton in England. Since his sacking by the university - see 1902 - he had operated the extraordinary Pleasure Gardens at Wainoni, made fireworks, promoted patent medicines and then travelled to England to promote his "partial impact" astronomical theory.
