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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 17, 1895
- Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) visits. He described Christchurch as a town where half the people rode bicycles and the other half were kept busy dodging them.
- November 18, 1874
- Addington saleyards open.
- November 18, 1947
- Disastrous fire in Ballantynes Department store. 41 lives lost in New Zealand’s worst fire tragedy. The fire led to drastic revisions of fire safety codes throughout the country.
- November 21, 1865
- Provincial Council buildings in Durham Street completed. The complex of buildings was architect B.W. Mountfort’s masterpiece. He had survived a professional disaster soon after arrival in New Zealand when his first building, a church in Lyttelton, had proved structurally unsound and had to be demolished.
- November 21, 1957
- 4 killed in SAFE Air Bristol freighter crash at Russley golf course.
- November 21, 1988
- Visit by Chinese Premier Li Peng.
- November 22, 1986
- Visit by Pope John Paul II (the first head of the Catholic Church to visit New Zealand).
- November 22, 1987
- "Trans Alpine" express train designed specifically for the tourist trade, begins its daily run from Christchurch to Greymouth.
- November 23, 1984
- The first woman to head the Methodist Church is Rev Dr Phyllis Guthardt a Christchurch Minister from Riccarton Parish. See 1959
- November 23, 1988
- Human remains dating back to pre-European Maori settlement found while excavating for YMCA building on the corner of Hereford Street and Rolleston Avenue. Area declared tapu for 24 hours until remains removed.
