Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
NZ physicist Ernest Rutherford is awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for 'splitting the atom', in-
vestigating the disintegration of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances.
1914-18
NZ's contribution to WWI is staggering for a country of just over one million people: about 100,000
NZ men serve overseas. Some 60,000 become casualties, mostly on the Western Front in France.
1931
Napier earthquake kills 131 people.
1935-49
First Labour government in power, under Michael Savage. This government creates NZ's pioneering
version of the welfare state, and also takes some independent initiatives in foreign policy.
1936
NZ aviatrix Jean Batten becomes the first aviator to fly solo from Britain to NZ.
1939-45
NZ troops back Britain and the Allied war effort during WWII; from 1942 a hundred thousand or so
Americans arrive to protect NZ from the Japanese.
1948
Maurice Scheslinger invents the Buzzy Bee, NZ's most famous children's toy.
1953
New Zealander Edmund Hillary, with Tenzing Norgay, 'knocks the bastard off'; the pair become the
first men to reach the summit of Mt Everest.
1973
Fledgling Kiwi prog-rockers Split Enz enter a TV talent quest…finishing second to last.
1974
Pacific Island migrants who have outstayed visas ('overstayers') are subjected to Dawn Raids by
immigration police under Robert Muldoon and the National government. These raids continue until
the early 1980s.
1981
