 | LOCAL HISTORY |
YEAR: 1960
February 22 - New airport terminal opens.
June 1 - NZ's first official TV broadcast. Broadcast from Shortland Street in central Auckland, New Zealand's first official television transmission began at 7.30 p.m. The first night's programming lasted just three hours and was only received in Auckland.
September 2 - Golden day for Kiwi runners in Rome.
It was arguably New Zealand's greatest day at the Olympics. Peter Snell won gold in the 800 metres and Murray Halberg followed up 30 minutes later to win the 5000m, completing a remarkable track double in Rome's Olympic Stadium.
November 1 - New railway station opens. The building was designed before W.W.II. Now Science Alive.
December 2 - Meeting house opens at Rehua Marae, Springfield Road, the first new meeting house in the South Island for over 100 years.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
YEAR: 1959
Population of Ch-Ch reaches 200,000.
April 8 - Billy Graham crusade draws 50,000 to Lancaster Park.
August 31 - Princess Margaret Hospital opens.
November 26 - Memorial Avenue (a memorial to airmen killed in W W II) officially opened.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
YEAR: 1958
Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole, travelling overland.
March 8 - Ch-Ch athlete Marise Chamberlain breaks world record for 440 yards.
November 10 - Ch-Ch Museum centennial extensions open.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
YEAR: 1957
Blenheim Road and overbridge completed. Public protests had prevented the extension of the road through Hagley Park to St Asaph Street.
A Safe Air Bristol Freighter crashed on the Russley golf course near Christchurch airport, killing two people.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
YEAR: 1956
September 1 - Watched by 66,000 at Eden Park, Auckland, the All Blacks beat the Springboks 11-5 and win the series.
November 8 - Last trolley bus runs in Ch-Ch.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
YEAR: 1955
May 28 - First parking meters in Ch-Ch installed.
December 20 - First Antartic flights by USN Operation Deep Freeze from Harewood.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
YEAR: 1954
August 28 - Pauline Parker, aged 16, and Juliet Hulme, 15, were convicted of the murder of Pauline's mother Honora at Christchurch on 22 June. Their story was later the subject of Peter Jackson's film Heavenly Creatures
The last tram ends service. Until they are reintroduced to the central city as a tourist attraction in February 1995.
YEAR: 1953
October 10 - The "last great air race" from London to Ch-Ch was won by an RAF Canberra bomber.
December 24 - 151 died in the Tangiwai railway disaster when a lahar swells th Whangaehu River which arrived at the Tangiwai rail bridge just as the over-night express from Wellington to Auckland was crossing the bridge.
Aviation poineer Richard Pearce dies.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
YEAR: 1952
May - NZ's first television signals transmitted from experimental station ZL3XT at Canterbury University.
Yvette Williams becomes NZ's woman Olympic gold medal winner, with a long jump of 6.24 metres at the Helsinki Games.
NZ's population passes two million, bolstered by 20,000 immigrants during the year.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
YEAR: 1951
February 13 - Waterfront strike begins, with all NZ ports idle by February 19. This very violent and confrontational strike ended on July 11.A state of emergency is declared by the government and servicemen are used to work the wharves.
August 15 - Carrying New Zealand troops to the Korean War, the 38-year-old Lyttelton–Wellington ferry Wahine ran aground in the Arafura Sea. There were no casualties but the ship became a total loss.
ANZUS Pact established between NZ, Australia and the US.
Credit: Ch-Ch City Libraries
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