An intriguing news story for every day of the year

The Ministry of Culture and Heritage and the Alexander Turnbull Library have collaborated to tell New Zealand history in a different way. By choosing an event for each of a year’s 365 days – we enjoy intriguing and illustrated insights into our national heritage. Written by a professional team of historian’s, headed by Neill Atkinson, this thoroughly researched history tells our story in a new fast-paced and fresh exciting way.

We meet the people who make up our story, from the movers, shakers and innovators, like Ernest Rutherford and Edmund Hillary to the lesser known pioneers who broke barriers and changed minds, like our first ever female doctor, mayor and MP.

You’ll read about the tragedies that brought our nation together: from New Zealand’s ‘blackest day’ at Passchendaele (12 October 1917) to the more recent Canterbury Earthquakes, as well as the struggles that, at times, have revealed a country divided, from the British attack on Ruapekapeka Pā (11 January 1846) to anti-Springbok protests (25 July 1981). It’s not all triumph and disaster, and this wouldn’t be New Zealand without a healthy dose of the bizarre. From Jockey Y-fronts (16 March 1940) to the Greymouth beer boycott (29 September 1947) and a parachuting Santa (20 November 1937),

Today in New Zealand History is a fun, fresh and fast-paced look at the story of our nation.