On 10 April 1968 the Wahine got shipwrecked killing 52 passengers and crew members. It left Lyttleton at 8.40pm on the 9th April carrying 610 passengers and 123 crew. Upon entering the Wellington habour it was blown off course and was shipwrecked on the Barrett Reef.
On 29th May 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary reached to summit of Mount Everest. Hillary was born on 20 July 1919 and died on 11 January 2008. In 1992 he was put on the $5 note, the first living person to be put on a New Zealand note. He also started a foundation which fully funds and operates the Kunde Hospital in the Khumbu region of Nepal.
On September 1 1939 WW2 began. It was started because of Hitler. 56 125 262 people died during the war. 12 000 of these were New Zealand troops. WW2 ended on September 2nd 1945.
In 1917 Earnest Rutherford split the atom although it was not published till 1918. He was born on 30 August 1871 and died on 19 October 1937. Earnest Rutherford also won a nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908
On June 28 1914 WW1 began. On 25 April 1915 the ANZAC's campaign at Gallipoli began. Around 2721 New Zealanders died during the campaign. WW1 ended at 11am on Novenber 11th 1918
On September 19th 1893 Kate Sheppard took a petition with around 32,000 signatures on it to government and won the right for women to vote. She was born on 10 March 1847 in Liverpool and immigrated to New Zealand in 1868. She had two brothers and sisters and died on 13 July 1943.
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