On 19 September 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world where all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections. The change did not come easily. Kate Sheppard and her fellow campaigners gathered signatures for years, and in 1893 they presented Parliament with a petition signed by nearly 32,000 women, the largest petition the country had ever seen. When the Electoral Act became law, congratulations arrived from campaigners around the world.

On 25 April 1915, during the First World War, New Zealand and Australian soldiers of the ANZAC, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, landed at Gallipoli in what is now Türkiye. The campaign lasted eight months and failed, and 2,779 New Zealanders died there. Every 25 April, Anzac Day, New Zealanders remember them and all who have served in war.

In 1981 the country divided over a rugby tour. South Africa's rugby team, the Springboks, toured New Zealand while South Africa lived under apartheid, laws that separated people by race. For 56 days, more than 150,000 people joined over 200 protest marches and demonstrations, and one match, in Hamilton, was called off when protesters occupied the field. Six years later, in 1987, the Māori Language Act made te reo Māori an official language of New Zealand, and in 2022 Matariki became the first public holiday based on the Māori calendar.