This week in Christchurch history (24 to 30 August)

24 August 1857
Evans Pass road over the Port Hills opens.

25 August 1920
First flight over Cook Strait (Christchurch to Trentham) by Captain Euan Dickson in a Canterbury Aviation Company plane. Read more in Peter Aimer, 'Aviation - Early flying feats', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 13-Jul-12.

26 August 1939
Official opening of City Council’s pensioner housing project in Barnett Avenue, Sydenham; the first local body pensioner housing in New Zealand.

28 August 1890
“Great maritime strike” (the first of New Zealand’s 3 major waterfront strikes) spreads to Lyttelton.

More August events in the Christchurch chronology: a timeline of Christchurch events in chronological order from pre-European times to 1989.