Brian Barrett-Boyes performs the world's first aortic valve replacement. 1954 Yvette Williams wins Gold Medals in the long jump, shotput and discus at the Vancouver Empire Games. Colin McCahon paints I Am. 1953 Auckland beekeeper Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first people to conquer the world's tallest mountain, Everest. William Hamilton successfully tests his jetboat.
Population passes two million.
1947 New Zealand adopts the Statute of Westminster and becomes fully independent from Britain. 1945 Publication of Karl Popper 's damning critique of Marxism and other totalitarian systems, The Open Society , written during his exile from Austria in Christchurch from 1937 to 1945. The book helps establish Popper as one of the century's most influential philosophers. After intense bombing and bitter close-quarters fighting, the New Zealand Division take Cassino, a key position of the Gustav Line and described by the Italians as the finest defensive position in the world. Following the military advance of the Japanese in the Pacific, American forces arrive.