1918 - Definition and Overview

Events

January-February

• January 8 - President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
• January 28 - Vladimir Lenin decrees the establishment of the Red Army.
• February 3 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service in San Francisco as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world (11,920 feet long).
• February 1 - Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
• February 8 - The Stars and Stripes newspaper
• February 14 - The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (1 February according to the Julian calendar). As a consequence the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, previously October, now falls in November.
• February 16 - Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany
• February 24 - Estonia declares its independence from Russia
• February 26 – Hong Kong Jockey Club burns – 604 dead

March-April

• March 1 - German submarine U 19 sinks [[HMS Calgarian]] off Rathlin Island, Nothern Ireland.
• March 3 - World War I: Germany, Austria and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russia's involvement in the war.
• March 5 - The Soviet Russia moves its national capital from Petrograd to Moscow
• March 6 - Finnish Air Force founded. The blue swastika is adopted as its symbol as a tribute to the Swedish explorer and aviator Eric von Rosen who donated the first plane. Von Rosen had painted the buddhist symbol on the plane as his personal lucky insignia.
• March 7 - World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.
• March 12 – Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia
• March 19 - The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (DST went into effect on March 31).
• March 21 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins
• March 23 - The giant German cannon Big Bertha begins to shell Paris from 114 km (75 miles) away
• March 23 - In London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E Robinson, US-born magician) dies during his trick where he was supposed to "catch" two separate bullets – one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in hospital.
• March 25 - for the first time Belarus declares independence.
• April 1 - The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service are merged to form the Royal Air Force.

May-July

• May 15 - The Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).
• May 16 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is approved by US Congress.
• May 26 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.
• May 28 - Armenia gains independence from the Ottoman Empire
• June 1 - World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
• July - The Siberian Expedition is launched to extract the Czechoslovak Legion from the Russian civil war.
• July 4 - Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Mehmed V (Resad) (1909-1918) to Mehmed VI (Vahdettin) (1918-1922)
• July 9 - Great train wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express killing 101.
• July 15 - World War I: Second Battle of the Marne - The battle begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
• July 16 - Russian Revolution: At Ekaterinburg, Bolsheviks execute Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.

August-October

• August - "Spanish Flu" Influenza becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people die in the following six months (three times as many as died during the war).
• August 1 - British anti-Bolshevik forces occupy Archangel, Russia. August 10 commander is told to help White Russians
• August 8 - World War I: Battle of Amiens - Canadian troops, backed by Australians, begin a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff will later call this the "black day of the German army."
• August 30 - Strike of 20,000 London policemen with demands of increased pay and union recognition.
• August 30 – Fanya Kaplan tries to shoot Lenin. Petrograd head of Cheka is assassinated the same day.
• October 3 - Kaiser makes Max von Baden a German chancellor.
• October 3 – Poland declares independence.
• October 8 - World War I - In the Argonne Forest in France, US Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
• October 28 - Czechoslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary.
• October 28 - New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe)

November

• November 1 - Malbone Street Wreck: the worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.
• November 3 - World War I: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.
• November 3 - Poland declares its independence from Russia.
• November 6 - A new Polish government is proclaimed in Lublin.
• November 8 - German army withdraws its support of the Kaiser
• November 9 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates and chooses to live in exile in the Netherlands.
• November 9 - Provisional National Council Minister-President Kurt Eisner declares Bavaria to be a republic.
• November 11 - World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France.
• November 11 - Poland's Jozef Pilsudski is offered the position of head of state by all existing governments. Independence Day.
• November 11 - Emperor Charles I of Austria abdicates.
• November 12 - Austria becomes a republic.
• November 14 - Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
• November 14 – Jozef Pilsudski becomes the head of state to Poland
• November 16 - Hungary declares independence from Austria
• November 18 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
• November 22 - Spartacist League founds German Communist Party

December

• December 1 - Iceland becomes a self-governing kingdom, yet remains united with Denmark.
• December 1 - New voting laws in Sweden. Votes no longer dependent on taxable assets. One person, one vote.
• December 1 - Following the March 27 incorporation of Bessarabia and Bucovina, Transylvania unites with Romania.
• December 1 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
• December 4 - US President Woodrow Wilson sails for the Paris_Peace_Conference, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
• December 27 - Beginning of Great Poland Uprising, the Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Poznań rise against the Germans

unknown dates

• Finnish Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, January - April.
• Habsburg Empire ceases to exist
• Grand Duchy of Baden ceases to exist
• British occupy Palestine
• Katla erupts in Iceland
• Native American Church founded

Births

January-February

• January 15 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt (d. 1970)
• January 16 - Stirling Silliphant, writer, producer (d. 1996)
• January 20 - Esquivel, musician (d. 2002)
• January 25 - Ernie Harwell, baseball sportscaster
• January 26 - Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
• January 26 - Philip José Farmer, science fiction writer
• January 27 - Skitch Henderson, musician, band leader
• January 29 - John Forsythe, actor
• February 1 - Dame Muriel Spark, author
• February 3 - Helen Stephens, American sprinter (d. 1994)
• February 6 - Lothar-Günther Buchheim, author of Das Boot
• February 8 - Fred Blassie, former professional wrestler (d. 2003)
• February 22 - Robert Pershing Wadlow, tallest man in the world (d. 1940)
• February 25 - Bobby Riggs, tennis player (d. 1995)
• February 25 - Barney Ewell, American athlete (d. 1996)
• February 26 - Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction writer (d. 1985)
• February 27 - William Jefferson Blythe III, father of U.S. President Bill Clinton (d. 1946)

March-April

• March 1 - João Goulart, president of Brazil (1961-March 31, 1964) (d. 1976)
• March 1 - Roger Delgado, British actor (d. 1973)
• March 3 - Fritz Thiedemann, equestrian (d. 2000)
• March 5 - James Tobin, economist (d. 2002)
• March 9 - Mickey Spillane, mystery writer
• March 9 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (d. 1967)
• March 10 - Heywood Hale Broun, sports journalist, commentator (d. 2001)
• March 11 - Jack Coe, Second Wave Healing Evangelist (d. 1956)
• March 16 - Frederick Reines, physicist (1995 Nobel Prize in Physics) (d. 1998)
• March 17 - Mercedes McCambridge, actress (d. 2004)
• March 18 - Al Benton, Major League Baseball player (d. 1968)
• March 25 - Howard Cosell, attorney, lecturer, sports journalist (d. 1995)
• March 29 - Pearl Bailey, singer, actress (d. 1990)
• April 9 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect who designed the Sydney Opera House
• April 16 - Spike Milligan, comedian (d. 2002)
• April 26 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)

May-August

• May 9 - Mike Wallace, journalist
• May 9 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician (d. 2003)
• May 11 - Richard Feynman, physicist (d. 1988)
• May 12 - Julius Rosenberg, spy (d. 1953)
• May 15 - Eddy Arnold, singer
• May 16 - Wilf Mannion, English footballer (d. 2000)
• May 17 - Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano
• June 18 - Franco Modigliani, economist (d. 2003)
• July 4 - Ann Landers, advice columnist (d. 2002)
• July 4 - Abigail Van Buren, advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
• July 13 - Alberto Ascari, Italian F1 race car driver (d. 1955)
• July 14 - Ingmar Bergman Swedish film director
• July 15 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian scientist (d. 2003)
• July 18 - Nelson Mandela, South African prisoner of conscience and president
• July 24 - Ruggiero Ricci, American violinist
• July 27 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
• August 8 - Brian Stonehouse, painter, SOE agent in WW II (d. 1998)
• August 13 - Frederick Sanger, molecular biologist
• August 25 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (d. 1990)
• August 30 - Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)

September-December

• September 4 - Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster
• September 22 - Henryk Szeryng, violinist (d. 1988)
• October 19 - Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher (d. 1990)
• December 8 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)
• December 11 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer
• December 12 - Joe Williams, jazz singer (d. 1999)
• December 15 - Jeff Chandler, actor (d. 1961)
• December 21 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (d. 2003)
• December 25 - Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president (d. 1981)

Deaths

• January 6 - Georg Cantor, German mathematician
• January 9 - Émile Reynaud, French science teacher, responsible for the first animation films.
• January 28 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier, poet
• February 6 - Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter
• March 25 - Claude Debussy, French composer
• March 27 - Henry Adams, American historian
• May 14 - James Gordon Bennett, Jr., newspaper publisher
• July 3 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire
• June 10 - Arrigo Boito, poet and composer
• July 17 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family
• August 18 - Henry Norwest, one of the most famous snipers of World War I
• September 12 - George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia
• September 28 - Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher
• November 9 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet (b. 1880)
• November 19 - Joseph Fielding Smith, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1838)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
• Chemistry - Fritz Haber
• Medicine - not awarded
• Literature - not awarded
• Peace - not awarded