1918

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Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
Years:	1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921

1918 by topic:

Arts

Architecture - Art - Film - Literature Music (Country, UK) - Television - Home video

Science and technology

Archaeology - Aviation Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science

By country

Australia - Canada - France - Germany - India Ireland - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe

Other topics

Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Sovereign states - Religious leaders

Birth and death categories

Births - Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments - Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.

Contents 1 Events 1.1 January 1.2 February 1.3 March-April 1.4 May-July 1.5 August-October 1.6 November 1.7 December 1.8 Unknown dates 2 Births 2.1 January 2.2 February 2.3 March 2.4 April 2.5 May 2.6 June 2.7 July 2.8 August 2.9 September 2.10 October 2.11 November 2.12 December 3 Deaths 4 Nobel prizes

Events

January

• January 25 - The Ukrainian People's Republic declared independence from Bolshevik Russia
• January 27 — Breakout of the Finnish Civil War

February

• February 16 — Lithuania declares its independence from the Russian Empire.
• February 24 — Estonia declares its independence from the Russian Empire. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia also declare their independence from the Russian Empire but as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

March-April

• March 1 — German submarine U 19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island, Northern 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, the so called Paris Gun 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 23 — The Social Revolutionary Party declares Belarus independent; Bolshevik armies soon crush them
• 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 1 — German troops enter Don province — they take Rostov May 6
• May 2 — General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
• 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 Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic is abolished. Georgia declares its independence as the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
• May 28 — Armenia and Azerbaijan declare their independence as the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic respectively.
• June 1 — World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
• July 3— 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 13 — The National Czechoslovak Committee was established.
• July 15 — World War I: Second Battle of the Marne — The battle begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
• July 17 — By order of the Bolshevik Party and carried out by Cheka, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his immediate family, and retainers were murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

August-October

• August — "Spanish Flu" Influenza becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people die in the following six months (almost two 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 1 — Emma Susan Daugherty Banister becomes the first female sheriff in the United States following the death of her husband, John Riley Banister.
• 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.
• September 11 — The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship, their last World Series win until 2004.
• September 28 — Don Voisko adopts a constitution including declaration of independence. Collapse of Imperial Germany makes it void
• October 3 — Kaiser makes Max von Baden German chancellor.
• 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 18 — The city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico was nearly destroyed by an earthquake and a tsunami.
• October 18 — Washington Declaration proclaimed the independent Czechoslovak Republic.
• October 25 — The Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska, 353 people die in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.
• October 28 — Czechoslovakia declares its independence on Austria-Hungary.
• October 28 — New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe)
• October 30 — Martin Declaration was published demanding embodying Slovakia into the forming Czech state.
• October 30 - Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen declares independence from the Ottoman Empire.

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 1 — Ruthenia in eastern Czechoslovakia declares brief independence
• November 3 — World War I: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.
• November 3 — Poland declares its independence from Russia.
• November 4 — World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
• November 4 — Mutiny in the German fleet at Kiel begin the German Revolution.
• 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 regains independence after 123 years of partitions. Józef Piłsudski is appointed Commander-in-Chief.
• November 11 — Emperor Charles I of Austria abdicates.
• November 12 — Austria becomes a republic.
• November 14 — Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
• November 14 — Józef Piłsudski is appointed head of state of Poland
• November 16 — Hungary declares independence from Austria
• November 16 — Hungarian People's Republic declared
• November 18 — Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
• November 22 — Spartacist League founds German Communist Party
• November 22 — Belgian royal family returns to Brussels after the war
• November 26 — the Podgorica Assembly voted for "union of the people", declaring a joining into the Kingdom of Serbia
• November 28 – Soviet Russia invades Estonia.

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 — Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia. 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 20 — Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk returned to the Czechoslovak Republic.
• December 27 — Beginning of Great Poland Uprising, the Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Poznań} rise against the Germans.
• December 28 — Constance Markiewicz becomes the first woman elected to the British House of Commons.

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, 12. October — 4. Nóvember.
• Native American Church is founded.
• Ernest Ansermet founds the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
• John Riley Banister becomes sheriff of Coleman County, Texas.
• Clifton Hillegass, American author born (d. 2001)
• Association Against the Prohibition Amendment founded to promote repeal of prohibition in U.S.
• United Business Media founded in London (as United Newspapers Ltd.)

Births

January

• January 1 - Patrick Anthony Porteous, Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross (d. 2000)
• January 10 - Arthur Chung, President of Guyana
• January 15 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt (d. 1970)
• January 16 - Nel Benschop, Dutch poet (d. 2005)
• January 16 - Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (d. 1996)
• January 19 - John H. Johnson, American publisher (d. 2005)
• January 20 - Esquivel, Mexican musician (d. 2002)
• January 21 - Richard D. Winters, U.S. Army officer
• January 23 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
• January 25 - Ernie Harwell, American baseball sportscaster
• January 26 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
• January 26 - Philip José Farmer, American writer
• January 27 - Skitch Henderson, English-born musician and bandleader (d. 2005)
• January 29 - John Forsythe, American actor

February

• February 1 - Muriel Spark, Scottish author (d. 2006)
• February 2 - Hella Haasse, Dutch writer
• February 3 - Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
• February 6 - Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author
• February 7 - Markey Robinson, Northern Irish painter (d. 1999)
• February 8 - Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
• February 12 - Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
• February 16 - Patty Andrews, lead singer of popular 1940's Big Band/Swing group, The Andrews Sisters was born in Mound, Minnesota.
• February 17 - William Bronk, American poet (d. 1999)
• February 22 - Robert Pershing Wadlow, American record-holder as the tallest man (d. 1940)
• February 25 - Barney Ewell, American athlete (d. 1996)
• February 25 - Bobby Riggs, American tennis player (d. 1995)
• February 26 - Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (d. 1985)

March

• March 1 - Roger Delgado, British actor (d. 1973)
• March 1 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (d. 1976)
• March 3 - Arthur Kornberg, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• March 3 - Fritz Thiedemann, German equestrian (d. 2000)
• March 5 - James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
• March 9 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (d. 1967)
• March 9 - Mickey Spillane, American writer (d. 2006)
• March 11 - Jack Coe, American evangelist (d. 1956)
• March 12 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (d. 1989)
• March 16 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
• March 17 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
• March 18 - Al Benton, baseball player (d. 1968)
• March 18 - Bob Broeg, American sports writer (d. 2005)
• March 22 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (d. 1997)
• March 25 - Howard Cosell, American attorney, lecturer, and sports journalist (d. 1995)
• March 29 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (d. 1990)

April

• April 9 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect
• April 16 - Spike Milligan, Irish comedian (died 2002)
• April 17 - William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)
• April 20 - Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 22 - Mickey Vernon, baseball player
• April 26 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)

May

• May 1 - Jack Paar, American television show host (d. 2004)
• May 3 - Benjamin C. Thompson, American architect (d. 2002)
• May 9 - Mike Wallace, American journalist
• May 9 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician (d. 2003)
• May 11 - Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
• May 12 - Julius Rosenberg, American-born Soviet spy (d. 1953)
• May 15 - Eddy Arnold, American singer
• May 16 - Wilf Mannion, English footballer (d. 2000)
• May 17 - Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano (d. 2005)
• May 19 - Abraham Pais, Dutch-born American physicist (d. 2000)
• May 20 - Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)

June

• June 6 - Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• June 18 - Jerome Karle, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 18 - Franco Modigliani, Italian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)

July

• July 4 - Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
• July 4 - Abigail Van Buren, American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
• July 4 - Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, King of Tonga (d. 2006)
• July 5 - George Rochberg, American composer (d. 2005)
• July 9 - Jarl Wahlström, Salvation Army general (d. 1999)
• July 13 - Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (d. 1955)
• July 14 - Ingmar Bergman Swedish film director
• July 15 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
• July 17 - Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
• July 18 - Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• July 24 - Ruggiero Ricci, Italian-born violinist
• July 25 - Jane Frank, American artist
• July 27 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
• July 29 - Edwin O'Connor, American novelist and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (d. 1968)
• July 31 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

August

• August 3 - Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (d. 1999)
• August 5 - Betty Oliphant, co-founder of National Ballet of Canada (d. 2004)
• August 8 - Brian Stonehouse, English painter and World War II spy (d. 1998)
• August 13 - Frederick Sanger, English biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 25 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (d. 1990)
• August 30 - Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)

September

• September 4 - Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster
• September 8 - Derek Harold Richard Barton, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
• September 22 - Henryk Szeryng, Polish-born violinist (d. 1988)
• September 27 - Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1984)

October

• October 4 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
• October 8 - Jens Christian Skou, Danish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 17 - Rita Hayworth, American actress (d. 1987)
• October 19 - Louis Althusser, French philosopher (d. 1990)
• October 27 – Mihkel Mathiesen, Estonian statesman (d. 2003)
• October 27 - Teresa Wright, American actress (d. 2005)
• October 31 - Ian Stevenson, American parapsychologist

November

• November 3 - Russell B. Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (d. 2003)
• November 4 - Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)
• November 9 - Spiro Agnew, American Vice President (d. 1996)
• November 10 - Ernst Otto Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 13 - Jack Elam, American actor (d. 2003)

December

• December 8 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)
• December 9 - Jerome Beatty, Jr., author of children's literature
• December 11 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• December 12 - Joe Williams, American jazz singer (d. 1999)
• December 15 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (d. 1961)
• December 21 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (d. 2003)
• December 21 - Kurt Waldheim, President of Austria and Secretary-General of the United Nations
• December 23 - José Greco, Italian-born flamenco dancer (d. 2001)
• December 23 - Helmut Schmidt Chancellor of Germany
• December 25 - Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1981)

Deaths

• January 6 - Georg Cantor, German mathematician (b. 1845)
• January 9 - Émile Reynaud, French science teacher and maker of the first animated films (b. 1844)
• January 28 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier and poet (b. 1872)
• February 6 - Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter (b. 1862)
• February 10 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1833)
• March 10 - Jim McCormick, Baseball player (b. 1856)
• March 13 - César Cui, Lithuanian composer (b. 1835)
• March 25 - Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)
• March 27 - Henry Adams, American historian (b. 1838)
• April 20 - Karl Ferdinand Braun, German phyicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1850)
• April 21 - Manfred von Richthofen, "Red Baron", German World War I pilot (b, 1892)
• April 28 - Gavrilo Princip, Assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (b. 1894)
• May 14 - James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American newspaper publisher (b. 1841)
• May 19 - Raoul Lufbery, American World War I pilot (b. 1885)
• June 10 - Arrigo Boito, Italian poet and composer (b. 1842)
• July 3 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1844)
• July 17 (N.S.) - Family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868)
  • Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (b. 1872)
  • Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1895)
  • Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1897)
  • Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1899)
  • Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1901)
  • Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (b. 1904)
• July 22 - Indra Lal Roy, Indian World War I pilot (killed in combat) (b. 1898)
• August 1 - John Riley Banister, American law officer, cowboy, and Texas Ranger (b. 1854)
• August 18 - Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper (b. 1884)
• September 7 - Hector Sanchez, early wrestler in the Lucha Libre style (b. 1884)
• September 12 - George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1845)
• September 28 - Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1858)
• October 5 - Roland Garros, French pilot (shot down) (b. 1888)
• October 15 - Shirdi Sai Baba, Indian guru and fakir (b. circa 1838)
• October 22 - Myrtle Gonzalez, American stage and screen actress (b. 1891)
• November 4 - Wilfred Owen, English poet (killed in action) (b. 1893)
• 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)
• December 11 - Ivan Cankar, Slovenian writer (b. 1876)
• December 28 - Olavo Bilac, Brazilian poet (b. 1865)

Nobel prizes

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