1918

1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January-February

• January 8 – President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
• January 24 – a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, introducing the Gregorian calendar in Russia since February 1, issued
• January 28 – Vladimir Lenin decrees the establishment of the Red Army.
• February 1 – Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
• February 3 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service in San Francisco as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world (11,920 feet long).
• 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 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 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.
• September 11 – The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship.
• 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 – 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 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 is founded.
• Ernest Ansermet founds the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Births

January-February

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

March-April

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

May-August

• May 9 – Mike Wallace, American journalist
• May 9  – Orville L. Freeman, American politician (d. 2003)
• May 11 – Richard Feynman, American physicist (d. 1988)
• May 12 – Julius Rosenberg, American spy (d. 1953)
• May 15 – Eddy Arnold, American singer
• May 16 – Wilf Mannion, English footballer (d. 2000)
• May 17 – Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano
• June 18 – Franco Modigliani, Italian-born economist (d. 2003)
• July 4 – Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
• July 4  – Abigail Van Buren, American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
• July 13 – Alberto Ascari, Italian 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, President of South Africa
• July 24 – Ruggiero Ricci, Italian-born violinist
• July 27 – Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
• July 31 – Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 3 – Sidney Gottlieb, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency official (d. 1999)
• August 8 – Brian Stonehouse, English painter and World War II spy (d. 1998)
• August 13 – Frederick Sanger, English biochemist
• 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, Polish-born violinist (d. 1988)
• October 8 – Jens Christian Skou, Danish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 19 – Louis Althusser, French philosopher (d. 1990)
• November 4 – Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)
• December 8 – Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)
• December 11 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer
• 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, Secretary-General of the United Nations and President of Austria
• December 23 – José Greco, Italian-born flamenco dancer (d. 2001)
• December 25 – Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (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)
• March 13 – César Cui, Lithuanian composer (b. 1835)
• March 25 – Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)
• March 27 – Henry Adams, American historian (b. 1838)
• May 14 – James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American newspaper publisher (b. 1841)
• May 19 – Raoul Lufbery, American World War I pilot (b. 1885)
• July 3 – Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1844)
• June 10 – Arrigo Boito, Italian poet and composer (b. 1842)
• July 17 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868) and his family (executed)
• August 1 – John Riley Banister, law officer, cowboy and Texas Ranger (b. 1854).
• August 18 – Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper (b. 1884)
• September 12 – George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1845)
• September 28 – Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1858)
• October 14 – Samuel Hamilton 'Hamby' Shore, hockey player (b. 1886)
• 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