1918

Years: 1915 1916 1917 - 1918 - 1919 1920 1921

Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s - 1910s - 1920s 1930s 1940s

Events of 1918

January

• January 12 - Finland enacts "Mosaic Confessors" law granting Finnish Jews civil rights.
• January 25 - The Ukrainian people declare independence from Bolshevik Russia.
• January 27 - Breakout of the Finnish Civil War.
• January 28 - Duchies of Livonia, Estonia und Kurland declared independent from Russia.

February

• February 1 - Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, date skips to February 14.
• February 16 - The Council of Lithuania adopts the Act of Independence of Lithuania, declaring Lithuania's independence from the Russian Empire.
• February 24 - Estonia declares an sovereign and independent republic. Tallinn, the capital of the country is occupied by Germany the next day. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia also declare their independence from the Russian Empire but as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

March

• 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 4 - A soldier at Camp Fuston, Kansas falls sick with the first confirmed case of the Spanish Flu.
• 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.
  • 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.
  • The Social Revolutionary Party declares Belarus independent; Bolshevik armies soon crush them.
• March 25 - for the first time Belarus declares independence.

April

• April 1 - The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service are merged to form the Royal Air Force.
• April 12 - United Baltic Duchy declared in Riga from the duchies of Livonia, Estonia and Kurland.

May

• May 1 - German troops enter Don province; they take Rostov May 6.
• May 2 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
• May 11 - The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was officially established.
• 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 20 - The small town of Codell, Kansas was hit for the third year in a row by a tornado in 1918. Coincidentally, all three tornadoes hit on May 20th, 1916, 1917, and 1918 respectively.
• May 26 - The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic is abolished. Georgia declares its independence as the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
• May 27 - The Third Battle of The Aisne commenced.
• May 28 - Armenia and Azerbaijan declare their independence as the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic respectively.

June

• June 1 - World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
• June 22 - Suspects in the Chicago Restaurant Poisonings arrested and more than 100 waiters taken into custody for poisoning restaurant customers with a lethal powder called Mickey Finn (drugs).

July

• 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 (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 16 - 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

• August - "Spanish Flu" Influenza becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people die in the following six months (almost twice 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.
  • Emma Susan Daugherty Banister becomes the first female sheriff in the United States following the death of her husband, Robert Constant.
• 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.
  • Fanya Kaplan tries to shoot Lenin. Petrograd head of Cheka is assassinated the same day.

September

• September 11 - The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship, their last World Series win until 2004. They won again in 2007.
• September 22 - Germany recognizes the United Baltic Duchy.
• September 29 - Bulgaria requests an armistice in World War I.

October

• October 3 - Kaiser makes Max von Baden German chancellor.
• October 3 - Abdication of King Ferdinand of Bulgaria in the wake of the collapse of the Bulgarian military position in World War I. He is succeeded by his son, Boris III.
• 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 11 -The city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico and other adjacent towns was nearly destroyed by an 7.5 earthquake and a tsunami.
• October 15 - The great spiritual teacher Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi attained his MAHASAMADHI
• 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 from Austria-Hungary.
  • New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe)
• October 30
  • The Martin Declaration is published, including Slovakia in the formation of Czecho-Slovak state.
  • Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen is conceded independence from the Ottoman Empire by the Armistice of Mudros.
• October - Mammy Lou becomes the oldest person to ever star in a film, at age 114.

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.
  • Ruthenia in eastern Czechoslovakia declares brief independence
• November 3
  • World War I: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.
  • Poland declares its independence from Russia.
• November 4
  • World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
  • Mutiny in the German fleet at Kiel begin the German Revolution.
• November 6 - A new Polish government is proclaimed in Lublin.
• November 8 - Imperial German Army withdraws its support of the Kaiser un WWI
• November 9
  • Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates and chooses to live in exile in the Netherlands.
  • 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.
  • Poland regains independence after 123 years of partitions. Józef Piłsudski is appointed Commander-in-Chief.
  • Emperor Charles I of Austria gives up his absolute power but does not abdicate.
• November 12 - Austria becomes a republic.
• November 14
  • Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
  • Józef Piłsudski is appointed head of state of Poland
• November 16
  • Hungary declares independence from Austria
  • Hungarian People's Republic declared
• November 18 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
• November 19 - Treaty of takeover concluded between the Republic of Estonia and German occupation authority.
• November 22
  • Spartacist League founds German Communist Party
  • 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 - Estonian Freedom War: Bolshevist Russia invades Estonia, beginning of the war. A socialist republic is established in Narva the next day.
• November 30 - Ernest Ansermet conducts the first concert by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

December

• December 1
  • Iceland becomes a self-governing kingdom, yet remains in personal union with the king of Denmark who also becomes king of the Kingdom of Iceland.
  • New voting laws in Sweden: votes no longer dependent on taxable assets; one person, one vote.
  • Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia. Following the March 27 incorporation of Bessarabia and Bucovina, Transylvania unites with Romania.
  • 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.

Births

• January 26 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
• February 20 - Ben Klassen, founder of the Church of the Creator (d. 1993)
• May 5 - Theodore Schurch, British/Swiss spy working for National Socialist Germany (d. 1946)
• May 9 - Mike Wallace, American journalist (d. 2012)
• July 18 - Ron Gostick - Canadian nationalist (d. 2005)
• July 18 - Nelson Mandela, communist, terrorist and former President of South Africa (d. 2013)
• December 25 - Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (d. 1981)

Deaths

• April 21 - Manfred von Richthofen, German World War I flying ace (b. 1892)
• November 20 - John Bauer, Swedish painter and illustrator (b. 1882)