1918

This article is about the year 1918. For other uses, see 1918 (disambiguation).

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1880s · 1890s · 1900s · 1910s · 1920s · 1930s · 1940s
Years:	1915 · 1916 · 1917 · 1918 · 1919 · 1920 · 1921

1918 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1918 MCMXVIII
Ab urbe condita	2671
Armenian calendar	1367 ԹՎ ՌՅԿԷ
Assyrian calendar	6668
Bahá'í calendar	74–75
Bengali calendar	1325
Berber calendar	2868
British Regnal year	8 Geo. 5 – 9 Geo. 5
Buddhist calendar	2462
Burmese calendar	1280
Byzantine calendar	7426–7427
Chinese calendar	丁巳年 (Fire Snake) 4614 or 4554 — to — 戊午年 (Earth Horse) 4615 or 4555
Coptic calendar	1634–1635
Discordian calendar	3084
Ethiopian calendar	1910–1911
Hebrew calendar	5678–5679
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1974–1975
- Shaka Samvat	1839–1840
- Kali Yuga	5018–5019
Holocene calendar	11918
Igbo calendar	918–919
Iranian calendar	1296–1297
Islamic calendar	1336–1337
Japanese calendar	Taishō 7 (大正７年)
Javanese calendar	1848–1849
Juche calendar	7
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4251
Minguo calendar	ROC 7 民國7年
Nanakshahi calendar	450
Thai solar calendar	2460–2461

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1918.

1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter F) of the Gregorian calendar, the 1918th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 918th year of the 2nd millennium, the 18th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1910s decade. As of the start of 1918, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which was relegated that February to use only by churches after Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar.

Events

Below, events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.

February 16: The Act of Independence of Lithuania

January

January 4 – Finland officially recognized by the Russian SFSR.
January 8 – Woodrow Wilson delivers his Fourteen Points speech.
January 9 – U.S troops engage Yaqui Indian warriors in the Battle of Bear Valley in Arizona, a minor skirmish and one of the last battles of the American Indian Wars between the United States and American Indians.
January 12 – Finland enacts a "Mosaic Confessors" law, granting Finnish Jews civil rights.
January 15 – The keel of HMS Hermes is laid in Britain, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be laid down.
January 18
- Russian Constituent Assembly meets.
- The Historic Concert for the Benefit of Widows and Orphans of Austrian and Hungarian Soldiers at the Konzerthaus, Vienna.^[1]
January 19 – Russian Constituent Assembly proclaims Russian Democratic Federative Republic, but is dissolved by Bolshevik government on same day.
January 25 – The Ukrainian People's Republic declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.
January 27 – The Finnish Civil War begins.
January – 1918 flu pandemic: "Spanish 'flu" (influenza) first observed in Haskell County, Kansas.^[2]

February

February 1 – The Cattaro Mutiny sees Austrian sailors in the Gulf of Cattaro (Kotor), led by two Czech Socialists, mutiny.
February 5 – The SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the Irish coast; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

February 23: Estonian Declaration of Independence

February 6 – Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom: Representation of the People Act gives most women over 30 the vote.^[3]
February 14 – Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar; the date skips from February 1 to February 14.
February 16 – The Council of Lithuania adopts the Act of Independence of Lithuania, declaring Lithuania's independence from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
February 19 – WWI: Capture of Jericho by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins the British occupation of the Jordan Valley.
February 19-25 – WWI: The Imperial Russian Navy evacuates Tallinn through thick ice over the Gulf of Finland.
February 21 – The last captive Carolina parakeet (the last breed of parrot native to the eastern United States) dies at the Cincinnati Zoo.
February 24
- Estonia declares its independence from Russia after seven centuries of foreign rule. German forces capture Tallinn on the next day.
- Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia declare their independence from Russia as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

March

March 1 – WWI: German submarine U-19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland.
March 3 – WWI:the Central Powers and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending Russia's involvement in the war.
March 6
- The Finnish Army Corps of Aviation is founded as a forerunner of the Finnish Air Force to be established on 4 May 1928. 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 Viking symbol on the plane as his personal lucky insignia.^[4]
- The first pilotless drone, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane developed by Elmer Sperry and Peter Cooper Hewitt, is test-flown in Long Island, New York, but development is scrapped in 1925 after its guidance system proves unreliable.
March 7 – WWI: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.
March 8 – WWI: Battle of Tell 'Asur launched by units of the British Army's Egyptian Expeditionary Force against Ottoman defences from the Mediterranean Sea, across the Judaean Mountains to the edge of the Jordan Valley ends on March 12 with the move of much of the front line north into Ottoman territory.
March 12 – Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia.
March 19 – The United States Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (DST goes into effect on March 31).
March 21–July 18 – WWI: Spring Offensive by the German Army along the Western Front fails to make a breakthrough despite large losses on each side, including nearly 20,000 British Army dead on the first day, Operation Michael.
March 21 – WWI: First Transjordan attack on Amman by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins with the passage of the Jordan River.
March 23
- WWI: The giant German cannon, the 'Paris Gun' (Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz), begins to shell Paris from 114 km (71 mi) away.
- In London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E. Robinson, U.S.-born magician) dies during his trick where he is supposed to "catch" two separate bullets – but one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in a hospital.
March 25
- The Belarusian People's Republic declares independence.
- Dr. Karl Muck, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is arrested under the Alien Enemies Act and imprisoned for the duration of WWI.
- French composer Claude Debussy dies of colorectal cancer in Paris.
March 26 – Dr. Marie Stopes publishes her influential book Married Love in the U.K.
March 27 – WWI: First Battle of Amman launched by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force during the First Transjordan attack on Amman, ends with their withdrawal on 31 March back to the Jordan Valley.
March 30 – March Days: Bolshevik and Armenian Revolutionary Federation forces suppress a Muslim revolt in Baku, Azerbaijan, resulting in up to 30,000 deaths.

April

April 1 – The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in Britain are merged to form the Royal Air Force.
April 5 – Sālote succeeds as Queen of Tonga; she will remain on the throne until her death in 1965.
April 9 – Union of Bessarabia with Romania: Bessarabia votes to become part of the Kingdom of Romania.
April 21 – WWI: Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron", the war's most successful fighter pilot, dies in combat at Morlancourt Ridge near the Somme River.
April 23 – WWI:
- Conscription Crisis of 1918 in Ireland: a general strike is held here against conscription.
- Zeebrugge Raid, an attempt by the British Royal Navy to seal off the German U-boat base here.^[5]
- First Ostend Raid, an unsuccessful attempt by the British Royal Navy to seal off the German U-boat base here.
April 30 – WWI: Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt launched by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force ends on 4 May with their withdrawal back to the Jordan Valley.

May

May 1 – German troops enter Don Host Oblast; they take Rostov on May 8.
May 2 – General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
May 7 – British capture of Kirkuk.
May 9 – WWI: Second Ostend Raid, a second unsuccessful attempt by the British Royal Navy to seal off the German U-boat base here.
May 11 – The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is officially established.
May 14 – The Three Minute Pause, initiated by the daily firing of the Noon Gun on Signal Hill, is instituted by Cape Town Mayor Sir Harry Hands. It would inspire the introduction of the two-minute silence in November 1919.^[6]
May 15
- End of the Finnish Civil War.
- The United States Post Office Department begins the world's third regular airmail service, between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C..^[7]
May 16 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is approved by the U.S. Congress.
May 20 – The small town of Codell, Kansas, is hit for the third year in a row on the same date by a tornado.
May 21 – United States Army Aviation Section separated from Signal Corps and divided into the Division of Military Aeronautics and the Bureau of Aircraft Production.
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 commences.
May 28 – Armenia and Azerbaijan declare their independence as the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic respectively.

June

June 10: Austro-Hungarian battleship Szent István sunk by Italian torpedo boats

Szent István

June 1 – WWI: The Battle of Belleau Wood begins.
June 8 – V603 Aquilae, the brightest nova observed since Kepler's of 1604, is discovered.
June 10 – WWI: The Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship SMS Szent István is sunk by two Italian MAS motor torpedo boats off the Dalmatian coast.
June 12
- Grand Duke Michael of Russia is murdered, thereby becoming the first of the Romanovs to be murdered by the Bolsheviks.
- WWI: First airplane bombing raid by an American unit in France.
June 16 – The Declaration to the Seven, a British government response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables, is published.
June 22 – Suspects in the Chicago Restaurant Poisonings are arrested, and more than 100 waiters are taken into custody, for poisoning restaurant customers with a lethal powder called Mickey Finn.
June–August – "Spanish 'flu" becomes pandemic.^[8] Over 30 million people die in the following 6 months.

July

July 3 – The Siberian Expedition is launched to extract the Czechoslovak Legion from the Russian Civil War.
July 4 – Mehmed VI (1918–1922) succeeds Mehmed V (Resad) (1909–1918) as Ottoman Sultan.
July 9 – Great Train Wreck of 1918: in Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101.
July 12 – The Imperial Japanese Navy battle ship Kawachi blows up at Shunan, western Honshu, Japan, killing at least 621.
July 13 – The National Czechoslovak Committee is established.
July 14 – Release in the United States of the film The Glorious Adventure featuring Mammy Lou who becomes one of the oldest people ever to star in a film, at a claimed age of 114.
July 15 – WWI: Second Battle of the Marne: The battle begins near the River Marne with a German attack.

July 18: Execution of the Romanov family

July 18
- Execution of the Romanov family: By order of the Bolshevik Party and carried out by the Cheka, former emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, their children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei, and retainers are shot at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
- WWI: RMS Carpathia is torpedoed and sunk off the east coast of Ireland by Imperial German Navy submarine U-55; 218 of the 223 on board are rescued.^[9]

August

August 2 – North Russia Intervention: British anti-Bolshevik forces occupy Arkhangelsk.
August 8 – WWI: Battle of Amiens: Canadian and Australian troops begin a string of almost continuous victories, the 'Hundred Days Offensive', with an 8-mile push through the German front lines, takiing 12,000 prisoners. German General Erich Ludendorff later calls this the "black day of the German Army".^[10]
August 10 – Russian Revolution: The British commander in Archangel is told to help the White Russians.
August 16 – Battle of Lake Baikal is fought by the Czechoslovak legion against the Red Army.
August 17 – Moisei Uritsky, the Petrograd head of the Cheka, is assassinated.
August 21 – WWI: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
August 23 – Creation of the Bessarabian Peasants' Party.
August 27 – Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas and their German advisors at Nogales, Arizona, in the only battle of WWI fought on United States soil.
August 30
- 20,000 London policemen strike for increased pay and union recognition.
- In a prelude to the October Revolution in Russia, Vladimir Lenin is shot and wounded by Fanny Kaplan in Moscow, but survives.

August 30: Attempted assassination of Lenin, depicted by Vladimir Pchelin

September

September – British armies and their Arab allies roll into Syria.
September 5 – The Kazan Operation begins. The event continues for 5 days and solidifies the Red Army's power in Russia over the White Army.
September 14 – Start of the Balkan front offensive by the Serbian army.
September 19 – WWI:
- The British Army's Egyptian Expeditionary Force launches the Battle of Megiddo, incorporating the Battle of Sharon, and the Battle of Nablus, an attack in the Judaean Mountains. This day are fought the Battle of Tulkarm, and the Battle of Arara, which breaks the Ottoman front line stretching from the Mediterranean coast to the Judaean Mountains; while the Battle of Tabsor extends into September 20.
- Third Transjordan attack in the Jordan Valley begins.
September 20 – WWI: The British Army's Desert Mounted Corps launches the
- Battle of Nazareth by 5th Cavalry Division (British Indian Army);
- Capture of Afulah and Beisan by the 4th Cavalry Division (British Indian Army);
- Capture of Jenin by the Australian Mounted Division, almost encircling the Yildirim Army Group still in the Judaean Mountains.
September 25 – WWI:
- Battle of Megiddo ends with the Battle of Haifa, Battle of Samakh, and Capture of Tiberias.
- Third Transjordan attack ends with ANZAC Mounted Division victory at the Second Battle of Amman with the subsequent capture at Ziza of the Ottoman II Corps. The division capturing more than 10,000 Ottoman and German prisoners.
September 26 – WWI: The Capture of Damascus begins with the Charge at Irbid by the 4th Cavalry Division.
September 27 – WWI: Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub launched by the Australian Mounted Division continues the advance towards Damascus.
September 29 – WWI:
- Allied forces break through the Hindenburg Line.
- Bulgaria requests an armistice.
September 30 – WWI:
- Charge at Kaukab by units of the Australian Mounted Division.
- Charge at Kiswe by 4th Cavalry Division continuing Desert Mounted Corps' advance to Damascus.

October

October 1 – WWI: Desert Mounted Corps Capture of Damascus.
October 2 – WWI: Charge at Khan Ayash north of Damascus by 3rd Light Horse Brigade.
October 3
- Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany appoints Max von Baden Chancellor of Germany.
- King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicates in the wake of the Bulgarian military collapse in WWI. He is succeeded by his son, Boris III.
- WWI: Pursuit to Haritan by Desert Mounted Corps begins.
October 4
- Wilhelm II of Germany forms a new more liberal government to sue for peace.
- The T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant explosion in New Jersey kills 100+ and destroys enough ammunition to supply the Western Front for 6 months.
October 7 - Polish Regency Council (Poland) declares Polish indepedence from German Empire and demands from Germans to cede Polish provinces of Poznań, Upper Silesia and Polish Pommerania.
October 8 – WWI: In the Forest of Argonne in France, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
October 9 – Landgrave Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse is elected King of Finland.
October 11 – The 7.1 Mw Puerto Rico earthquake shakes the island with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 76–116 people. A destructive tsunami contributed to the damage and loss of life.
October 12 – Cloquet Fire: The city of Cloquet, Minnesota, and nearby areas are destroyed in a fire, killing 453.
October 18 – The Washington Declaration proclaims the independent Czechoslovak Republic.
October 25
- WWI: Aleppo captured by Prince Feisal's Sheifial Forces.
- The steamer Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.
October 26 – WWI: Units of Desert Mounted Corps Charge at Haritan last conflict with Ottoman forces in WWI.
October 28
- Czechoslovakia declares its independence from Austria-Hungary.
- A new Polish government is declared in Western Galicia (Eastern Europe).
October 29 – Wilhelmshaven mutiny of the German High Seas Fleet.
October 30
- The Martin Declaration is published, including Slovakia in the formation of the Czecho-Slovak state.
- The Armistice of Mudros ends conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I.
- The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen is granted independence from the Ottoman Empire by the Armistice of Mudros.
October 31 – The Hungarian government terminates the personal union with Austria, officially dissolving the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

November

November 1
- Polish–Ukrainian War inaugurated by proclamation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic in Galicia with a capital at Lwów.
- Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.
November 3
- WWI: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies in Padua.
- Poland declares its independence from Russia.
- German Revolution: Sailors in the German fleet at Kiel mutiny and throughout northern Germany soldiers and workers begin to establish revolutionary councils on the Russian soviet model.
November 4 – The Armistice of Villa Giusti ended warfare between Italy and Austria-Hungary on the Italian Front during World War I.
November 6 – A new Polish government is proclaimed in Lublin.
November 7 – King Ludwig of Bavaria flees his country.
November 8 – The German army withdraws its support of the Kaiser.

November 9: Proclamation of German Republic by Philipp Scheidemann in Berlin on the Reichstag balcony

November 9
- Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates and chooses to live in exile in the Netherlands.
- Proclamation of German Republic by Philipp Scheidemann in Berlin on the Reichstag balcony.
- Provisional National Council Minister-President Kurt Eisner declares Bavaria to be a republic.
- British battleship HMS Britannia is sunk by a German submarine off Trafalgar with the loss of around fifty lives, the last major naval engagement of WWI.

November 11: Signatories to the Armistice with Germany (Compiègne), ending WWI, pose outside Marshal Foch's railway carriage

November 11: Front page of The New York Times on Armistice Day

November 11
- End of WWI and Armistice with Germany (Compiègne): Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies between 5:12 AM and 5:20 AM in Marshal Foch's railroad car in Compiègne Forest in France. It becomes official on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.^[11]
- 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 13
- Allied Occupation of Constantinople.
- Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden, relinquishes all governing duties.
November 14
- The provisional government of Baden proclaims the Freie Volksrepublik Baden ("Free Peoples' Republic of Baden").
- Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
- Józef Piłsudski is appointed head of state of Poland.
November 16 – The Hungarian Democratic Republic is declared, marking Hungary's independence from Austria.
November 18 – Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
November 20 – U-boats start to rendezvous off Harwich to begin the surrender of the High Seas Fleet to the British Royal Navy; in the following week the German warships are escorted to internment in Scapa Flow.^[12]
November 21 – Start of 3-day Lwów pogrom: Polish troops, volunteers and freed criminals massacre at least 320 Ukrainian Christians and Jews in Lwów in Galicia.
November 22
- The Spartacist League founds the German Communist Party.
- The Belgian royal family returns to Brussels after the war, King Albert I having commanded the Allied Army group in the autumn Courtrai offensive which liberated his country.
- Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden, abdicates; the Grand Duchy of Baden gives way to the Republic of Baden.
November 23 – British military government of Palestine begins.^[13]
November 25 – German East Africa troops sign a ceasefire at Abercorn.
November 26 – The Podgorica Assembly votes for a "union of the people", declaring its union with the Kingdom of Serbia.
November 28 – Estonian War of Independence: The Red Army invades Estonia, starting the war. The Commune of the Working People of Estonia is established as a Soviet puppet state in Narva on the next day.
November 29 – Serbia annexes Montenegro.
November 30 – Ernest Ansermet conducts the first concert by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

December

December 1
- Iceland regains independence, but remains in personal union with the King of Denmark, who also becomes the King of Iceland until 1944.
- New voting laws in Sweden makes votes no longer dependent on taxable assets, each adult having one vote.
- The Union of Alba Iulia is proclaimed: Following the March 27 incorporation of Bessarabia and Bucovina, Transylvania unites with the Kingdom of Romania.
- The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which later becomes the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.

Flag of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats an Slovenes

December 4 – President Woodrow Wilson departs by ship to the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first United States President to travel to any foreign country while holding office.
December 5 – Estonian War of Independence: The British light cruiser HMS Cassandra strikes a mine and sinks near Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea, killing eleven sailors.^[14]
December 14 – Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse renounces the Finnish throne.
December 16 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, a puppet state created by the Russian SFSR to justify the Lithuanian–Soviet War.
December 17 – Darwin Rebellion in Australia: Disaffected workers march on Government House, Darwin demanding the resignation of the Administrator of the Northern Territory, John A. Gilruth.
December 20 – Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk returns to the Czechoslovak Republic.
December 21 – Estonian War of Independence: The Red Army captures Tartu in Estonia.
December 27 – Greater Poland Uprising (1918–19) begins: Poles in Greater Poland (the former Grand Duchy of Posen) rise up against the Germans, ignited by a patriotic speech made in Poznań by pianist and politician Ignacy Jan Paderewski.
December 28 – Sinn Féin have a landslide victory in Irish seats in the Irish general election, following the counting of votes, winning 73 of the 105 seats in Ireland. In accordance with their manifesto, Sinn Féin members will not take their seats in the Palace of Westminster but will form the First Dáil in Dublin. Countess Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway Prison (London), becomes the first woman elected to (but does not take her seat in) the British House of Commons.^[15]
December 31 – A British-brokered ceasefire ends the two weeks of fighting in the Georgian–Armenian War.

Date unknown

The Native American Church is formally founded in Oklahoma.
The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment is founded to promote repeal of Prohibition in the United States.
United Business Media is founded in London as United Newspapers Ltd.