1918

Finnish Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, January - April.
Habsburg Empire ceases to exist
Grand Duchy of Baden ceases to exist
Iceland becomes an independent state, under the Danish crown, with foreign affairs handled by Denmark.
January 8 - President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I
February 3 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service 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 publishes for the first time
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
March 3 - Germany, Austria and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russia's involvement in World War I.
March 5 - The Soviet Union moves the national capital from Petrograd to Moscow
March 6 - Finnish Airforce 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 19 - The United States 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
April 1 - The Royal Flying Corps is replaced by the Royal Air Force.
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 26 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.
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 - "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 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."
October 8 - World War I - In the Argonne Forest in France, United States 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 (Eastern Europe)
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 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 Compi�gne in France.
November 11 - Polands Jozef Pilsudski is offered a 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 18 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
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 - Wilson sails for the Paris Peace Conference
December 4 - US President Woodrow Wilson sails for Versailles for the World War I peace talks, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.

Year in topic

1918 in film
- February 14 - The movie Tarzan of the Apes is released.
1918 in literature
- The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
- Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey
1918 in music
1918 in science
1918 in sports

Births

January 15 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt (d. 1970)
January 15 - Robert Byrd, American politician
January 16 - Stirling Silliphant, writer, producer (d. 1996)
January 20 - Esquivel, musician
January 26 - Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
January 26 - Philip Jose Farmer, science fiction writer
January 27 - Skitch Henderson, musician, band leader
January 29 - John Forsythe, actor
February 1 - Dame Muriel Spark, author
February 6 - Lothar-G�nther Buchheim, author of Das Boot
February 8 - Fred Blassie, former professional wrestler (d. 2003)
February 25 - Bobby Riggs, tennis player (d. 1995)
February 26 - Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction writer (d. 1985)
March 3 - Fritz Thiedemann, equestrian (d. 2000)
March 5 - James Tobin, economist
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 16 - Frederick Reines, physicist (1995 Nobel Prize in Physics)
March 17 - Mercedes McCambridge, actress
March 25 - Howard Cosell, attorney, lecturer, sports journalist (d. 1995)
March 29 - Pearl Bailey, singer, actress (d. 1990)
April 16 - Spike Milligan, comedian
April 25 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer (d. 1996)
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
June 18 - Franco Modigliani, economist
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
July 18 - Nelson Mandela, South African prisoner of conscience and president
August 8 - Brian Stonehouse, painter, SOE agent in WW II (+ 1998)
August 13 - Frederick Sanger, molecular biologist
August 25 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor
August 30 - Ted Williams, American baseball player († 2002)
September 22 - Henryk Szeryng, violinist (d. 1988)
October 19 - Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher
September 4 - Paul Harvey Legendary American radio broadcaster
December 11 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer
December 21 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (d. 2003)
December 25 - Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president

Deaths

January 6 - Georg Cantor, German mathematician
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 28 - Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher

Nobel Prizes

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

1918

Events

Year in topic

Births

Deaths

Nobel Prizes