1918

Events

   * Finnish Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, January - April.
   * Fighting in World War I ends.
   * 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.
   * Poland gains its independence.

   * 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 first 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
   * December - New voting laws in Sweden. Votes no longer dependent on
     taxable assets. One person, one vote.
   * December 4 - Wilson sails for the Paris Peace Conference

Art, Culture & Fashion

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

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-GŸnther 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
   * 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
   * 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 publish
   * 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

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