1918

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s - 1910s - 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s

Years: 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 - 1918 - 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923

• 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 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)
• 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).
• December - New voting laws in Sweden. Votes no longer dependent on taxable assets. One person, one vote.

• 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.

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 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 sports

Births:

• January 15 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt (+ 1970)
• January 15 - Robert Byrd, American politician
• January 16 - Stirling Silliphant[?], writer, producer (+ 1996)
• January 20 - Esquivel, musician
• January 26 - Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian dictator (+ 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-Günther Buchheim[?], author of Das Boot
• February 8 - Fred Blassie, former professional wrestler (+ 2003)
• February 25 - Bobby Riggs[?], tennis player (+ 1995)
• February 26 - Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction writer (+ 1985)
• March 3 - Fritz Thiedemann[?], equestrian (+ 2000)
• March 5 - James Tobin, economist
• March 9 - Mickey Spillane, mystery writer
• March 9 - George Lincoln Rockwell[?], American Nazi leader (+ 1967)
• March 10 - Heywood Hale Broun[?], sports journalist, commentator (+ 2001)
• March 16 - Frederick Reines, physicist (1995 Nobel Prize in Physics)
• March 17 - Mercedes McCambridge[?], actress
• March 25 - Howard Cosell[?], attorney, lecturer, sports journalist (+ 1995)
• March 29 - Pearl Bailey[?], singer, actress (+ 1990)
• April 16 - Spike Milligan, comedian
• April 25 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer (+ 1996)
• May 9 - Mike Wallace[?], journalist
• May 9 - Orville L. Freeman[?], American politician (+ 2003)
• May 11 - Richard Feynman, physicist (+ 1988)
• May 12 - Julius Rosenberg, spy (+ 1953)
• May 15 - Eddy Arnold[?], singer
• July 4 - Ann Landers, advice columnist (+ 2002)
• July 4 - Abigail Van Buren, advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
• July 14 - Ingmar Bergman Swedish film director
• July 18 - Nelson Mandela, South African prisoner of conscience and president.
• August 13 - Frederick Sanger, molecular biologist
• August 25 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor
• August 30 - Ted Williams, American baseball player
• 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 (+ 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.
• July 3 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire
• June 10 - Arrigo Boito, poet and composer
• July 16 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.
• 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