Wikipedia

1918

Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries:
Decades:
Years:
  • 1915
  • 1916
  • 1917
  • 1918
  • 1919
  • 1920
  • 1921
1918 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar1918
MCMXVIII
Ab urbe condita2671
Armenian calendar1367
ԹՎ ՌՅԿԷ
Assyrian calendar6668
Bahá'í calendar74–75
Balinese saka calendar1839–1840
Bengali calendar1325
Berber calendar2868
British Regnal yearGeo. 5 – 9 Geo. 5
Buddhist calendar2462
Burmese calendar1280
Byzantine calendar7426–7427
Chinese calendar丁巳年 (Fire Snake)
4614 or 4554
— to —
戊午年 (Earth Horse)
4615 or 4555
Coptic calendar1634–1635
Discordian calendar3084
Ethiopian calendar1910–1911
Hebrew calendar5678–5679
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat1974–1975
 - Shaka Samvat1839–1840
 - Kali Yuga5018–5019
Holocene calendar11918
Igbo calendar918–919
Iranian calendar1296–1297
Islamic calendar1336–1337
Japanese calendarTaishō 7
(大正7年)
Javanese calendar1848–1849
Juche calendar7
Julian calendarGregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar4251
Minguo calendarROC 7
民國7年
Nanakshahi calendar450
Thai solar calendar2460–2461
Tibetan calendar阴火蛇年
(female Fire-Snake)
2044 or 1663 or 891
— to —
阳土马年
(male Earth-Horse)
2045 or 1664 or 892

1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Julian 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 remained in localized use until 1923.

This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50-100 million people worldwide.

Events

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

January

February

  • February 1 – Cattaro Mutiny: 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.

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 (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
  • March 8 – WWI: The Battle of Tell 'Asur is 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; it ends on March 12, with the move of much of the front line north into Ottoman territory.
  • March 12Moscow 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 21July 18 – WWI: The 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, on the Somme.
  • March 21 – WWI: The 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.
  • March 26 – Dr. Marie Stopes publishes her influential book Married Love in the U.K.
  • March 27 – WWI: The First Battle of Amman is launched by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, during the First Transjordan attack on Amman; it ends with their withdrawal on 31 March, back to the Jordan Valley.
  • March 30March Days: Bolshevik and Armenian Revolutionary Federation forces suppress a Muslim revolt in Baku, Azerbaijan, resulting in up to 30,000 deaths.

April

Styles of Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, as presented in a vaudeville circuit pantomime and sketched by Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in April 1918

May

June

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

July

July 17: Execution of the Romanov family
  • July 17
    • WWI: RMS Carpathia (famed for rescuing survivors of the RMS Titanic) 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.[12]
    • 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, Alexei and retainers are shot at the Ipatiev House, in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
  • July 21 – WWI: Attack on Orleans – Imperial German submarine SM U-156 surfaces and fires on a small convoy of barges and defending flying boats off the Cape Cod town of Orleans, Massachusetts.[13]

August

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

September

  • September – WWI: British armies and their Arab allies roll into Syria.
  • September 3 – The Bolshevik government of Russia publishes the first official announcement of the Red Terror, a period of repression against political opponents, as an "Appeal to the Working Class" in the newspaper Izvestia.[16]
  • September 4 – WWI: Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin concludes with the Australian Corps breaking the German line.
  • September 5Russian Civil War: The Kazan Operation begins. The event continues for 5 days, and solidifies the Red Army's power in Russia over the White Army.
  • September 12 – WWI: Battle of Havrincourt – British take a German salient.
  • September 1215 – WWI: Battle of Saint-Mihiel – Americans take a German salient.
  • September 14 – WWI: The Balkan front offensive by the Serbian Army begins.
  • September 1518 – WWI: Battle of Dobro Pole in the Vardar Offensive of the Balkans Campaign: The Allied Army of the Orient defeats Bulgarian defenders.
  • September 18 – WWI: Battle of Épehy – British approach the Hindenburg Line along the St Quentin Canal.
  • 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 break the Ottoman front line stretching from the Mediterranean coast to the Judaean Mountains, while the Battle of Tabsor extends into September 20.
    • The 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:
    • The Battle of Megiddo ends with the Battle of Haifa, Battle of Samakh, and Capture of Tiberias.
    • The 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, and more than 10,000 Ottoman and German prisoners.
  • September 26 – WWI:
  • September 27 – WWI:
    • The Battle of the Canal du Nord, launched by British and Empire forces, continues the advance towards the Hindenburg Line.
    • The Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub, launched by the Australian Mounted Division, continues the advance towards Damascus.
  • September 29 – WWI:
    • Battle of St Quentin Canal begins; Allied forces advance towards the Hindenburg Line.
    • Bulgaria requests an armistice.
  • September 30 – WWI:
    • The Charge at Kaukab is begun by units of the Australian Mounted Division.
    • The Charge at Kiswe is begun by 4th Cavalry Division, continuing the Desert Mounted Corps' advance to Damascus.

October

November

  • November 1
    • The Polish–Ukrainian War is inaugurated, by the proclamation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic in Galicia, with a capital at Lwów.
    • Serbian forces recapture Belgrade.
    • 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, at the Villa Giusti 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 – WWI: The Armistice of Villa Giusti ends warfare between Italy and Austria-Hungary, on the Italian Front.
  • 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. The German Armistice delegation arrives at the Forest of Compiègne in France.
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.
    • The German Republic is proclaimed 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).
Signatories to the Armistice of 11 November 1918 with Germany, ending WWI, pose outside Marshal Foch's railway carriage
November 11: Front page of The New York Times on Armistice Day

December

  • December 1
    • By the Danish–Icelandic Act of Union, 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, in particular ending Serbia's existence as a sovereign state for the next 87 years (it would not regain its sovereignty until 2006).[20]
Flag of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

Date unknown

Births

January

João Figueiredo
Nicolae Ceaușescu

February

Patty Andrews (pictured centre) The Andrew Sisters

March

April

Betty Ford

May

Martin Lundstrom

June

Patachou

July

Francisco Moncion
Paul Farnes
Nelson Mandela

August

Leonard Bernstein
Katherine Johnson

September

October

Rita Hayworth
Konstantinos Mitsotakis

November

Spiro Agnew

December

Anwar Sadat

Date unknown

Deaths

January

María Dolores Rodríguez Sopeña

February

March

April

Manfred von Richthofen
Gavrilo Princip

May

Maria Magdalena Merten

June

Kyrion II of Georgia

July

Sultan Mehmed V
Emperor Nicholas II of Russia

August

September

Prince Erik, Duke of Vastmanland

October

November

December

Date unknown

  • Spring – Vyacheslav Troyanov, Russian general (b. 1875)
  • Yakov Zhilinsky, Russian general (b. 1853)

Nobel Prizes

Nobel medal.png

References

  1. ^ Barry, John M. (2005). The Great Influenza; The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0143036494.
  2. ^ "Historical Concert for the Benefit of Widows and Orphans". World Digital Library. February 10, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  3. ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  4. ^ Shores, Christopher (1969). Finnish Air Force, 1918–1968. Reading, Berkshire, UK: Osprey Publications Ltd. p. 3. ISBN 978-0668021210.
  5. ^ "1918 - Corporate History - History - About Us - Panasonic Global". www.panasonic.com.
  6. ^ Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 355–356. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  7. ^ Royal Canadian Legion Branch # 138."2-Minute Wave of Silence" Revives a Time-honoured Tradition. Accessed on 5 June 2014.
  8. ^ The first was from Allahabad to Naini Junction in India on 18 February 1911, and the second from London to Windsor Castle on 22 June 1911.
  9. ^ "Women's Right to Vote in Canada". lop.parl.ca. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  10. ^ "La Grippe Espagnole de 1918". Institut Pasteur. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  11. ^ "CROWDS SEE OPENING OF TRADE EXPOSITION; Police Commissioner Enright Receives Keys for City at Formal Opening. PERMANENT SHOW PLANNED Borough President Bruckner Thanks Promoters for Choosing Site in the Bronx". The New York Times. June 30, 1918. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  12. ^ "Carpathia Sunk; 5 of Crew Killed" (PDF). The New York Times. July 20, 1918. p. 4.
  13. ^ Klim, Jake (2014). Attack on Orleans: The World War I submarine raid on Cape Cod. The History Press. ISBN 9781625850348. OCLC 883673275.
  14. ^ "Warilda". Uboat.net. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
  15. ^ Lichfield, John (July 7, 2014). "A History of the First World War in 100 Moments: The 'blackest day' of the German army". The Independent. London. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  16. ^ Werth, Nicolas; Bartosek, Karel; Panne, Jean-Louis; Margolin, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Courtois, Stephane (1999). The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 74. ISBN 0-674-07608-7.
  17. ^ Pitt, Barrie (2003). 1918: The Last Act. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. ISBN 0-85052-974-3.
  18. ^ Massie, Robert K. (2004). Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-40878-0.
  19. ^ Biger, Gideon (2004). The Boundaries of Modern Palestine, 1840–1947. London: Routledge. pp. 55, 164. ISBN 978-0-7146-5654-0. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
  20. ^ a b "Serbia ends union with Montenegro". The Irish Times.
  21. ^ Wainwright, Martin (August 23, 2010). "British warships sunk 90 years ago found off Estonian coast". The Guardian. London. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  22. ^ Ward, Margaret (1983). Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish nationalism. London: Pluto Press. p. 137. ISBN 0-86104-700-1.
  23. ^ "These Nobel Prize Winners Weren't Always Noble". National Geographic News. October 6, 2015. Retrieved January 19, 2021.

Further reading

  • Chandra, Siddharth, Julia Christensen, and Shimon Likhtman. "Connectivity and seasonality: the 1918 influenza and COVID-19 pandemics in global perspective." Journal of Global History 15.3 (2020): 408–420.
  • Phillips, Howard. "’17,’18,’19: religion and science in three pandemics, 1817, 1918, and 2019." Journal of Global History 15.3 (2020): 434–443.
  • Williams, John. The Other Battleground The Home Fronts: Britain, France and Germany 1914-1918 (1972) pp 243–92.

Primary sources and year books

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia® - the free encyclopedia created and edited by its online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of Wikipedia® encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information, please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Copyright © 2003-2025 Farlex, Inc Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.