1918

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1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.

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Events

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January-February

February 16 — Lithuania declared its independence.
February 24 — Estonia declared its independence.

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March-April

March 1 — German submarine U 19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland.
March 3 — World War I: Germany, Austria and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russia's involvement in the war.
March 5 — The Soviet Russia moves its national capital from Petrograd to Moscow
March 6 — Finnish Air Force 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 12 – Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia
March 19 — The U.S. 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
March 23 — The giant German cannon, the so called Paris Gun begins to shell Paris from 114 km (75 miles) away
March 23 — In London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E Robinson, US-born magician) dies during his trick where he was supposed to "catch" two separate bullets – one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in hospital.
March 23 — The Social Revolutionary Party declares Belorussia independent; Bolshevik armies soon crush them
March 25 — for the first time Belarus declares independence.
April 1 — The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service are merged to form the Royal Air Force.

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May-July

May 1 — German troops enter Don province — they take Rostov May 6
May 2 — General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
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 16 — The Sedition Act of 1918 is approved by US Congress.
May 26 — The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.
may 28 — Azerbaijan declared independence and established the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. This first Muslim republic in the world.
May 28 — Armenia gains independence from the Ottoman Empire
June 1 — World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
July — The Siberian Expedition is launched to extract the Czechoslovak Legion from the Russian civil war.
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 17 — By order of the Bolshevik Party and carried out by Cheka, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his immediate family, and retainers were murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

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August-October

August — "Spanish Flu" Influenza becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people die in the following six months (almost two times as many as died during the war).
August 1 — British anti-Bolshevik forces occupy Archangel, Russia. August 10 commander is told to help White Russians
August 1 — Emma Susan Daugherty Banister becomes the first female sheriff in the United States following the death of her husband, John Riley Banister.
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."
August 30 — Strike of 20,000 London policemen with demands of increased pay and union recognition.
August 30 — Fanya Kaplan tries to shoot Lenin. Petrograd head of Cheka is assassinated the same day.
September 11 — The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship. (their last World Series win until 2004)
September 28 — Don Voisko adopts a constitution including declaration of independence. Collapse of Imperial Germany makes it void
October 3 — Kaiser makes Max von Baden German chancellor.
October 8 — World War I — In the Argonne Forest in France, US Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
October 18 — The city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico was nearly destroyed by an earthquake and a tsunami.
October 25 — The Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska, 353 people die in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.
October 28 — Czechoslovakia declares its independence on Austria-Hungary.
October 28 — New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe)

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November

November 1 — Malbone Street Wreck: the worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.
November 1 — Ruthenia in eastern Czechoslovakia declares brief independence
November 3 — World War I: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.
November 3 — Poland declares its independence from Russia.
November 4 — World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
November 4 — Mutiny in the German fleet at Kiel begin the German Revolution.
November 6 — A new Polish government is proclaimed in Lublin.
November 8 — German army withdraws its support of the Kaiser
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 Compiègne in France.
November 11 — Poland regains independence after 123 years of partitions. Józef Piłsudski is appointed Commander-in-Chief.
November 11 — Emperor Charles I of Austria abdicates.
November 12 — Austria becomes a republic.
November 14 — Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
November 14 — Józef Piłsudski is appointed head of state of Poland
November 16 — Hungary declares independence from Austria
November 16 — Hungarian People's Republic declared
November 18 — Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
November 22 — Spartacist League founds German Communist Party
November 22 — Belgian royal family returns to Brussels after the war
November 26 — the Podgorica Assembly voted for "union of the people", declaring a joining into the Kingdom of Serbia
November 28 – Soviet Russia invades Estonia.

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December

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 — Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia. 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 — US President Woodrow Wilson sails for the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
December 27 — Beginning of Great Poland Uprising, the Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Poznań rise against the Germans.
December 28 — Constance Markiewicz becomes the first woman elected to the House of Commons.

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Unknown dates

Finnish Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, January — April.
Habsburg Empire ceases to exist.
Grand Duchy of Baden ceases to exist.
British occupy Palestine
Katla erupts in Iceland.
Native American Church is founded.
Ernest Ansermet founds the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
John Riley Banister becomes sheriff of Coleman County, Texas.
Clifton Hillegass, American author born (d. 2001)
Association Against the Prohibition Amendment founded to promote repeal of prohibition in U.S.
United Business Media founded in London (as United Newspapers Ltd.)

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Births

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January

January 10 - Arthur Chung, President of Guyana
January 15 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt (d. 1970)
January 16 - Nel Benschop, Dutch poetess (d. 2005)
January 16 - Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (d. 1996)
January 19 - John H. Johnson, American publisher, (d. 2005)
January 20 - Esquivel, Mexican musician (d. 2002)
January 21 - Richard D. Winters, U.S. Army officer
January 23 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
January 25 - Ernie Harwell, American baseball sportscaster
January 26 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
January 26 - Philip José Farmer, American writer
January 27 - Skitch Henderson, English-born musician and bandleader (d. 2005)
January 29 - John Forsythe, American actor

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February

February 1 - Muriel Spark, Scottish author (d. 2006)
February 3 - Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
February 6 - Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author
February 7 - Markey Robinson, Northern Irish painter (d. 1999)
February 8 - Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
February 12 - Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
February 17 - William Bronk, American poet (d. 1999)
February 22 - Robert Pershing Wadlow, American record-holder as the tallest man (d. 1940)
February 25 - Barney Ewell, American athlete (d. 1996)
February 25 - Bobby Riggs, American tennis player (d. 1995)
February 26 - Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (d. 1985)

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March

March 1 - Roger Delgado, British actor (d. 1973)
March 1 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (d. 1976)
March 3 - Arthur Kornberg, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
March 3 - Fritz Thiedemann, German equestrian (d. 2000)
March 5 - James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
March 9 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (d. 1967)
March 9 - Mickey Spillane, American mystery writer
March 11 - Jack Coe, American evangelist (d. 1956)
March 12 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (d. 1989)
March 16 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
March 17 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
March 18 - Al Benton, baseball player (d. 1968)
March 18 - Bob Broeg, American sports writer (d. 2005)
March 22 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (d. 1997)
March 25 - Howard Cosell, American attorney, lecturer, and sports journalist (d. 1995)
March 29 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (d. 1990)

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April

April 9 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect
April 16 - Spike Milligan, Irish comedian (d. 2002)
April 17 - William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)
April 20 - Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
April 22 - Mickey Vernon, baseball player
April 26 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)

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May

May 1 - Jack Paar, American television show host (d. 2004)
May 3 - Benjamin C. Thompson, American architect (d. 2002)
May 9 - Mike Wallace, American journalist
May 9 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician (d. 2003)
May 11 - Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
May 12 - Julius Rosenberg, American-born Soviet spy (d. 1953)
May 15 - Eddy Arnold, American singer
May 16 - Wilf Mannion, English footballer (d. 2000)
May 17 - Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano (d. 2005)
May 20 - Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)

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June

June 6 - Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
June 18 - Jerome Karle, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
June 18 - Franco Modigliani, Italian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)

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July

July 4 - Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
July 4 - Abigail Van Buren, American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
July 5 - George Rochberg, American composer (d. 2005)
July 9 - Jarl Wahlström, Salvation Army general (d. 1999)
July 13 - Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (d. 1955)
July 14 - Ingmar Bergman Swedish film director
July 15 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
July 17 - Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
July 18 - Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
July 24 - Ruggiero Ricci, Italian-born violinist
July 27 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
July 29 - Edwin O'Connor, American novelist and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (d. 1968)
July 31 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

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August

August 3 - Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (d. 1999)
August 5 - Betty Oliphant, co-founder of National Ballet of Canada (d. 2004)
August 8 - Brian Stonehouse, English painter and World War II spy (d. 1998)
August 13 - Frederick Sanger, English biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
August 25 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (d. 1990)
August 30 - Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)