1918 - What happened in 1918 ?

January 1918

Tuesday 08:

President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.

Saturday 19:

Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.

Thursday 24:

A decree of the Council of People's Commissars, introducing the Gregorian calendar in Russia since February 1, issued

Monday 28:

Finnish Civil War: <!--The Red Guards-->Rebels seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland go underground.

Thursday 31:

A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.

February 1918

Friday 01:

Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.

Sunday 03:

The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world (11,920 feet long).

Friday 08:

The Stars and Stripes newspaper publishes for the first time.

Thursday 14:

The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (1 February according to the Julian calendar).

Saturday 16:

Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany.

March 1918

Friday 01:

German submarine Unterseeboot 19 (U-19) sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island.

Tuesday 05:

Bolshevist Russia moves the national capital from Petrograd to Moscow.

Thursday 07:

World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.

Thursday 21:

World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins

Monday 25:

The Belarusian National Republic was established.

April 1918

Monday 01:

The Royal Flying Corps is replaced by the Royal Air Force.

Thursday 04:

World War I: Second Battle of the Somme ends.

Monday 08:

World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York, New York's financial district.

Saturday 20:

Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.

Sunday 21:

World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron," is shot down and killed by Allied fire over Vaux sur Somme in France.

May 1918

Thursday 02:

General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.

Wednesday 15:

The US Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).

Monday 20:

For the third consecutive year on this date, the U.S. town of Codell, Kansas, is struck by a tornado.

Sunday 26:

The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.

Tuesday 28:

Independence day in the Azerbaijan Republic.

June 1918

Saturday 01:

World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.

Monday 24:

The giant cannon Big Bertha begins bombardments on Paris

July 1918

Thursday 04:

Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).

Tuesday 09:

Great train wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express killing 101 and injuring 171 people, making it the deadliest rail accident in United States history.

Monday 15:

The battle begins near the River Marne with a German attack.

Tuesday 16:

Russian Revolution: At Ekaterinburg, Bolsheviks execute Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.

August 1918

Friday 02:

Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.

Thursday 08:

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."

Tuesday 13:

Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.

Saturday 17:

Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.

Friday 30:

Fanya Kaplan, an assassin, shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.

September 1918

Wednesday 11:

Baseball: The Boston Red Sox won the World Series; they would do so again on October 27, 2004 after 86 years.

Thursday 26:

World War I: Battle of Meuse.

Sunday 29:

The Hindenburg Line is broken by Allied forces during World War I.

October 1918

Tuesday 01:

World War I: Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence (aka "Lawrence of Arabia") capture Damascus.

Thursday 03:

King Boris III of Bulgaria takes the throne

Tuesday 08:

In the Argonne Forest in France, United States Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.

Saturday 26:

Erich von Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

Monday 28:

New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe).

November 1918

Friday 01:

Malbone Street Wreck: the worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.

Sunday 03:

Poland declares its independence from Russia.

Tuesday 12:

Austria becomes a republic.

Thursday 14:

Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.

Monday 18:

Latvia declares its independence from Russia.

December 1918

Sunday 01:

1918 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.

Wednesday 04:

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.

Saturday 14:

Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounced the Finnish throne.

Friday 27:

Beginning of Great Poland Uprising, the Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Pozna&#324;) rise against the Germans