1918 deaths

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

* January – 1918 flu pandemic: The "Spanish flu" (influenza) is first observed in Haskell County, Kansas.
* January 4 – The Finnish Declaration of Independence is recognized by Soviet Russia, Sweden, Germany and France.
* January 9 – Battle of Bear Valley: U.S. troops engage Yaqui Native American warriors in a minor skirmish in Arizona, and one of the last battles of the American Indian Wars between the United States and Native Americans.
* January 15
** The keel of is laid in Britain, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be laid down.
** The Red Army (The Workers and Peasants Red Army) is formed in the Russian SFSR and Soviet Union.
* January 18 - The Historic Concert for the Benefit of Widows and Orphans of Austrian and Hungarian Soldiers is held at the Konzerthaus, Vienna.
* January 19 – The Russian Constituent Assembly proclaims the Russian Democratic Federative Republic but is dissolved by the Bolshevik government on the same day.
* January 25 – The Ukrainian People's Republic declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.
* January 27 – The Finnish Civil War begins with the Battle of Kämärä.
* January 28 – Porvenir massacre: Texas Rangers, U.S. Cavalry soldiers and local ranchers kill 15 unarmed Mexican villagers, both men and boys.

February

* February 1 – Cattaro Mutiny: Austrian sailors in the Gulf of Cattaro (Kotor), led by two Czech Socialists, mutiny.
* February 5 – The is torpedoed off the Irish coast; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

* February 6 – Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom: Representation of the People Act gives most women over 30 the vote.
* February 13 – A magnitude (M_w) 7.2 earthquake shakes the Chinese city of Shantou leaving 1,000 dead and causing a moderate tsunami.
* February 14 – Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar; the date skips from January 31 to February 14.
* February 16 – The Council of Lithuania adopts the Act of Independence of Lithuania, declaring Lithuania's independence from Germany, Russia or any other state.
* February 18 – Operations against the Marri and Khetran tribes in Balochistan by British authorities begin.
* February 19 – WWI: The Capture of Jericho by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins the British occupation of the Jordan Valley.
* February 19– 25 – WWI: The Imperial Russian Navy evacuates Tallinn through thick ice, over the Gulf of Finland.
* February 21 – The last Carolina parakeet (the last breed of parrot native to the eastern United States) dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
* February 23 – Estonian Declaration of Independence from Russia, after seven centuries of foreign rule; German forces capture Tallinn the following day.

March

* March 1 – WWI: German submarine sinks 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.
** The first pilotless drone, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane developed by Elmer Ambrose 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 - WWI: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.
* 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 12 – Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia.
* March 15 – Finnish Civil War: The battle of Tampere began.100 years ago today: Reds take Tampere, Finnish Civil War begins
– '' Yle News'', January 27, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
* March 19 – The United States Congress establishes time zones, and approves daylight saving time (DST goes into effect on March 31).
* March 21–July 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 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 30 – March Days: Bolshevik and Armenian Revolutionary Federation forces suppress a Muslim revolt in Baku, Azerbaijan, resulting in up to 30,000 deaths.

April

* April 1 – The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in Britain are merged to form the Royal Air Force, the first autonomous Air Force in the world.
* April 5 – Sālote succeeds as Queen of Tonga; she will remain on the throne until her death in 1965.
* April 6 – Finnish Civil War: The battle of Tampere ends.
* April 8 – Operations against the Marri and Khetran tribes in Balochistan end with surrender to the British authorities.
* April 9 – Union of Bessarabia with Romania: Bessarabia votes to become part of the Kingdom of Romania.
* April 21 – WWI: Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron", the war's most successful fighter pilot, dies in combat at Morlancourt Ridge near the Somme River.
* April 22 – Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia declare their independence from Russia as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.
* April 23 – WWI:
** Conscription Crisis of 1918 in Ireland: A general strike is held here against conscription.
** Zeebrugge Raid: The British Royal Navy attempts to seal off the German U-boat base here.
** First Ostend Raid: The British Royal Navy unsuccessfully attempts to seal off the German U-boat base here.
* April 28 – WWI: Gavrilo Princip, assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, dies in Terezin, Austria-Hungary, after three years in prison.
* April 30 – WWI: The Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt, launched by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, ends on 4 May, with their withdrawal back to the Jordan Valley.

May

* May 1 – WWI: German troops enter Don Host Oblast; they capture Rostov-on-Don on May 8.
* May 2 – General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
* May 7 – WWI: The British capture Kirkuk.
* May 9 – WWI – Second Ostend Raid: The British Royal Navy unsuccessfully attempts, for a second time, to seal off the German U-boat base here.
* May 11 – The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is officially established.
* May 14 – The Three Minute Pause, initiated by the daily firing of the Noon Gun on Signal Hill, is instituted by Cape Town Mayor Sir Harry Hands. It will inspire the introduction of the two-minute silence in November 1919.
* May 15
** The Finnish Civil War ends.
** The United States Post Office Department begins the world's third regular airmail service, between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
* May 16 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is approved by the U.S. Congress.
* May 20 – The small town of Codell, Kansas is hit for the third year in a row, on the same date, by a tornado.
* May 21 – The United States Army Aviation Section is separated from the Signal Corps, and divided into the Division of Military Aeronautics and the Bureau of Aircraft Production.
* May 24 – Women in Canada, excluding residents of Quebec, are granted the right to vote in federal elections.
* May 26 – The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic is abolished; Georgia declares its independence as the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
* May 27 – WWI: The Third Battle of the Aisne commences.
* May 28 – Armenia and Azerbaijan declare their independence as the First Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic respectively.
* May 29 – WWI: The week-long Battle of Sardarabad concludes with defending Armenian forces victorious over the Ottomans.
* May 29– 30 – WWI: Battle of Skra di Legen – The Greek National Defence Army Corps defeats the Bulgarians.

June

* June–August – The "Spanish flu" becomes pandemic. Over 30 million people die in the following 6 months.
* June 1 – WWI: The Battle of Belleau Wood begins.
* June 4 – RMS ''Kenilworth Castle'', one of the Union-Castle Line steamships, collides with her escort destroyer HMS ''Rival'' while trying to avoid her other escort, the cruiser HMS ''Kent''.
* June 5 – The ''Afrikaner Broederbond'', a confidential cultural organisation, is founded in Johannesburg.
* June 8 – V603 Aquilae, the brightest nova observed since Kepler's of 1604, is discovered.
* June 10 – WWI: The Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship SMS ''Szent István'' is sunk by two Italian MAS motor torpedo boats off the Dalmatian coast.
* June 12
** Grand Duke Michael of Russia is murdered, thereby becoming the first of the Romanovs to be killed by the Bolsheviks.
** WWI: The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit in France is carried out.
* June 16 – The Declaration to the Seven, a British government response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables, is published.
* June 22 – Suspects in the Chicago Restaurant Poisonings are arrested, and more than 100 waiters are taken into custody for poisoning restaurant customers with a lethal powder called Mickey Finn.
* June 29 – Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries opens in New York; Brazil is the only international exhibitor and the exposition closes at the end of the season.

July

* July 3 – Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War: The Siberian Intervention is launched by the Allies, to extract the Czechoslovak Legion from the Russian Civil War.
* July 4 – Mehmed VI succeeds as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire on the death of his half-brother Mehmed V (Reşâd, who has reigned since 1909), himself reigning until the Sultanate is abolished in 1922.
* July 12 – The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship ''Kawachi'' blows up off Tokuyama, Yamaguchi, western Honshu, Japan, killing at least 621.
* July 13 – The National Czechoslovak Committee is established.
* July 14 – The film '' The Glorious Adventure'' is released in the United States, featuring Mammy Lou, who becomes one of the oldest people ever to star in a film, at a claimed age of 114.
* July 15 – WWI: Second Battle of the Marne: The battle begins near the River Marne, with a German attack.

* July 17
** WWI: (famed for rescuing survivors of the ) 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.
** 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.

August

* August 2 – North Russia Intervention: British anti-Bolshevik forces occupy Arkhangelsk.
* August 3 – WWI: Australian hospital ship is torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel on passage from Le Havre to Southampton by German submarine with the loss of 123 of the 801 people on board.
* August 8 – WWI: Battle of Amiens – British, Canadian and Australian troops begin a string of almost continuous victories, the ' Hundred Days Offensive', with an 8-mile push through the German front lines, taking 12,000 prisoners. German General Erich Ludendorff later calls this the "black day of the German Army".
* August 10 – Russian Revolution: The British commander in Archangel is told to help the White Russians.
* August 16 – The Battle of Lake Baikal is fought by the Czechoslovak legion, against the Red Army.
* August 21 – WWI: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
* August 23 – The Bessarabian Peasants' Party is created.
* August 27 – Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas and their German advisors at Nogales, Arizona, in the only battle of WWI fought on United States soil.
* August 30
** 20,000 London policemen strike for increased pay and union recognition.
** In response to the October Revolution in Russia, Vladimir Lenin is shot and wounded by Fanny Kaplan in Moscow, but survives.
** Moisei Uritsky, the Petrograd head of the Cheka, is assassinated.

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''.
* September 4 – WWI: Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin concludes with the Australian Corps breaking the German line.
* September 5 – Russian 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 12– 15 – WWI: Battle of Saint-Mihiel – Americans take a German salient.
* September 14 – WWI: The Balkan front offensive by the Serbian Army begins.
* September 15– 18 – 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:
** The Meuse-Argonne Offensive begins, the largest and bloodiest operation of the war for the American Expeditionary Forces.
** The Capture of Damascus begins, with the Charge at Irbid by the 4th Cavalry Division.
* 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

* October 1 – WWI: The Desert Mounted Corps captures Damascus.
* October 2 – WWI: The Charge at Khan Ayash is begun north of Damascus, by the 3rd Light Horse Brigade.
* October 3
** Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany appoints Max von Baden Chancellor of Germany.
** King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicates in the wake of the Bulgarian military collapse in WWI. He is succeeded by his son, Boris III.
** WWI: The Pursuit to Haritan by the Desert Mounted Corps begins.
* October 4
** Wilhelm II of Germany forms a new, liberal government to sue for peace.
** The T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant explosion in New Jersey kills 100+, and destroys enough ammunition to supply the Western Front for 6 months.
* October 7 – The Regency Council (Poland) declares Polish independence from the German Empire, and demands that Germany cede the Polish provinces of Poznań, Upper Silesia and Polish Pomerania.
* October 8– 10 – WWI: Second Battle of Cambrai: British and Canadian troops take Cambrai from the Germans and the First and Third British Armies break through the Hindenburg Line.
* October 8 – WWI: In the Forest of Argonne in France, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
* October 9 – Landgrave Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse is elected King of Finland.
* October 11 – The magnitude (M_w) 7.1 San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent''), killing 76–116 people. A destructive tsunami contributes to the damage and loss of life.
* October 12 – Cloquet Fire: The city of Cloquet, Minnesota, and nearby areas are destroyed in a fire, killing 453.
* October 18 – The Washington Declaration proclaims the independent Czechoslovak Republic.
* October 24 – WWI: The Battle of Vittorio Veneto opens.
* October 25
** WWI: Aleppo is captured, by Prince Feisal's Sheifial Forces.
** The steamer '' Princess Sophia'' sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die, in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.
* October 26 – WWI – Charge at Haritan: Units of the Desert Mounted Corps battle with Ottoman forces for the last time in WWI.
* October 28
** Czechoslovakia declares its independence from Austria-Hungary.
** A new Polish government is declared in Western Galicia (Eastern Europe)

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