What Happened in December 1918

Historical Events

Dec 4 US President Woodrow Wilson sails for Versailles Peace Conference in France, 1st President to travel outside US while in office

Dec 5 Oil refinery on Curacao opens
Dec 9 French troops occupies Mainz
Dec 10 John Heyder becomes president of baseball's National League for the 2nd time
Dec 13 US army of occupation crosses Rhine, enters Germany

Dec 14 Giacomo Puccini's opera "Il Trittico" premieres in NYC

Dec 14 David Loyd George's coalition Government wins a clear majority in the UK general election
Dec 14 Sinn Fein candidates win 73 of 105 Irish seats in UK general election, though all will refuse to take seats in Westminster, instead meeting at a Dail Eireann in Dublin
Dec 15 American Jewish Congress holds its 1st meeting

Dec 16 Jack Dempsey KOs Carl Morris in 14 seconds

Dec 16 German troops evacuate Finland, give over Kiev in the Ukraine to revolutionary forces and pull back from Estonia as Bolshevik forces move in
Dec 17 A conference of workers' and soldiers' councils take control of German government in Berlin, until elections in January selects new national assembly
Dec 19 Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column (NY Globe)
Dec 20 Eugene O'Neill's "Moon of the Caribees" premieres in NYC
Dec 20 The Allies turn their attention to Bolshevik expansion in the East, landing troops in Crimea and Latvia
Dec 21 Red Sox trade Dutch Leonard, Ernie Shore & Duffy Lewis to Yankees for Ray Caldwell & Slim Love, Frank Gilhooey, Al Walters & $15,000
Dec 26 1st day of 1st-class cricket in Aust after WW I (Vic v NSW)
Dec 26 After spending Christmas with American troops in France, Wilson goes to London for preliminary discussions about the forthcoming peace conference
Dec 27 The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.

Dec 30 John E Hoover decides to be called J. Edgar Hoover

Dec 1 Kirby Laing, English contractor/multi-millionaire
Dec 2 Milton Delugg, orchestra leader (Tonight Show), born in Los Angeles, California
Dec 3 Abdul Haris Nasution, Indonesian general (d. 2000)
Dec 6 Granville James Leveson Gower, land owner
Dec 6 Harold Horace Hopkins, inventor (Endoscope)
Dec 6 Peter A Juten, office clerk/resistance fighter
Dec 6 Willem Oosterheers, resistance fighter
Dec 7 Jorunn Vidar, composer
Dec 8 Ian Johnson, cricketer (Australian Test captbetween Hassett & Craig)
Dec 8 Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)
Dec 9 Jerome Beatty Jr., American author
Dec 10 Anne Gwynne [Marguerite Gwynne Trice], American model and actress (Ride 'em Cowboy, House of Frankenstein), born in Waco, Texas (d. 2003)
Dec 10 Anatoli Tarasov, Russian ice hockey coach (d. 1995)

Dec 11 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer (Cancer Ward, Nobel 1970), born in Kislovodsk, Russia (d. 2008)

Dec 12 Joe Williams [Joseph Goreed], Cordele, Georgia, American jazz singer (Everyday I have the Blues)
Dec 12 Nilda Pinto, [NM Geerdink-Jesurun P], Curacao writer (Nanzi)
Dec 14 James T. Aubrey, American television executive (d. 1994)
Dec 14 B.K.S. Iyengar, Indian yoga advocate
Dec 15 Jeff Chandler [Ira Grossel], American actor (Broken Arrow), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1961)
Dec 16 Henry Clarke, fashion photographer
Dec 16 Pierre Delanoë, French songwriter and lyricist (d. 2006)
Dec 19 Professor Longhair [Henry Roeland Byrd], American blues singer and pianist, born in Bogalusa, Louisiana (d. 1980)
Dec 21 Donald Regan, White House staffer/US Secretary of Treasury (1981-85)
Dec 21 Kurt Waldheim, Austrian 4th Secretary-General of the United Nations (1972-81) and 9th President of Austria (1986-92), born in Sankt Andrä-Wördern, Austria (d. 2007)
Dec 22 Frankie Darro [Frank Johnson], American actor (Radio Ranch, Wild Boys of the Road, Valley of Wanted Men), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1976)
Dec 22 William Kennedy, baseball player
Dec 23 Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany (SPD, 1974- 82), born in Hamburg (d. 2015)
Dec 23 Jose Greco, Italian flamenco dancer (Holiday for Lovers)
Dec 23 Kumar Pallana, Indian character actor and vaudevillian (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore), born in Indore, India (d. 2013)

Dec 25 Anwar Sadat, 3rd President of Egypt (1970-81, Nobel 1978), born in Monufia, Egypt (d. 1981)

Dec 25 Eddie Safranski, orchestra leader (Jonathan Winters Show), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dec 25 Ahmed Ben Bella, Maghnia, Algeria, politician, first President of Algeria, (d. 2012)
Dec 26 George Rallis, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2006)
Dec 27 John Celardo, American comic strip artist
Dec 30 W Eugene Smith, US photographer (Saipan, Walk to Paradise Garden)

Dec 17 Philippine Senator (and later 2nd President) Manuel L. Quezon (40) weds first cousin Aurora Aragon (30) in Hong Kong

Dec 30 Gangster Al Capone (19) marries Mae Josephine Coughlin, mother of his child