Historical Events in 1918

Events 1 - 200 of 308

• Jan 1 4th Rose Bowl, Tournament Park, Pasadena, California: Mare Island, USMC beats Camp Lewis, US Army, 19-7; MVP: Hollis Huntington, USMC
• Jan 1 Last day of the Julian calendar in Finland

• Jan 2 Montreal Arena in Westmount, Quebec, the home rink of 4-time Stanley Cup winners the Montreal Wanderers burns down leading to the club disbanding
• Jan 3 US Employment Service opens as a unit of the Department of Labor
• Jan 5 British premier Lloyd George demand for unified peace

• Jan 12 Finland's "Mosaic Confessors" law comes into effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens

• Jan 14 Finland and USSR adopt New Style (Gregorian) calendar
• Jan 16 Austria and Germany are disrupted by strikes as people express impatience with leaders continuing the war
• Jan 19 Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard
• Jan 19 Soviets disallow a Constitution Assembly
• Jan 22 Ukraine proclaimed a free republic (German puppet)
• Jan 25 Russia declared a republic of Soviets

• Jan 27 "Tarzan of the Apes", 1st Tarzan film, premieres at Broadway Theater
• Jan 27 The first hostilities occurred in the Finnish Civil War.
• Jan 28 Finnish Civil War: Rebels seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland go underground
• Jan 28 Strike on Berlin ammunition factory
• Jan 29 Ukrainian-Soviet War: Battle of Kruty
• Jan 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.
• Feb 1 Franz Lehar's opera "Wo die Lerche singt" ("Where The Lark Sings") premieres at the Király Theatre in Budapest, Hungary

• Feb 3 Twin Peaks Tunnel for streetcars begins service in San Francisco, at 11,920 feet one of world's longest
• Feb 5 1st US pilot to down an enemy airplane, Stephen W. Thompson
• Feb 5 Separation of church and state begins in USSR
• Feb 6 Great Britain grants women (30 & over) the vote
• Feb 8 "Stars & Stripes,", weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published
• Feb 9 Sacha Guitry's "Deburan" premieres in Paris
• Feb 9 US Army chaplain school organizes at Ft Monroe, Virginia
• Feb 10 In Finland, General Carl Gustaf Emil Von Mannerheim gathers an army known as the 'White Guard' to mount a counter revolution against the Bolshevik 'Red Guard'

• Feb 11 US President Woodrow Wilson makes another speech before Congress and announces 'the Four Principles' - freedom of navigation, and end to secret diplomacy, and similar items - that supplement his Fourteen Points

• Feb 14 USSR adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1)
• Feb 15 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania adopt the Gregorian calendar
• Feb 15 US army troop ship torpedoed & sunk by Germany off Ireland
• Feb 16 Lithuania declares independence from Russia & Germany (National Day)
• Feb 18 Germany renews its offensive against the Russians, making dramatic gains against disorganized and dispirited Russian troops
• Feb 21 Australians chase Turkish troop out of Jericho, Dutch Palestine
• Feb 21 The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo (Cincinnati, Ohio)
• Feb 22 Germany claims Baltic states, Finland & Ukraine from Russia
• Feb 23 First victory of Red Army over the Kaiser's German troops near Narva and Pskov. Since 1923 this date become the Day of Red Army in honour of this victory.
• Feb 24 Estonia declares independence from Russia
• Feb 26 Stands at Hong Kong Jockey Club collapse & burn, killing 604
• Mar 2 Joe Malone goes scoreless in Montreal Canadiens' 5-3 season-ending loss to Toronto Arenas; finishes the first NHL season with 44 goals, a record that stands until 1944-45
• Mar 3 Facing internal counterrevolutionary pressures and external German offensive, Bolsheviks forced to sign harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and Austria
• Mar 3 Richard Goering's "Seeschlacht" premieres in Berlin
• Mar 4 Terek Autonomous Republic established in RSFSR (until 1921)

• Mar 6 US naval boat "Cyclops" disappears in Bermuda Triangle
• Mar 7 H Carroll & J McCarthy's musical "Oh, Look!" premieres in NYC
• Mar 7 President Woodrow Wilson authorizes US Army's Distinguished Service Medal
• Mar 7 World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany
• Mar 9 Russian Bolshevik Party becomes the Communist Party
• Mar 9 Ukrainian mobs massacre Jews of Seredino Buda
• Mar 9 Wageningen Agricultural College Netherlands opens
• Mar 11 Conservationists John Merriam, Madison Grant, and Henry Fairfield Osborn found "Save the Redwoods League" - a non-profit forest conservation land trust in San Francisco, California founded

• Mar 13 1st NHL championship: Toronto Arenas beat Montreal Canadiens, outscoring them 10-7 in a 2 game set
• Mar 13 American Red Magen David (Jewish Red Cross) forms
• Mar 13 Leon Trotsky gains control of the Red Army
• Mar 14 1st concrete ship to cross the Atlantic (Faith) is launched in San Francisco
• Mar 16 Geoffrey O'Hara's "K-K-K-Katy" song published
• Mar 17 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Rosemary Beresford

• Mar 18 Soccer team SON OF Meerssen forms
• Mar 18 Socialist Youth AJC organizes in Amsterdam
• Mar 19 S Potter becomes 1st US pilot to shoot down a German seaplane
• Mar 19 US adopts Standard Time Act of 1918, also known as the Calder Act, a federal law implementing standard time (and daylight saving time) and defining five time zones for the United States
• Mar 21 World War I: Germany launches Somme offensive
• Mar 23 Alick Wickham dives 200' into Australia's Yarra River
• Mar 23 German forces advance 14 miles to the Somme River (WW1)
• Mar 23 Germany begins using long-range gun, the 'Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz' ('Emperor William Gun'), aka 'Paris Gun' to shell Paris from Crépy-en-Laonnais, 75 miles away; over several days, 303 rounds kill 256 and wound over 600
• Mar 23 Lithuania proclaims independence
• Mar 25 Belarusian People's Republic is established
• Mar 27 Moldova and Bessarabia join Romania
• Mar 30 Stanley Cup, Mutual Street Arena, Toronto, ON: Toronto Arenas (NHL) beat Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA), 2-1 for a 3-2 series victory; first series contested by the new NHL
• Mar 31 1st daylight savings time in US goes into effect

• Apr 1 United Kingdom: the Royal Air Force is created from the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps.
• Apr 3 US House of Representatives accepts American Creed written by William Tyler
• Apr 4 Food riot in Amsterdam
• Apr 13 Electrical fire kills 38 mental patients at Oklahoma State Hospital
• Apr 14 Douglas Campbell is 1st US ace pilot (shooting down 5th German plane)
• Apr 15 22nd Boston Marathon won by Camp Devens relay team; race run as relay for 10-man military teams

• Apr 16 The British House of Commons passes a new Military Service Bill, taking men up to 55 years old and extending to Ireland

• Apr 18 The People's Council of Latvia proclaims the independence of the new country of Latvia

• Apr 21 World War I: German fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen "The Red Baron", shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France, Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown credited with the kill
• Apr 23 Dover Patrol overthrows Germany U-boat in East Sea
• Apr 23 Raid of Zeebrugge; the British navy attempts to block German vessels from leaving port by sinking obsolete ships - mostly fails
• Apr 27 Giants' 9-0 winning start & Dodgers' 0-9 losing streak are stopped
• Apr 29 Tris Speaker ties career outfield record of 4 unassisted double plays
• Apr 30 Orange Nassau soccer team forms in Groningen
• May 2 General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
• May 10 HMS Vindictive sunk to block entrance of Ostend Harbor
• May 11 44th Kentucky Derby: William Knapp on Exterminator wins in 2:10.8
• May 13 1st US airmail stamps issued (24 cents)
• May 14 Sunday baseball is made legal in Washington, D.C.
• May 15 1st regular US airmail postal service between NY, Philadelphia & Washington, D.C.
• May 15 43rd Preakness: Johnny Loftus aboard War Cloud wins in 1:53.6
• May 15 Greeks troops land at Smyrna
• May 15 The Finnish Civil War ends

• May 16 The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
• May 18 Dutch Indian Volksraad installed in Batavia
• May 18 TNT explosion in chemical factory in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, kills 200
• May 19 Wash 1st Sunday game, Senators beat Cleveland 1-0 in 18 innings
• May 20 1st electrically propelled warship (New Mexico)
• May 21 US House of Representatives passes amendment allowing women to vote
• May 23 King Oil/Shell refinery on Curacao officially opens
• May 24 British officer General Poole lands at Murmansk, the Russian port on the Barents Sea
• May 24 Cleveland starter Stan Coveleski sets club record for most innings pitched (19) in a complete game as the Indians beat the New York Yankees, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds, NYC
• May 26 Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarapat
• May 26 Georgian Social Democratic Republic declares independence from Russia
• May 27 Third Battle of Aisne: German offensive overcomes British forces (WWI)
• May 28 Azerbaijan gains independence and declares itself a Democratic Republic
• May 28 The Armenian National Council declares Armenia independent from the Russian Empire

• Jun 1 Chicago White Sox losing 5-4 against NY Yankees, load the bases in 9th with no outs; Chick Gandil lines to Frank Baker who turns a rare game winning triple play
• Jun 3 Boston Red Sox pitcher Dutch Leonard throws his 2nd no-hitter; beats Detroit Tigers, 5-0 at Navin Field
• Jun 3 US Supreme Court in Hammer v. Dagenhart rules child labor laws unconstitutional
• Jun 4 French troops, with the aid of US troops, stop the Germans at Chateau-Thierry as they attempt to cross the Marne
• Jun 6 Battle of Belleau Wood, 1st US victory of WW I
• Jun 8 Nova Aquila, brightest nova since Kepler's nova of 1604, discovered
• Jun 12 1st aerial bombing raid by an American unit, France
• Jun 13 Phillies and Cards tie 8-8 in 19 innings
• Jun 15 1" of snow falls in Northern Pennsylvania
• Jun 22 Circus train rammed by troop train kills 68 (Ivanhoe, Illinois)
• Jun 22 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Molla Bjurstedt beats Eleanor Goss 6-4, 6-3 for her 4th consecutive US singles title
• Jun 25 Baku-Turkish communist party forms
• Jun 26 The Australian steamer Wimmera is sunk by a mine laid north of Cape Maria van Diemen in 1917 by the German raider Wolf; 26 of its 151 passengers and crew were killed
• Jun 28 1st flight between Hawaiian Islands
• Jun 29 A provisional government opposed to the Bolsheviks establishes itself at Vladivostok, the Russian port on the Sea of Japan
• Jun 30 Prominent US Socialist and Pacifist Eugene Debs is arrested on charges of denouncing the government, a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917
• Jul 3 SDAP'er Suze Groenweg elected 1st woman in Dutch parliament
• Jul 4 Altar dedicated at full-scale replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill, Washington

• Jul 9 101 killed and 171 injured in worst US train wreck, Nashville, Tennessee
• Jul 9 US Congress creates Distinguished Service Medal (not to be confused with other countries' decorations of the same name)
• Jul 10 Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic forms
• Jul 12 Japanese battleship explodes in Bay of Tokayama, 500 killed
• Jul 15 World War I: Second Battle of Marne begins
• Jul 17 Longest errorless game, Cubs beat Phillies 2-1 in 21 innings

• Jul 18 World War I: US and French forces launch Aisne-Marne offensive
• Jul 19 Washington Senators catcher Eddie Ainsmith applies for draft deferment; Secretary of War, Newton D Baker rules baseball players not draft exempt but later moves date to 1 September; both leagues end regular season 2 September
• Jul 19 World War I: German armies retreat across Marne River in France
• Jul 21 U-156 shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts
• Jul 22 Lightning kills 504 sheep in Utah's Wasatch National Park
• Jul 25 Annette Adams sworn in as 1st woman district attorney of US, California
• Jul 25 Race riot in Chester Pennsylvania (3 blacks and 2 whites killed)
• Jul 26 Race riot in Philadelphia (3 whites & 1 black killed)
• Jul 27 Socony 200, 1st concrete barge in US, launched to carry oil, NY
• Aug 1 British troops enter Vladivostok
• Aug 1 Pittsburgh and Boston Braves play a MLB record 20 scoreless innings before Pirates win, 2-0 in 21
• Aug 2 Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I
• Aug 3 The first allied troops land at Archangel, the Russian port on the White Seas

• Aug 6 Ferdinand Foch becomes Marshal of France during WWI
• Aug 6 World War I: Second Battle of the Marne ends
• Aug 8 World War I: The Allies launch the Hundred Days Offensive, beginning with the Battle of Amiens where 500 tanks and 10 Allied divisions attacked German lines
• Aug 9 Cincinnati Reds manager Christy Mathewson suspects Hal Chase of taking bribes to fix games, and suspends him "for indifferent play"
• Aug 12 WWI: Allies defeat Germans at the Battle of Amiens - the last great battle on the Western Front
• Aug 13 Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany
• Aug 15 Longest work of animation then produced - "The Sinking of Lusitania" by Winsor McCay
• Aug 16 US troops overrun at Archangelsk by Bolshevik troops
• Aug 17 Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated
• Aug 17 British troops attack Baku, Azerbaijan
• Aug 17 Samuel Riddle buys Man o'War for $5,000
• Aug 17 Turkish troops overthrow Caukasus

• Aug 20 WWI: Britain opens offensive on Western front
• Aug 24 Chicago Cubs, win earliest pennent ever (season ended Sept 2)
• Aug 24 Sect Baker grants extended exemption to World Series players
• Aug 26 Winchell Smith & Frank Bacon's comedic play "Lightnin'" premieres in NYC
• Aug 27 Christy Mathewson resigns as Cincinnati Reds manager to accept a commission as a captain in chemical warfare branch of US Army
• Aug 27 Dr Joseph L Johnson named as US minister to Liberia
• Aug 27 Spanish flu arrives in Boston, beginning of the second wave and deadliest wave in the US
• Aug 28 Tris Speaker suspended for season due to assault on umpire Tom Connolly
• Aug 29 Bapaume taken by Australian Corps and Canadian Corps in the Hundred Days Offensive
• Aug 30 Czechoslovakia forms independent republic
• Aug 30 Fanya Kaplan attempts but fails to assassinate Lenin, new leader of Soviet Russia
• Aug 31 Boston Red Sox, win earliest AL pennent ever (season ended Sept 2)
• Sep 1 Battle of Megiddo starts, the final Allied offense during Sinai and Palestine campaign won by the Allies
• Sep 1 US troops land in Vladivostok, Siberia, stay until 1920
• Sep 3 5 soldiers hanged for alleged participation in Houston riot (or Camp Logan riot); in all 19 mutineers were executed.
• Sep 3 Allies forced Germans back across Hindenburg Line

• Sep 4 Jhr Ch Ruys de Beerenbrouck becomes 1st Dutch Catholic premier
• Sep 4 US troops land in Archangel, Russia, stay 10 months
• Sep 5 Decree "On Red Terror" is published in Russia
• Sep 5 Due to WWI, 15th Baseball World Series begins a month early; Boston Red Sox defeat Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Comiskey Park

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next