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influenza epidemic of 1918–19

or Spanish influenza epidemic

Most severe influenza outbreak of the 20th century. It apparently started as a fairly mild strain in a U.S. army camp in early March 1918. Troops sent to fight in World War I spread the virus to western Europe. Outbreaks occurred in nearly every inhabited part of the world, spreading from ports to cities along transportation routes. Pneumonia often developed quickly and killed within two days. Among the most deadly epidemics in history, it left an estimated 25 million dead; unusually, half the deaths were among 20- to 40-year-olds.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

1918

Year 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1918

January

January 8 - Woodrow Wilson delivers his Fourteen Points speech.
January 12 - Finland enacts "Mosaic Confessors" law granting Finnish Jews civil rights.
January 25 - The Ukrainian people declare independence from Bolshevik Russia.
January 27 - Breakout of the Finnish Civil War.

February

February 14 - Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, date skips from February 1 to February 14.
February 16 - The Council of Lithuania adopts the Act of Independence of Lithuania, declaring Lithuania's independence from the Russian Empire.
February 24 - After 7 centuries of foreign rule, Estonia declares its independence from the Russian Empire. The country is occupied by Germany the next day. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia also declare their independence from the Russian Empire but as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

March

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 4 - A soldier at Camp Fuston, Kansas falls sick with the first confirmed case of the Spanish Flu.
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.
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.
The Social Revolutionary Party declares Belarus independent; Bolshevik armies soon crush them.

March 25 - Belarus declares independence.
March 27 - Bessarabia votes for becoming a part of Romania.

April

April 1 - The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service are merged to form the Royal Air Force.

May

May 1 - German troops enter Don province; they take Rostov May 6.
May 2 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
May 11 - The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was officially established.
May 15 - The United States Post Office Department (later renamed the United States Postal Service) 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 20 - The small town of Codell, Kansas was hit for the third year in a row by a tornado in 1918. Coincidentally, all three tornadoes hit on May 20th, 1916, 1917, and 1918 respectively.
May 26 - The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic is abolished. Georgia declares its independence as the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
May 27 - The Third Battle of the Aisne commenced.
May 28 - Armenia and Azerbaijan declare their independence as the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic respectively.

June

June 1 - World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
June 22 - Suspects in the Chicago Restaurant Poisonings arrested and more than 100 waiters taken into custody for poisoning restaurant customers with a lethal powder called Mickey Finn (drugs).

July

July 3- 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 (1918-1922).
July 9 - Great train wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express killing 101.
July 12 - At least 621 killed, Japanese Imperial Navy battle ship Kawachi blew up at Shunan, western Honshu, Japan.
July 13 - The National Czechoslovak Committee was established.
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.
July 17 - RMS Carpathia, the rescue ship of the RMS Titanic, is sunk off the coast of Ireland by the German U-55 with 5 lives lost.

August

August - "Spanish Flu" Influenza becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people die in the following six months (almost twice 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 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.
Lenin is shot by Fanya Kaplan, but he survives. Moisei Uritsky, the Petrograd head of Cheka is assassinated the same day.

September

September 11 - The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship, their last World Series win until 2004.
September 29 - Bulgaria requests an armistice in World War I.

October

October 3 - Kaiser makes Max von Baden German chancellor.
October 3 - Abdication of King Ferdinand of Bulgaria in the wake of the collapse of the Bulgarian military position in World War I. He is succeeded by his son, Boris III.
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 11 - The city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico and other adjacent towns was nearly destroyed by an 7.5 earthquake and a tsunami.
October 12 - The city of Cloquet, Minnesota and nearby areas are destroyed in a fire killing 453, known as the 1918 Cloquet Fire.
October 15 - The great spiritual teacher Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi attained his MAHASAMADHI
October 18

Washington Declaration proclaimed the independent Czechoslovak Republic.

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 from Austria-Hungary.
New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe)

October 30

The Martin Declaration is published, including Slovakia in the formation of Czecho-Slovak state.
Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen is conceded independence from the Ottoman Empire by the Armistice of Mudros.

October 31

The Hungarian government terminates the personal union with Austria, officially dissolving the Austro-Hungarian empire.

October - Mammy Lou becomes the oldest person to ever star in a film, at age 114.

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.
Ruthenia in eastern Czechoslovakia declares brief independence

November 3

World War I: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.
Poland declares its independence from Russia.

November 4

World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
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.
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. It becomes official on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Poland regains independence after 123 years of partitions. Józef Piłsudski is appointed Commander-in-Chief.
Emperor Charles I of Austria gives up his absolute power but does not abdicate.

November 12 - Austria becomes a republic.
November 14

Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
Józef Piłsudski is appointed head of state of Poland

November 16

Hungary declares independence from Austria
Hungarian People's Republic declared

November 18 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
November 22

Spartacist League founds German Communist Party
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 - Estonian Freedom War: Bolshevist Russia invades Estonia, beginning of the war. A socialist republic is established in Narva the next day.
November 30 - Ernest Ansermet conducts the first concert by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

December

December 1

Iceland becomes a self-governing kingdom, yet remains in personal union with the king of Denmark who also becomes king of the Kingdom of Iceland.
New voting laws in Sweden: votes no longer dependent on taxable assets; one person, one vote.
Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia. Following the March 27 incorporation of Bessarabia and Bucovina, Transylvania unites with Romania.
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 20 - Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk returned to the Czechoslovak Republic.
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 British House of Commons.
December 31 – A British-brokered ceasefire ends two weeks of Armeno-Georgian fighting.

Undated

Habsburg Empire ceases to exist.
Grand Duchy of Baden ceases to exist.
British occupy Palestine
Native American Church is formally founded.
Association Against the Prohibition Amendment founded to promote repeal of prohibition in U.S.
United Business Media founded in London (as United Newspapers Ltd.)
The last captive Carolina Parakeet dies at Cincinnati Zoo - the last breed of parrot native to North America.

Ongoing

Finnish Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, from January - April.
Katla erupts in Iceland, from 12 October - 4 November.

Births

January - February

January 1 - Patrick Anthony Porteous, Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross (d. 2000)
January 10 - Arthur Chung, President of Guyana (d. 2008)
January 15 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, 2nd President of Egypt (d. 1970)
January 16

Nel Benschop, Dutch poet (d. 2005)
Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (d. 1996)

January 19 - John H. Johnson, American publisher (d. 2005)
January 20 - Juan García Esquivel, Mexican bandleader (d. 2002)
January 21

Richard D. Winters, U.S. Army officer
Chichay, Filipino actress (d. 1993)

January 23 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
January 24 - Oral Roberts, American neo-Pentecostal televangelist
January 25 - Ernie Harwell, American baseball sportscaster
January 26

Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
Philip José Farmer, American writer

January 27

Skitch Henderson, English-born musician and bandleader (d. 2005)
Elmore James, American musician (d. 1963)

January 29 - John Forsythe, American actor

February 1 - Muriel Spark, Scottish author (d. 2006)
February 2 - Hella Haasse, Dutch writer
February 3

Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
Joey Bishop, American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack (d. 2007)

February 4

Ida Lupino, English actress, screenwriter, director/producer (d. 1995)
Janet Waldo, American Actress & Voice Artist, (voice of Judy Jetson on The Jetsons)

February 6 - Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author (d. 2007)
February 7 - Markey Robinson, 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 15 - Allan Arbus, Dr. Sidney Freedman on M*A*S*H
February 16 - Patty Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters)
February 17 - William Bronk, American poet (d. 1999)
February 20 - Ben Klassen, founder of the Creativity racist sect. (d. 1993)
February 22

Don Pardo, Saturday Night Live announcer
Robert Pershing Wadlow, American tallest man record-holder (d. 1940)
Charlie Finley, Owner of the Oakland A's 1960-80 (d. 1996)

February 25

Barney Ewell, American athlete (d. 1996)
Bobby Riggs, American tennis player (d. 1995)

February 26 - Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (d. 1985)

March - April

March 1

Roger Delgado, British actor (d. 1973)
João Goulart, President of Brazil (d. 1976)

March 3

Arthur Kornberg, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2007)
Fritz Thiedemann, German equestrian (d. 2000)

March 4 - Margaret Osborne duPont, former American female tennis player
March 5 - James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
March 9

George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (d. 1967)
Mickey Spillane, American writer (d. 2006)

March 11 - Jack Coe, American evangelist (d. 1956)
March 12 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (d. 1989)
March 15 - William McIntyre, Canadian Puisne Justice
March 16 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
March 17 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
March 18 - Bob Broeg, American sports writer (d. 2005)
March 20 - Jack Barry, American television game show host and producer (d. 1984)
March 22 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (d. 1997)
March 23 - Émile Derlin Zinsou, President of Benin
March 25 - Howard Cosell, American attorney, lecturer, and sports journalist (d. 1995)
March 29

Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (d. 1990)
Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart (d. 1992)

March 30 - Joseph Allen (Jr.), American actor (d. 1962)
April 8 - Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States
April 9 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect
April 16 - Spike Milligan, Irish comedian (d. 2002)
April 17 - William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)
April 18 - Clifton Hillegass, American author, founder of CliffsNotes (d. 2001)
April 20 - Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2007)
April 22 - Mickey Vernon, baseball player
April 22 - William Jay Smith, American poet
April 26 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)

May - June

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
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 country music singer (d. 2008)
Joseph Wiseman, Canadian actor

May 16 - Wilf Mannion, English footballer (d. 2000)
May 17 - Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano (d. 2005)
May 19 - Abraham Pais, Dutch-born American physicist (d. 2000)
May 20 - Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
May 23 - Frank Mancuso, major league baseball player and politician (d. 2007)
May 27 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister of Japan, 1982-87
May 30 (towards) - Károly Doncsecz, Slovenian potter, Master of folk art (d. 2002)

June 4 - Johnny Klein, American drummer (d. 1997)
June 6 - Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
June 8 - Robert Preston, American Actor in The Music Man (d. 1987)
June 18

Jerome Karle, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
Franco Modigliani, Italian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)

July - August

July 4

Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
Abigail Van Buren, American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, King of Tonga (d. 2006)

July 5 - George Rochberg, American composer (d. 2005)
July 6 - Sebastian Cabot, American Actor (d. 1977)
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 (d. 2007)
July 15 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
July 16 - Bayani Casimiro, Filipino dancer and actor (d. 1989)
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 25 - Jane Frank, American artist (d. 1986)
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

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 26 - Hutton Gibson, Mel Gibson's father; a writer on religion
August 30 - Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)