WORLD HISTORY · 1918 日本語
Events of 1918Taisho 7 (Japan) · Year of the Horse
What happened in 1918?
In 1918, the Rice Riots broke out in Toyama Prefecture, and Hara Takashi formed a new cabinet. Around the world, President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points, and World War I ended with the signing of an armistice.
- Wilson announces the Fourteen PointsNorth America
- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concludedEurope
- First Spanish flu case reported in United StatesNorth America
- Matsushita Konosuke founds Matsushita ElectricAsia
- Japanese and British troops land at VladivostokAsia
- Rice Riots erupt in Toyama PrefectureAsia
- Hara Takashi becomes prime minister, forms cabinetAsia
- World War I endsEurope
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1918 at a glance
| Japanese era | Taisho 7 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Horse |
| Age of people born in 1918 | Turn 108 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1917 (Taisho 6) ／ 1919 (Taisho 8) |
| Events | 145 |
| AP World History | Unit 7 (Global Conflict) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 7 |
Famous people born in 1918
Our birthday pages list 422 people born in 1918. Here are some of them.
- Sam WaltonBorn March 29 · turns 108 this year · American businessman who founded Walmart and Sam's Club, building the nation's…
- Richard FeynmanBorn May 11 · turns 108 this year · American physicist who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize for work on quantum electrod…
- Nelson MandelaBorn July 18 · turns 108 this year · South African anti-apartheid leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the countr…
- Leonard BernsteinBorn August 25 · turns 108 this year · American conductor and composer who led the New York Philharmonic and wrote the…
- Katherine JohnsonBorn August 26 · turns 108 this year · American NASA mathematician whose flight-path calculations helped send the firs…
- Ted WilliamsBorn August 30 · turns 108 this year · Boston Red Sox outfielder and Hall of Famer, the last major leaguer to bat over…
- Rita HayworthBorn October 17 · turns 108 this year · American actress and dancer who became Hollywood's "Love Goddess" after starrin…
- Billy GrahamBorn November 7 · turns 108 this year · American Christian evangelist whose large preaching crusades and broadcasts rea…
- Kakuei TanakaBorn May 4 · turns 108 this year
- Yasuhiro NakasoneBorn May 27 · turns 108 this year
- Patrick Anthony PorteousBorn January 1 · turns 108 this year
- Willy den OudenBorn January 1 · turns 108 this year
Show 28 more
- Willi GrafBorn January 2 · turns 108 this year
- Alma ZieglerBorn January 9 · turns 108 this year
- Arthur ChungBorn January 10 · turns 108 this year
- Les BennettBorn January 10 · turns 108 this year
- Robert C. O'BrienBorn January 11 · turns 108 this year
- Spencer WalklateBorn January 11 · turns 108 this year
- Gamal Abdel NasserBorn January 15 · turns 108 this year
- João FigueiredoBorn January 15 · turns 108 this year
- Édouard GagnonBorn January 15 · turns 108 this year
- Allan EkelundBorn January 16 · turns 108 this year
- Clem JonesBorn January 16 · turns 108 this year
- Nel BenschopBorn January 16 · turns 108 this year
- Stirling SilliphantBorn January 16 · turns 108 this year
- George M. LeaderBorn January 17 · turns 108 this year
- Keith JosephBorn January 17 · turns 108 this year
- Gustave GingrasBorn January 18 · turns 108 this year
- John H. JohnsonBorn January 19 · turns 108 this year
- Juan García EsquivelBorn January 20 · turns 108 this year
- Nevin ScrimshawBorn January 20 · turns 108 this year
- Antonio JanigroBorn January 21 · turns 108 this year
- Jimmy HaganBorn January 21 · turns 108 this year
- Richard WintersBorn January 21 · turns 108 this year
- Elmer LachBorn January 22 · turns 108 this year
- Charlie KerinsBorn January 23 · turns 108 this year
- Florence RushBorn January 23 · turns 108 this year
- Gertrude B. ElionBorn January 23 · turns 108 this year
- Gottfried von EinemBorn January 24 · turns 108 this year
- Oral RobertsBorn January 24 · turns 108 this year
Events of 1918 (timeline · 145)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
The Finnish Declaration of Independence is recognized by Russia, Sweden, Germany and France.
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" as conditions for ending World War I.
The Minnie Pit Disaster coal mining accident occurs in Halmer End, Staffordshire, in which 155 men and boys die.
Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles take place between the Red Guards and the White Guard.
The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective February 14 (New Style).
The Finnish Defence Forces (The White Guards) are established as the official army of independent Finland, and Baron C. G. E. Mannerheim is appointed its Commander-in-Chief.
Finnish Civil War: A group of Red Guards hangs a red lantern atop the tower of Helsinki Workers' Hall to symbolically mark the start of the war.
Finnish Civil War: The Red Guard rebels seize control of the capital, Helsinki; members of the Senate of Finland go underground.
Ukrainian–Soviet War: The Bolshevik Red Army, on its way to besiege Kyiv, is met by a small group of military students at the Battle of Kruty.
Ukrainian–Soviet War: An armed uprising organized by the Bolsheviks in anticipation of the encroaching Red Army begins at the Kiev Arsenal, which will be put down six days later.
A series of accidental collisions due to poor visibility leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
Finnish Civil War: The Suinula massacre, which changes the nature of the war in a more hostile direction, takes place in Kangasala.
The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,630 meters) long.
SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.
The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.
World War I: German forces capture Tallinn to virtually complete the occupation of Estonia.
Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, agreeing to withdraw from World War I, and conceding German control of the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine. It also conceded Turkish control of Ardahan, Kars and Batumi.
A case of influenza is recorded at Camp Funston, Kansas, conventionally marking the beginning of the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic.
Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for most of the period since 1713.
Finnish Civil War: Battle of Länkipohja is infamous for its bloody aftermath as the Whites execute 70–100 capitulated Reds.
World War I: The first phase of the German spring offensive, Operation Michael, begins.
First World War: On the third day of the German Spring Offensive, the 10th Battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment is annihilated with many of the men becoming prisoners of war.
Finnish Civil War: On the so-called "Bloody Maundy Thursday of Tampere", the Whites force the Reds to attack the city center, where the city's fiercest battles being fought in Kalevankangas with large casualties on both sides. During the same day, an explosion at the Red headquarters of Tampere kills several commanders.
General John J. Pershing, during World War I, cancels 42nd 'Rainbow' Division's orders to Rolampont for further training and diverted it to the occupy the Baccarat sector. Rainbow Division becomes "the first American division to take over an entire sector on its own, which it held longer than any other American division-occupied sector alone for a period of three months".
Beginning of the bloody March Events in Baku and other locations of Baku Governorate.
Massacre of ethnic Azerbaijanis is committed by allied armed groups of Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Bolsheviks. Nearly 12,000 Azerbaijani Muslims are killed.
The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
World War I: The Battle of the Lys: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps is crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders.
World War I: Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.
World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
World War I: The British Royal Navy makes a raid in an attempt to neutralise the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge.
World War I: First tank-to-tank combat, during the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. Three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
World War I: Germany repels Britain's second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium.
The Finnish Civil War ends when the Whites take over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from Russian troops.
The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.
The victory military parade by the Finnish White Guard is held in Helsinki celebrating their decisive victory in the Finnish Civil War. The day also begin to be celebrated on the Defence Forces Flag Day before it is moved in 1942 to the June 4th.
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the First Republic of Armenia declare their independence.
World War I: Western Front: Battle of Belleau Wood: Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
World War I: U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties during the Battle of Belleau Wood while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry (the losses are exceeded at the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943).
World War I: The Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Szent István sinks off the Croatian coast after being torpedoed by an Italian MAS motorboat; the event is recorded by camera from a nearby vessel.
World War I: Allied forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince in the Battle of Belleau Wood.
World War I: The Battle of Hamel, a successful attack by the Australian Corps against German positions near the town of Le Hamel on the Western Front.
Mehmed V died at the age of 73 and Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
The Left SR uprising in Russia starts with the assassination of German ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach by Cheka members.
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.
The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kawachi blows up at Shunan, western Honshu, Japan, killing at least 621.
World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
The RMS Carpathia is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.
Emmy Noether's paper, which became known as Noether's theorem was presented at Göttingen, Germany, from which conservation laws are deduced for symmetries of angular momentum, linear momentum, and energy.
World War I: The Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous Allied victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive).
Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha May Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is established as a public company in Germany.
The Battle of Lake Baikal is fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army.
Mexican Revolution: Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas as part of the Mexican Border War.
World War I: Bapaume taken by the New Zealand Division in the Hundred Days Offensive.
Fanni Kaplan shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, which, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.
World War I: Start of the Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin, a successful assault by the Australian Corps during the Hundred Days Offensive.
World War I: Allied troops break through the Bulgarian defenses on the Macedonian front.
The battle of Megiddo begins in which British forces attack the right flank of the Ottoman army during World War I.
World War I: British forces capture Haifa, Acre, and Es Salt from the Ottoman Empire.
World War I: The end of the Battle of Megiddo, the climax of the British Army's Sinai and Palestine campaign under General Edmund Allenby.
World War I: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive began which would last until the total surrender of German forces.
World War I: Germany's Supreme Army Command tells Kaiser Wilhelm II and Imperial Chancellor Georg Michaelis to open negotiations for an armistice to end the war.
Ukrainian War of Independence: Insurgent forces led by Nestor Makhno defeats the Central Powers at the battle of Dibrivka.
World War I: An explosion kills more than 100 people and destroys a Shell Loading Plant in New Jersey.
World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
The Finnish Parliament elects Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse as King of Finland, but he never accedes to the throne due to Germany's defeat in World War I.
RMS Leinster is torpedoed and sunk by UB-123, killing 564, the largest loss of life on the Irish Sea.
The 7.1 Mw San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico. The quake and resulting tsunami kill up to 116 people.
World War I: Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.
World War I: Czech politicians peacefully take over the city of Prague, thus establishing the First Czechoslovak Republic.
World War I: A new Polish government in western Galicia is established, triggering the Polish–Ukrainian War.
World War I: the German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19.
World War I: Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, a state union of Kingdom of Hungary and Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia is abolished with decisions of Croatian and Hungarian parliaments.
World War I: The Aster Revolution terminates the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, and Hungary achieves full sovereignty.
World War I: With a brave action carried out into the waters of the Austro-Hungarian port of Pula, two officers of the Italian Regia Marina sink with a manned torpedo the enemy battleship SMS Viribus Unitis.
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 102 deaths.
The German Revolution of 1918–19 begins when 40,000 sailors take over the port in Kiel.
World War I: The Armistice of Villa Giusti between Italy and Austria-Hungary is implemented.
The 1918 influenza epidemic spreads to Western Samoa, killing 7,542 (about 20% of the population) by the end of the year.
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic.
The Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, receives a top-secret coded message from Europe (that would be sent to Ottawa and Washington, D.C.) that said on November 11, 1918, all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.
Józef Piłsudski assumes supreme military power in Poland – symbolic first day of Polish independence.
World War I: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne.
Dissolution of Austria-Hungary: Austria becomes a republic. After the proclamation, a coup attempt by the communist Red Guard is defeated by the social-democratic Volkswehr.
World War I: Allied troops occupy Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
The Provisional National Assembly of the new republic of Czechoslovakia meets to devise a constitution.
The Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence activists, is formally adopted as the national flag of the Republic of Estonia.
A pogrom takes place in Lwów (now Lviv); over three days, at least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians are killed by Poles.
The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 is passed, allowing women to stand for Parliament in the UK.
Vojvodina, formerly Austro-Hungarian crown land, proclaims its secession from Austria-Hungary to join the Kingdom of Serbia.
The Montenegrin Podgorica Assembly votes for a "union of the people", declaring assimilation into the Kingdom of Serbia.
The Soviet Forces move against Estonia when the 6th Red Rifle Division strikes the border town of Narva, marking the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence.
Transylvania unites with Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28) and thus concluding the Great Union.
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
The 1918 United Kingdom general election occurs, the first where women were permitted to vote. In Ireland the Irish republican political party Sinn Féin wins a landslide victory with nearly 47% of the popular vote.
Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King of Finland, renounces the throne.
Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premieres at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Darwin Rebellion: Up to 1,000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
Region of Međimurje is captured by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from Hungary.
Ukrainian War of Independence: The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine occupies Yekaterinoslav and seizes seven airplanes from the UPRAF, establishing an Insurgent Air Fleet.
Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway prison, becomes the first woman to be elected Member of Parliament (MP) to the British House of Commons.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1918 in the Japanese calendar?
1918 was Taisho 7 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1918?
1918 is the Year of the Horse.
How old is someone born in 1918?
They turn 108 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1918?
In 1918, the Rice Riots broke out in Toyama Prefecture, and Hara Takashi formed a new cabinet. Around the world, President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points, and World War I ended with the signing of an armistice.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.