1918

Events from the year 1918 in the United States. World War I ends.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Woodrow Wilson (D-NJ)
* Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall (D-IN)
* Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White (LA)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark (D-MO)
* Congress: 65th
==Events==
===January - March===
* January – The World Tomorrow pacifist magazine begins publication.
* January 8 – President Woodrow Wilson delivers his Fourteen Points speech.
* February 21 – The last Carolina parakeet (the last breed of parrot native to the eastern U.S.), a male named "Incas", dies at Cincinnati Zoo.
* March 1 – The Liberator socialist magazine begins publication.
* March 4 – A soldier at Camp Funston, Kansas falls sick with the first confirmed case of the Spanish flu.
* March 19 – The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (DST goes into effect on March 31).
* March 21
** World War I: Operation Michael begins.
** World War I: German spring offensive begins.
===April - June===
* April 5 – World War I: Operation Michael ends.
* April 7 – World War I: Battle of the Lys begins.
* April 21 – The 6.7 Mw San Jacinto earthquake shakes southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Severe), causing $200,000 in damage, one death, and several injuries.
* April 29 – World War I: Battle of the Lys ends.
* May 2 – General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
* 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 the U.S. Congress.
* May 20 – The small town of Codell, Kansas is hit for the third year in a row by a tornado. Coincidentally, all three tornadoes hit on the same date.
* May 23 – First victims of the "axeman of New Orleans" in a 17-month series of brutal murders mainly directed at Italian American shopkeepers and their families; the serial killer is never identified.
* May 27 – World War I: Third Battle of the Aisne begins.
* June 6 – World War I: Third Battle of the Aisne ends.
* June 8 – The total solar eclipse of June 8, 1918 crosses the United States from Washington State to Florida.
* June 9 – World War I: Montdidier-Noyon begins.
* June 13 – World War I: Montdidier-Noyon ends.
* 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.
** Hammond Circus Train Wreck: A locomotive engineer fell asleep and ran his troop train into the rear of a circus train near Hammond, Indiana. The circus train held 400 performers and roustabouts of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus.
===July - September===
* July 9 – Great Train Wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101 and injuring 171. It is considered the worst rail accident in U.S. history.
* July 15 – World War I: Second Battle of the Marne begins.
* July 18
** World War I: Second Battle of the Marne ends.
** World War I: German spring offensive ends.
** World War I: Battle of Soissons begins.
* July 22 – World War I: Battle of Soissons ends.
* August 1 – A deadly second wave of the Spanish flu starts in France, Sierra Leone and the United States.
* August 8 – World War I: Hundred Days Offensive begins.
* August 13 – Opha May Johnson becomes the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.
* August 21 – World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins.
* August 27 – Border War: Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish with Mexican Carrancistas at Nogales, Arizona, in the only battle of World War I fought on U.S. soil.
* September 3 – World War I: Second Battle of the Somme ends.
* September 11 – The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship, their last World Series win until 2004.
* September 12 – World War I: Battle of Saint-Mihiel begins fought in France: The first and only offensive launched solely by the American Expeditionary Forces under John J. Pershing overcomes German forces in the Saint-Mihiel salient.
* September 15 – World War I: Battle of Saint-Mihiel ends.
* September 26 – World War I: Meuse–Argonne offensive begins.
===October - December===
* October 4 – 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 8 – World War I: In the Forest of Argonne in France, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
* October 11 – The 7.1 Mw San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 76–116 people. A destructive tsunami contributed to the damage and loss of life.
* October 12 – 1918 Cloquet Fire: The city of Cloquet, Minnesota and nearby areas are destroyed in a fire, killing 453.
* October 20 – World War I: Battle of the Lys and the Escaut begins.
* October 24 – World War I: Battle of Vittorio Veneto begins.
* October 25 – The SS Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.
* November 1 – Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.
* November 4 – World War I: Battle of Vittorio Veneto ends.
* November 11
** World War I: Meuse–Argonne offensive ends.
** World War I: Battle of the Lys and the Escaut ends.
** World War I: Hundred Days Offensive ends.
** World War I ends.
* December 4 – President of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson sails for the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office.
* December 19 – Ripley's Believe It or Not! first appears as a cartoon under the title Champs and Chumps in The New York Globe.
==Memoriam==
* January 8 – Ellis H. Roberts, politician (aged 90; Utica, NY, USA)
* February 2 – John L. Sullivan, boxer, World Heavyweight Champion (aged 59; Abington, MA, USA)
* February 15 – Vernon Castle, ballroom dancer (aged 30; TX, USA)
* March 10 – Jim McCormick, baseball pitcher (aged 61; Paterson, NJ, USA)
* March 14 – Lucretia Garfield, First Lady of the United States as wife of James A. Garfield (aged 85; South Pasadena, CA, USA)
* March 16 – Prosper P. Parker, civil engineer, Union Army officer and politician (aged 82; Phoenix, AZ, USA)
* March 27 – Henry Adams, historian (aged 80; Washington, DC, USA)
* April 14 – James E. Ware, architect who devised the "dumbbell plan" for New York City tenements (aged 72; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 1 – Grove Karl Gilbert, geologist (aged 74; Jackson, MI, USA)
* May 5 – Bertha Palmer, businesswoman, socialite and philanthropist (aged 69; Osprey, FL, USA)
* May 14 – James Gordon Bennett Jr., newspaper publisher (aged 77; Alpes-Maritimes, France)
* May 17 – William Drew Robeson I, African American Presbyterian minister, escaped slave and father of Paul Robeson (aged 73; Somerville, NJ, USA)
* May 19 – Raoul Lufbery, fighter pilot (aged 33; Maron, France)
* May 27 – Frederick Trump, German American businessman, paternal grandfather of Donald Trump (aged 49; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 4 – Charles W. Fairbanks, 26th Vice President of the United States from 1905 to 1909 and U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1897 to 1905 (aged 66; Indianapolis, IN, USA)
* June 18 – Lizzie Halliday, serial killer (aged 59; Beacon, NY, USA)
* June 25 – Jake Beckley, baseball player (aged 50; Kansas City, MO, USA)
* June 27 – George Mary Searle, astronomer (aged 79; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 28 – Albert Henry Munsell, inventor of the Munsell color system (aged 60; Brookline, MA, USA)
* July 3 – Benjamin Tillman, 84th Governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894 and U.S. Senator from South Carolina from 1895 to 1918 (aged 70; Washington, DC, USA)
* July 20 – Francis Lupo, U.S. Army soldier (aged 23; Soissons, France)
* July 27 – Gustav Kobbé, music critic and author (aged 61; Great South Bay, NY, USA)
* July 30 – Joyce Kilmer, poet (aged 31; Marne, France)
* August 1 – John Riley Banister, policeman and cowboy (aged 64; Coleman, TX, USA)
* August 10 – William Pitt Kellogg, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1868 to 1872 and from 1877 to 1883 (aged 87; Washington, DC, USA)
* August 12 – Anna Held, singer (aged 46; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 14 – Anna Morton, Second Lady of the United States (aged 72; Rhinecliff, NY, USA)
* September 12 – Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1885 to 1897 and from 1901 to 1907 (aged 79; Washington, DC, USA)
* September 28
** True Boardman, silent film actor (aged 36; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Freddie Stowers, African American corporal (aged 22; Ardennes, France)
* September 29 – Frank Luke, fighter pilot (aged 21; Murvaux, France)
* October 8 – James B. McCreary, 27th and 37th Governor of Kentucky from 1875 to 1879 and from 1911 to 1915, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1903 to 1909 (aged 80; Richmond, KY, USA)
* October 16 – Felix Arndt, pianist and composer (aged 29; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 19 – Harold Lockwood, silent film actor (aged 31; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 21 – Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, professor of jurisprudence (aged 39; Alameda, CA, USA)
* October 22 – Myrtle Gonzalez, silent film actress (aged 27; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 28 – Edward Bouchet, physicist (aged 66; New Haven, CT, USA)
* November 4 – Andrew Dickson White, diplomat, academic and author (aged 85; Ithaca, NY, USA)
* November 19 – Joseph F. Smith, Mormon leader (aged 80; Salt Lake City, UT, USA)
* December 17 – John Green Brady, 5th Governor of the District of Alaska from 1897 to 1906 (aged 71; Sitka, AK Territory, USA)
* December 26 – William Hampton Patton, entomologist (aged 65; Hartford, CT, USA)
==External links==
* 1918 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 14