1918

From top to bottom, left to right: The Spanish flu pandemic begins, killing an estimated 50 million worldwide; the Armistice of 11 November 1918 ends fighting on the Western Front and concludes World War I; the Dissolution of Austria-Hungary leads to new states such as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria, and Hungary; the German Revolution of 1918–1919 forces Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate and creates the Weimar Republic; the Hundred Days Offensive breaks German lines and collapses military resistance; and the Murder of the Romanov family ends the Russian imperial dynasty.
1918 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar1918
MCMXVIII
Ab urbe condita2671
Armenian calendar1367
ԹՎ ՌՅԿԷ
Assyrian calendar6668
Baháʼí calendar74–75
Balinese saka calendar1839–1840
Bengali calendar1324–1325
Berber calendar2868
British Regnal yearGeo. 5 – 9 Geo. 5
Buddhist calendar2462
Burmese calendar1280
Byzantine calendar7426–7427
Chinese calendar丁巳年 (Fire Snake)
4615 or 4408
    — to —
戊午年 (Earth Horse)
4616 or 4409
Coptic calendar1634–1635
Discordian calendar3084
Ethiopian calendar1910–1911
Hebrew calendar5678–5679
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat1974–1975
 - Shaka Samvat1839–1840
 - Kali Yuga5018–5019
Holocene calendar11918
Igbo calendar918–919
Iranian calendar1296–1297
Islamic calendar1336–1337
Japanese calendarTaishō 7
(大正7年)
Javanese calendar1848–1849
Juche calendar7
Julian calendarGregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar4251
Minguo calendarROC 7
民國7年
Nanakshahi calendar450
Thai solar calendar2460–2461
Tibetan calendarམེ་མོ་སྦྲུལ་ལོ་
(female Fire-Snake)
2044 or 1663 or 891
    — to —
ས་ཕོ་རྟ་ལོ་
(male Earth-Horse)
2045 or 1664 or 892

1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1918th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 918th year of the 2nd millennium, the 18th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1910s decade. As of the start of 1918, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

The ceasefire that effectively ended the First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people worldwide.

In Russia, this year runs with only 352 days. As the result of Julian to Gregorian calendar switch, 13 days needed to be skipped. Wednesday, January 31 (Julian Calendar) was immediately followed by Thursday, February 14 (Gregorian Calendar).

Events

World War I will be abbreviated as "WWI"

February 16: The Act of Independence of Lithuania

January

February

  • February 1 – Cattaro Mutiny: Austrian sailors in the Gulf of Cattaro (Kotor), led by two Czech Socialists, mutiny.
  • February 3Finnish Civil War: Battle of Oulu – The White Guard defeats the Reds.
  • February 5 – The SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the Irish coast; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.[3]
February 23: Estonian Declaration of Independence

March

  • March 1 – WWI: German submarine U-19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland.[6]
  • March 3 – WWI: The Central Powers and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending Russia's involvement in the war.
  • March 6
    • The Finnish Army Corps of Aviation is founded as a forerunner of the Finnish Air Force (established on 4 May 1928). 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 Viking symbol on the plane as his personal lucky insignia.[7]
    • The first pilotless drone, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane developed by Elmer Ambrose Sperry and Peter Cooper Hewitt, is test-flown in Long Island, New York, but development is scrapped in 1925, after its guidance system proves unreliable.
  • March 7 – WWI: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.
  • March 8 – WWI: The Battle of Tell 'Asur is launched by units of the British Army's Egyptian Expeditionary Force against Ottoman defences from the Mediterranean Sea, across the Judaean Mountains to the edge of the Jordan Valley; it ends on March 12, with the move of much of the front line north into Ottoman territory.
  • March 12Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia.
  • March 15Finnish Civil War: The battle of Tampere begins.[8]
  • March 19 – The United States Congress establishes time zones, and approves daylight saving time (DST goes into effect on March 31).
  • March 21July 18 – WWI: The Spring Offensive by the German Army along the Western Front fails to make a breakthrough, despite large losses on each side, including nearly 20,000 British Army dead on the first day, Operation Michael, on the Somme.
  • March 21 – WWI: The First Transjordan attack on Amman by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins, with the passage of the Jordan River.
  • March 23
    • WWI: The giant German cannon, the 'Paris Gun' (Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz), begins to shell Paris from 114 km (71 mi) away.
    • In London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E. Robinson, U.S.-born magician) dies during his trick, where he is supposed to "catch" two separate bullets (but one of them perforates his lung). He dies the following morning in a hospital.
  • March 25
    • The Belarusian People's Republic declares independence.
    • Karl Muck, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is arrested under the Alien Enemies Act, and imprisoned for the duration of WWI.
  • March 26 – Marie Stopes publishes her influential book Married Love in the U.K.
  • March 27 – WWI: The First Battle of Amman is launched by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, during the First Transjordan attack on Amman; it ends with their withdrawal on 31 March, back to the Jordan Valley.
  • March 30 – March Days: Bolshevik and Armenian Revolutionary Federation forces suppress a Muslim revolt in Baku, Azerbaijan, resulting in up to 30,000 deaths.

April

Styles of Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, as presented in a vaudeville circuit pantomime and sketched by Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in April 1918

May

June

June 10: Austro-Hungarian battleship Szent István sunk by Italian torpedo boats
Szent István
  • JuneAugust – The "Spanish flu" becomes pandemic.[13] Over 30 million people die in the following 6 months.
  • June 1 – WWI: The Battle of Belleau Wood begins.
  • June 4 – RMS Kenilworth Castle, one of the Union-Castle Line steamships, collides with her escort destroyer HMS Rival while trying to avoid her other escort, the cruiser HMS Kent.
  • June 8 – V603 Aquilae, the brightest nova observed since Kepler's of 1604, is discovered.
  • June 10 – WWI: The Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship SMS Szent István is sunk by two Italian MAS motor torpedo boats off the Dalmatian coast.
  • June 12
    • Grand Duke Michael of Russia is murdered, thereby becoming the first of the Romanovs to be killed by the Bolsheviks.
    • WWI: The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit in France is carried out.
  • June 16 – The Declaration to the Seven, a British government response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables, is published.
  • 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.
  • June 29 – Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries opens in New York; Brazil is the only international exhibitor and the exposition closes at the end of the season.[14]

July

July 17: Execution of the Romanov family
  • July 18 – The Cheka kill the Martyrs of Alapayevsk, six further members of the Romanov family and retainers, by throwing them down a mineshaft.[16]
  • July 21 – WWI: Attack on Orleans – Imperial German submarine SM U-156 surfaces and fires on a small convoy of barges and defending flying boats off the Cape Cod town of Orleans, Massachusetts.[17]

August

  • August 2 – North Russia Intervention: Anti-Bolshevik forces stage a coup at Arkhangelsk, and an occupation by Allied forces follows.[18]
  • August 3 – WWI: Australian hospital ship HMAT Warilda is torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel on passage from Le Havre to Southampton by German submarine SM UC-49 with the loss of 123 of the 801 people on board.[19]
  • August 8 – WWI: Battle of Amiens – British, Canadian and Australian troops begin a string of almost continuous victories, the 'Hundred Days Offensive', with an 8-mile push through the German front lines, taking 12,000 prisoners. German General Erich Ludendorff later calls this the "black day of the German Army".[20]
  • August 10Russian Revolution: The British commander in Archangel is told to help the White Russians.
  • August 16 – The Battle of Lake Baikal is fought by the Czechoslovak legion, against the Red Army.
  • August 21 – WWI: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
  • August 23 – The Bessarabian Peasants' Party is created.
  • August 27 – Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas and their German advisors at Nogales, Arizona, in the only battle of WWI fought on United States soil.
  • August 30
August 30: Attempted assassination of Lenin, depicted by Vladimir Pchelin

September

  • September – WWI: British armies and their Arab allies roll into Syria.
  • September 3 – The Bolshevik government of Russia publishes the first official announcement of the Red Terror, a period of repression against political opponents, as an "Appeal to the Working Class" in the newspaper Izvestia.[22]
  • September 4 – WWI: Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin concludes with the Australian Corps breaking the German line.
  • September 5Russian Civil War: The Kazan Operation begins. The event continues for 5 days, and solidifies the Red Army's power in Russia over the White Army.
  • September 12 – WWI: Battle of Havrincourt – The British take a German salient.
  • September 1215 – WWI: Battle of Saint-Mihiel – Americans take a German salient.
  • September 14 – WWI: The Balkan front offensive by the Serbian Army begins.
  • September 1518 – WWI: Battle of Dobro Pole in the Vardar Offensive of the Balkans Campaign: The Allied Army of the Orient defeats Bulgarian defenders.
  • September 18 – WWI: Battle of Épehy – British approach the Hindenburg Line along the St Quentin Canal.
  • September 19 – WWI:
    • The British Army's Egyptian Expeditionary Force launches the Battle of Megiddo, incorporating the Battle of Sharon, and the Battle of Nablus, an attack in the Judaean Mountains. This day are fought the Battle of Tulkarm, and the Battle of Arara, which break the Ottoman front line stretching from the Mediterranean coast to the Judaean Mountains, while the Battle of Tabsor extends into September 20.
    • The Third Transjordan attack in the Jordan Valley begins.
  • September 20 – WWI: The British Army's Desert Mounted Corps launches the
    • Battle of Nazareth by 5th Cavalry Division (British Indian Army);
    • Capture of Afulah and Beisan by the 4th Cavalry Division (British Indian Army);
    • Capture of Jenin by the Australian Mounted Division, almost encircling the Yildirim Army Group still in the Judaean Mountains.
  • September 25 – WWI:
    • The Battle of Megiddo ends with the Battle of Haifa, Battle of Samakh, and Capture of Tiberias.
    • The Third Transjordan attack ends with ANZAC Mounted Division victory at the Second Battle of Amman, with the subsequent capture at Ziza of the Ottoman II Corps, and more than 10,000 Ottoman and German prisoners.
  • September 26 – WWI:
    • The Meuse-Argonne Offensive begins, the largest and bloodiest operation of the war for the American Expeditionary Forces.
    • The Capture of Damascus begins, with the Charge at Irbid by the 4th Cavalry Division.
  • September 27 – WWI
    • The Battle of the Canal du Nord, launched by British and Empire forces, continues the advance towards the Hindenburg Line.
    • The Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub, launched by the Australian Mounted Division, continues the advance towards Damascus.
  • September 29 – WWI:
    • Battle of St Quentin Canal begins; Allied forces advance towards the Hindenburg Line.
    • Bulgaria requests an armistice, with the Armistice of Salonica being signed and coming into force the next day.
  • September 30 – WWI:
    • The Charge at Kaukab is begun by units of the Australian Mounted Division.
    • The Charge at Kiswe is begun by 4th Cavalry Division, continuing the Desert Mounted Corps' advance to Damascus.

October

  • October 1 – WWI: The Desert Mounted Corps captures Damascus.
  • October 2 – WWI: The Charge at Khan Ayash is begun north of Damascus, by the 3rd Light Horse Brigade.
  • October 3
  • October 4
    • Wilhelm II of Germany forms a new, liberal government to sue for peace.
    • 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 7 – The Regency Council (Poland) declares Polish independence from the German Empire, and demands that Germany cede the Polish provinces of Poznań, Upper Silesia and Polish Pomerania.
  • October 810 – WWI: Second Battle of Cambrai: British and Canadian troops take Cambrai from the Germans and the First and Third British Armies break through the Hindenburg Line.
  • October 8 – WWI: In the Forest of Argonne in France, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
  • October 9 – Landgrave Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse is elected King of Finland.
  • October 11 – The magnitude (Mw) 7.1 San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 76–116 people. A destructive tsunami contributes to the damage and loss of life.
  • October 12 – Cloquet Fire: The city of Cloquet, Minnesota, and nearby areas are destroyed in a fire, killing 453.
  • October 16 – Emperor Karl IV of Austria publishes the Völkermanifest manifesto, declaring the Cisleithanian part of the empire will be federalized on the basis of national councils
  • October 18 – The Washington Declaration proclaims the independent Czechoslovak Republic. The general strike of 14 October 1918.
  • October 21 – German representatives of the Reichsrat in Austria-Hungary form the Provisional National Assembly for German-Austria
  • October 24 – WWI: The Battle of Vittorio Veneto opens.
  • October 25
    • WWI: Aleppo is captured, by Prince Feisal's Sheifial Forces.
    • The steamer Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die, in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.
  • October 26 – WWI – Charge at Haritan: Units of the Desert Mounted Corps battle with Ottoman forces for the last time in WWI.
  • October 28
  • October 29
    • The Wilhelmshaven mutiny of the German High Seas Fleet breaks out.
    • The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs declares its independence from Austria-Hungary.
  • October 30
    • The Martin Declaration is published, including Slovakia in the formation of the Czecho-Slovak state.
    • The Armistice of Mudros ends conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I, and grants independence to the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen.
  • October 31 – Revolution overthrows the pro-Habsburg government in Hungary, effectively dissolving the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

November

  • November 1
  • November 3
    • WWI: The Armistice of Villa Giusti is signed between Austria-Hungary and the Allies near Padua.
    • Poland declares its independence from Russia.
    • German Revolution: Kiel mutiny by sailors in the German fleet at Kiel while throughout northern Germany soldiers and workers begin to establish revolutionary councils on the Russian soviet model.
  • November 4 – WWI: The Armistice of Villa Giusti comes into effect, ending warfare between Italy and Austria-Hungary on the Italian Front.
  • November 6 – A new Polish government is proclaimed in Lublin.
  • November 7 – King Ludwig of Bavaria flees his country.
  • November 8 – The German army withdraws its support of the Kaiser. The German Armistice delegation arrives at the Forest of Compiègne in France.
November 9: Proclamation of German Republic by Philipp Scheidemann in Berlin on the Reichstag balcony
  • November 9
    • Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates and chooses to live in exile in the Netherlands.
    • Proclamation of the republic in Germany by Philipp Scheidemann in Berlin, on the Reichstag balcony. One of several significant events on 9 November in German history.
    • Provisional National Council Minister-President Kurt Eisner declares Bavaria to be a republic.
    • British battleship HMS Britannia is sunk by a German submarine off Trafalgar, with the loss of around fifty lives (the last major naval engagement of WWI).
Signatories to the Armistice of 11 November 1918 with Germany, ending WWI, pose outside Marshal Foch's railway carriage
November 11: Front page of The New York Times on Armistice Day
  • November 10 Luxembourg communist forces rebel in Luxembourg city, beginning the Luxembourg rebellions.[23]
  • November 11
    • End of WWI: Armistice of 11 November 1918 – Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies, between 5:12 AM and 5:20 AM, in the "Compiègne Wagon", Marshal Foch's railroad car, in the Forest of Compiègne in France. It becomes official on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.[24] At 10:59 U.S. soldier Henry Gunther becomes (probably) the last killed in action.
    • 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.
    • Loppem Agreements: Start of a series of political meetings between King Albert I and Belgian liberals and socialists.
    • Red Week: Pieter Jelles Troelstra gives a speech calling for socialist revolution in the Netherlands.
  • November 12 – Austria becomes a republic.
  • November 13
    • The Allied Occupation of Constantinople begins.
    • Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden, relinquishes all governing duties.
  • November 14
  • November 16 – The Hungarian Democratic Republic is declared, marking Hungary's independence from Austria.
  • November 18 – Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
  • November 20U-boats start to rendezvous off Harwich, to begin the surrender of the High Seas Fleet to the British Royal Navy; in the following week the German warships are escorted to internment in Scapa Flow.[25]
  • November 21 – Lwów pogrom: Polish troops, volunteers and freed criminals massacre at least 320 Ukrainian Christians and Jews in Lwów, Galicia.
  • November 22
    • The Belgian royal family returns to Brussels after the war, King Albert I having commanded the Allied army group in the September–October Courtrai offensive, which liberated his country.
    • Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden, abdicates; the Grand Duchy of Baden gives way to the Republic of Baden.
  • November 23 – British military government of Palestine begins.[26]
  • November 25 – General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German commander in German East Africa, signs a ceasefire at Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia.
  • November 26 – The Podgorica Assembly ('Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro') votes for a "union of the people" between the kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia and for deposition of the exiled King Nicholas I of Montenegro.[27]
  • November 28Estonian War of Independence: The Red Army invades Estonia, starting the war. The Commune of the Working People of Estonia is established as a Soviet puppet state in Narva on the next day.
  • November 29Serbia annexes Montenegro, suspending the latter's existence as a sovereign state for nearly the entirety of the following 88 years.[28]
  • November 30 – Ernest Ansermet conducts the first concert by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

December

  • December 1
    • By the Danish–Icelandic Act of Union, Iceland regains independence, but remains in personal union with the King of Denmark, who also becomes the King of Iceland.
    • New voting laws in Sweden makes votes no longer dependent on taxable assets, each adult having one vote.
    • The Union of Alba Iulia is proclaimed: Following the March 27 incorporation of Bessarabia and Bucovina, Transylvania unites with the Kingdom of Romania.
    • The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which later becomes the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed, in particular ending Serbia's existence as a sovereign state for the next 87 years (it would not regain its sovereignty until 2006).[28]
Flag of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

Births

Births
January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December

January

Gamal Abdel Nasser
João Figueiredo
Gertrude B. Elion
Nicolae Ceaușescu

February

Joey Bishop
Julian Schwinger

March

João Goulart
James Tobin
Marguerite Chapman
Elaine de Kooning
Frederick Reines
Cheddi Jagan
Pearl Bailey

April

William Holden
Kai Siegbahn
Fanny Blankers-Koen

May

Mike Wallace
Richard Feynman
Eddy Arnold
Birgit Nilsson
Yasuhiro Nakasone
Martin Lundstrom

June

Franco Modigliani
  • June 2
    • Anton Hafner, German fighter pilot (d. 1944)[49]
    • Kathryn Tucker Windham, American writer, storyteller (d. 2011)
  • June 6 – Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2009)
  • June 8 – Robert Preston, American actor (The Music Man) (d. 1987)
  • June 9 – John Hospers, American philosopher (d. 2011)
  • June 10 – Patachou, French singer (d. 2015)
  • June 11 – Hugo Scheltema, Dutch diplomat (d. 1996)
  • June 15 – François Tombalbaye, 1st President of Chad (d. 1975)
  • June 17
    • Derek Barber, Baron Barber of Tewkesbury, British life peer (d. 2017)
    • Ajahn Chah Subaddho, Buddhist teacher (d. 1992)
    • Raúl Padilla (alias El Chato), Mexican actor (d. 1994)
  • June 18
  • June 21
    • Allan Lindberg, Swedish pole vaulter (d. 2004)
    • Tibor Szele, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1955)
    • Josephine Webb, American engineer (d. 2017)
  • June 22
    • Cicely Saunders, English Anglican nurse, social worker, physician and writer (d. 2005)[50]
    • Yeoh Ghim Seng, Singaporean politician, acting President of Singapore (d. 1993)
  • June 24
    • Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, Ukrainian Catholic bishop (d. 2000)
    • Yong Nyuk Lin, Singaporean politician (d. 2012)
  • June 26
    • Ellen Liiger, Estonian actress (d. 1987)
    • Leo Rosner, Polish-born Austrian Jewish musician (d. 2008)
  • June 27
    • Willy Breinholst, Danish humorist, writer (d. 2009)
    • Adolph Kiefer, American Olympic swimmer (d. 2017)[51]
  • June 29 – Heini Lohrer, Swiss ice hockey player (d. 2011)
  • June 30 – Jackie Roberts, Welsh footballer (d. 2001)

July

Ingmar Bergman
Bertram Brockhouse
Nelson Mandela
Paul D. Boyer
  • July 1
    • Ahmed Deedat, South African writer, public speaker (d. 2005)
    • Pedro Yap, Filipino lawyer (d. 2003)
  • July 2
    • Athos Bulcão, Brazilian painter, sculptor (d. 2008)
    • Indumati Bhattacharya, Indian politician (d. 1990)
  • July 3 – Lorenzo Robledo, Spanish actor (d. 2006)
  • July 4
  • July 5
    • Zakaria Mohieddin, Egyptian general, politician (d. 2012)
    • Nikos Papatakis, Greek Ethiopian-born naturalised French filmmaker (d. 2010)
    • Miguel Ángel Sanz Bocos, Spanish fighter pilot (d. 2018)
  • July 6
    • Sebastian Cabot, English actor (d. 1977)
    • Francisco Moncion, Dominican-American dancer, charter member of New York City Ballet (d. 1995)
  • July 7 – Jing Shuping, Chinese businessman (d. 2009)
  • July 8
  • July 9 – Jarl Wahlström, Salvation Army general (d. 1999)
  • July 12 – Mary Glen-Haig, British Olympic fencer (d. 2014)
  • July 13
  • July 14
  • July 15
    • Paddy Bassett, New Zealand scientist (d. 2019)
    • Bertram Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
    • Brenda Milner, Canadian neuropsychologist
  • July 16
    • Bayani Casimiro, Filipino dancer and actor (d. 1989)
    • Pituka de Foronda, Spanish actress (d. 1999)
  • July 17 – Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, 35th President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
  • July 18
  • July 20 – Auður Laxness, Icelandic writer, craftsperson (d. 2012)
  • July 21 – Elsa Kobberstad, Norwegian schoolteacher, politician (d. 2007)
  • July 22 – Lila Zali, Georgian-born American prima ballerina (d. 2003)
  • July 24
    • Antonio Candido, Brazilian literary critic, sociologist (d. 2017)
    • Ruggiero Ricci, Italian-born violinist (d. 2012)
  • July 27 – Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
  • July 28 – Penaia Ganilau, 1st President of Fiji (d. 1993)
  • July 29 – Edwin O'Connor, American novelist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (d. 1968)
  • July 31
    • Vicente Almeida d'Eça, Portuguese colonial administrator (d. 2018)
    • Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
    • Hank Jones, American pianist (d. 2010)[56]

August

Bruria Kaufman
Frederick Sanger
Shankar Dayal Sharma
Leonard Bernstein
Katherine Johnson
Aslam Khan
Alejandro Agustín Lanusse
  • August 1
    • Artur Brauner, German film producer and entrepreneur (d. 2019)
    • Zhou Xuan, Chinese singer, actress (d. 1957)
  • August 2 – Dada Vaswani, Indian spiritual leader (d. 2018)
  • August 3 – Cheng Kaijia, Chinese nuclear physicist and engineer (d. 2018)
  • August 4 – Noel Willman, Irish actor (d. 1988)
  • August 5
    • Kondapalli Koteswaramma, Indian communist leader, feminist, revolutionary and writer (d. 2018)
    • Betty Oliphant, co-founder of National Ballet of Canada (d. 2004)
  • August 12 – Guy Gibson, British bomber pilot, leader of the "Dam Busters" raid (d. 1944)
  • August 13
  • August 19 – Shankar Dayal Sharma, 9th President of India (d. 1999)
  • August 20 – Crystal Bennett, British archaeologist, pioneering researcher on Jordan (d. 1987)
  • August 21 – Bruria Kaufman, American-born Israeli physicist (d. 2010)
  • August 22
    • Said Mohamed Djohar, President of the Comoros (d. 2006)
    • Martin Pope, American physical chemist (d. 2022)
  • August 23 – Bernard Fisher, American surgeon (d. 2019)
  • August 25Leonard Bernstein, American composer, conductor (d. 1990)
  • August 26
    • Katherine Johnson, African-American physicist, space scientist and mathematician (d. 2020)[57]
    • Maria Isaura Pereira de Queiróz, Brazilian sociologist (d. 2018)
  • August 27
    • Aslam Khan, British Indian-born military officer, led his troops during World War II in capturing Kennedy Peak (Myanmar), which the Americans had failed to conquer. For this achievement, he was awarded the Military Cross by Field Marshal Auchinleck (d. 1994)[58]
    • Chang Yun Chung, Chinese-born billionaire shipping magnate (d. 2020)
    • Jelle Zijlstra, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1966 to 1967 (d. 2001)
  • August 28 – Alejandro Agustín Lanusse, 37th President of Argentina (d. 1996)
  • August 29 – Clemens C. J. Roothaan, Dutch physicist (d. 2019)
  • August 30Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)
  • August 31 – Alan Jay Lerner, American lyricist, librettist (d. 1986)

September

Chaim Herzog

October

Jens Christian Skou
Robert Walker
Rita Hayworth
Thelma Coyne Long

November

Billy Graham
Spiro Agnew

December

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Kurt Waldheim
Helmut Schmidt
Anwar Sadat

Deaths

Deaths
January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December

January

Georg Cantor
María Dolores Rodríguez Sopeña
  • January 2 – Katharine A. O'Keeffe O'Mahoney, Irish-born American teacher and writer (b. 1855)
  • January 6Georg Cantor, German mathematician (b. 1845)
  • January 8
    • Johannes Pääsuke, Estonian photographer, filmmaker (b. 1892)
    • Ellis H. Roberts, American politician (b. 1827)
  • January 9
    • Max Ritter von Müller, German World War I fighter ace (killed in action) (b. 1887)
    • Charles-Émile Reynaud, French inventor (b. 1844)
  • January 10 – María Dolores Rodríguez Sopeña, Spanish Roman Catholic religious sister and Blessed (b. 1848)
  • January 21 – Emil Jellinek, German automobile entrepreneur (b. 1853)
  • January 26 – Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich of Russia (b. 1850)
  • January 28 – John McCrae, Canadian soldier, surgeon and poet (b. 1872)
  • January 31 – Ivan Puluj, Ukrainian physicist and inventor (b. 1845)

February

Princess Leonilla Bariatinskaya
Gustav Klimt
Sultan Abdul Hamid II

March

Claude Debussy
Martin Sheridan
  • March 2 – Prince Mirko of Montenegro (b. 1879)
  • March 9 – Frank Wedekind, German playwright (b. 1864)
  • March 10 – Hans-Joachim Buddecke, German flying ace (killed in action) (b. 1890)
  • March 13César Cui, Lithuanian composer (b. 1835)
  • March 14
    • Lucretia Garfield, First Lady of the United States (b. 1832)
    • Gennaro Rubino, Italian anarchist who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate King Leopold II of Belgium (b. 1859)
  • March 15 – Adolf Ritter von Tutschek, German fighter ace (killed in action) (b. 1891)
  • March 23 – T. P. Cameron Wilson, English poet, novelist (b. 1888)
  • March 25
    • Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)
    • Walter Tull, first Black infantry officer to serve in the British Army (b. 1888)
  • March 27
    • Henry Adams, American historian (b. 1838)
    • Martin Sheridan, American Olympic athlete (b. 1881), Spanish flu
  • March 29 – Alfred Gaselee, British general (b. 1844)[63]

April

Karl Ferdinand Braun
Manfred von Richthofen
Gavrilo Princip

May

Maria Magdalena Merten
  • May 2
    • Ernie Parker, Australian tennis champion (killed in action) (b. 1883)
    • Jüri Vilms, Estonian politician (b. 1889)
  • May 14 – James Gordon Bennett Jr., American newspaper publisher (b. 1841)
  • May 17 – William Drew Robeson I, African-American minister, father of singer and actor Paul Robeson (b. 1844)
  • May 18 – Blandine Merten, German nun and Blessed (b. 1883)
  • May 19
    • Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (b. 1853)
    • Raoul Lufbery, Franco-American fighter pilot (killed in action) (b. 1885)
  • May 21
    • Sofia Hjulgrén, Finnish politician (executed) (b. 1875)[66]
    • Wilho Laine, Finnish politician (executed) (b. 1875)[67]
  • May 23
    • Gerard Noel, British admiral (b. 1845) [68]
    • Mariano Ponce, Filipino diplomat, politician and writer (b. 1863)
  • May 24 – József Kiss, Austro-Hungarian fighter pilot (killed in action) (b. 1896)
  • May 30 – Georgi Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary, philosopher (b. 1856)

June

Kyrion II of Georgia
  • June 1 – Roderic Dallas, Australian fighter pilot (killed in action) (b. 1891)
  • June 3 – Count Richard von Bienerth-Schmerling, Austrian noble, statesman and former Prime Minister (b. 1863)
  • June 4 – Charles W. Fairbanks, 26th Vice President of the United States (b. 1852)
  • June 10 – Arrigo Boito, Italian poet, composer (b. 1842)
  • June 13 – Grand Duke Michael Romanov (assassinated) (b. 1878)
  • June 15 – Frank Miles Day, American architect (b. 1861)
  • June 16 – Bazil Assan, Romanian engineer and explorer (b. 1860)
  • June 19 – Francesco Baracca, Italian fighter pilot (air crash) (b. 1888)
  • June 26 – Kyrion II of Georgia, Georgian Orthodox patriarch, Saint (b. 1855)
  • June 27 – Joséphin Péladan, French occultist (b. 1858)

July

Sultan Mehmed V
James McCudden
Quentin Roosevelt
Emperor Nicholas II of Russia
Henry Macintosh

August

Marianne Cope
  • August 1
    • John Riley Banister, American policeman, cowboy (b. 1854)
    • Gabriel Guérin, French World War I fighter ace (air crash) (b. 1892)
  • August 5 – Peter Strasser, German naval officer, airship commander (killed in action) (b. 1876)
  • August 9
    • Marianne Cope, German-born American Roman Catholic nun and saint (b. 1838)
    • František Plesnivý, Austro-Hungarian architect (b. 1845)
  • August 10
    • Jean Brillant, Canadian soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (killed in action) (b. 1890)
    • Erich Löwenhardt, German World War I fighter ace (air crash) (b. 1897)
    • Aleksander Uurits, Estonian painter, graphic artist (b. 1888)
  • August 12 – Anna Held, French actress (b. 1872)
  • August 22 – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist (b. 1868)[69]
  • August 30 – William Duncan, British missionary in Canada and the United States (b. 1832)

September

George Reid
Eduard, Duke of Anhalt
Prince Erik, Duke of Vastmanland

October

November

Wilfred Owen

December

Sidónio Pais
Sultan Ali bin Hamud of Zanzibar

Date unknown

  • Spring – Vyacheslav Troyanov, Russian general (b. 1875)
  • Yakov Zhilinsky, Russian general (b. 1853)

Nobel Prizes

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Further reading

  • Chandra, Siddharth, Julia Christensen, and Shimon Likhtman. "Connectivity and seasonality: the 1918 influenza and COVID-19 pandemics in global perspective." Journal of Global History 15.3 (2020): 408–420.
  • Phillips, Howard. "’17,’18,’19: religion and science in three pandemics, 1817, 1918, and 2019." Journal of Global History 15.3 (2020): 434–443.
  • Williams, John. The Other Battleground The Home Fronts: Britain, France and Germany 1914-1918 (1972) pp 243–92.

Primary sources and year books