Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1918.

The year of 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.

January

  • January 18: Constituent Assembly meet in Russia.
  • January 25: The Ukrainian people declare independence from Bolshevik Russia.
  • January 27: The Finnish Civil War begins.

 

February

  • February 14: Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
  • February 16 – The Council of Lithuania adopts the Act of Independence of Lithuania, declaring Lithuania's independence from the Russian Empire.
  • February 24 – After seven centuries of foreign rule, Estonia declares its independence from the Russian Empire. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia also declare their independence from the Russian Empire.

 

March

  • March 1: The German submarine U-19 sinks the 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: Some time after March 4th the Cyclops, a fuel ship of the US Navy disappears after leaving Barbados for Hampton Roads, Va. USA. (Books635)
  • March 4: A soldier at Camp Fuston, Kansas falls sick with the first confirmed case of the Spanish flu.
  • March 6: Black rain fell over Ireland. (Books818)
  • March 9: Dust, in great volumes fell upon Wisconsin, Michigan and Vermont, all USA. (Books818)
  • March 19: The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (DST goes into effect on March 31).
  • March 23: The giant German cannon, the so-called Paris Gun, begins to shell Paris from 114 km (75 miles) away.
  • March 23: 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" 2 separate bullets – one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in a hospital.
  • March 25: Belarus declares independence.

 

April

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

 

May

  • May 11: The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is officially established.
  • May 15: End of the Finnish Civil War.
  • 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 May 20, 1916, 1917, and 1918 respectively.

 

June

  • June 1: World War I. The Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
  • June 12: Grand Duke Michael Romanov is murdered; becoming the first of the Romanov's to be murdered by the Bolsheviks.
  • 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 (drugs).

 

July

  • July 4: Mehmed VI (1918-1922) succeeds Mehmed V (Resad) (1909-1918) as Ottoman Emperor.
  • July 9: Great train wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101.
  • July 12: , The Japanese Imperial Navy battle ship Kawachi blows up at Shunan, western Honshu, Japan killing at least 621.
  • July 17: By order of the Bolshevik Party and carried out by the Cheka, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his immediate family, and retainers are executed at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
  • July 17: The RMS Carpathia, rescue ship of the RMS Titanic, is sunk off the coast of Ireland by the German submarine U-55, with 5 lives lost.

 

August

  • The Spanish Flu (influenza) becomes pandemic; over 25 million people die in the following 6 months (almost twice as many as died during the war).
  • August 1: British anti-Bolshevik forces occupy Archangel, Russia.
  • 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 later calls this the "black day of the German Army."
  • August 10: Russian Revolution: The British commander in Archangel is told to help the White Russians.
  • August 24: At Hindon, England, hundreds of small fishes identified as sand eels fell. (Books88)
  • August 30: Russian Revolution: Vladmir Lenin is shot by Fanya Kaplan, but he survives. Moisei Uritsky, the Petrograd head of the Cheka, is assassinated the same day.

 

September

  • British armies and their Arab allies roll into Syria.
  • September 29: Bulgaria requests an armistice in World War I.

 

October

  • October 4: William II of Germany forms a new more liberal government to sue for peace.
  • October 8: World War I: In the Argonne Forest in France, U.S. 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 are 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.
  • October 25: The Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die.
  • October 28: Czechoslovakia declares its independence from Austria-Hungary.
  • October 30 - The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen is granted 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.

 

November

  • November 1: Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone November 1 - Street and Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.
  • November 1: Ruthenia in eastern Czechoslovakia declares a brief independence.
  • November 3: World War I. Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.
  • November 3: Poland declares its independence from Russia.
  • November 4: A mutiny in the German fleet at Kiel begin the German Revolution. Four days later the 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.
  • November 11: World War I ends, Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France.
  • November 12: Austria becomes a republic.
  • November 14: Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
  • November 16: Hungary declares independence from Austria.
  • November 18: Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
  • November 22: The Spartacist League founds the German Communist Party.
  • November 28: Estonian Freedom War. Bolshevist Russia invades Estonia, beginning the war.

 

December

  • December 1:Iceland becomes a self-governing kingdom, yet remains in personal union with the King of Denmark who also becomes King of Iceland.
  • December 1: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is proclaimed.
  • December 4: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office.
  • December 17: Culmination of the Darwin Rebellion as some 1000 demonstrators marched on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
  • December 27: Great Poland Uprising: The Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Poznań) rise up against the Germans.
  • December 28: Constance Markiewicz becomes the first woman elected to the British House of Commons.