1918 in the United States

Events from the year 1918 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government">Federal government of the United States">Federal government

President: Woodrow Wilson
[Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|Vice President]: Thomas R. Marshall
Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark
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, a male named "Incas", dies at the Cincinnati Zoo.
March - 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.

April–June

April 21 - The 6.7 San Jacinto earthquake shakes southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX, causing $200,000 in damage, one death, and several injuries.
May 2 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
May 15 – The United States Post Office Department begins the first regular airmail service in the world.
May 16 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is approved by the U.S. Congress.
May 22 - The small town of Codell, Kansas is hit for the fifth 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.
June 8 - The total solar eclipse of June 8, 1918 crosses the United States from Washington State to Florida.
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.
August - A deadly second wave of the Spanish flu starts in France, Sierra Leone and the United States.
August 13 - Opha May Johnson becomes the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.
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 11 - The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship, their last World Series win until 2004.
September 12-15 - World War I: Battle of Saint-Mihiel 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.

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 San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX, 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 25 - The 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 2 - Thomas Kilby is elected the 36th governor of Alabama defeating Dallas B. Smith.
November 11 - 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.

Undated

The Native American Church is formally founded.
The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment is founded to oppose Prohibition in the U.S.
George Drumm's concert march "Hail, America" is first performed in New York City.

Ongoing

Births

January

January 1 – Ed Price, American soldier, pilot, and politician
January 9 – Alma Ziegler, professional baseball player
January 15 – Ira B. Harkey Jr., newspaper editor
January 16 – Stirling Silliphant, screenwriter and producer
January 17 – George M. Leader, politician
January 19
* Peter Hobbs, actor
* John H. Johnson, African-American publisher, founder of Ebony
January 20 – Nevin S. Scrimshaw, food scientist
January 21 – Richard Winters, World War II soldier
January 23 – Gertrude B. Elion, pharmacologist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988
January 24 – Oral Roberts, neo-Pentecostal televangelist
January 25 – Ernie Harwell, baseball sportscaster
January 26
* Philip José Farmer, writer
* Vito Scotti, actor
January 27 – Elmore James, musician
January 29 – John Forsythe, actor
January 31 – Millie Dunn Veasey, African-American civil rights activist and World War II soldier

February

February 3
* Millie Bailey, World War II veteran and civil servant
* Joey Bishop, American entertainer, member of the "Rat Pack"
* Martin Greenberg, American poet and translator
* Helen Stephens, American athlete
February 8
* Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler, novelty singer
* Walter Newton Read, American lawyer and second chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission
February 12 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
February 15
* Allan Arbus, American actor
* William T. Young, American businessman
February 16 – Patty Andrews, American singer
February 17 – William Bronk, American poet
February 19 – Fay McKenzie, American silent film actress
February 21 – Robert E. Thacker, American aviator and test pilot
February 22
* Charlie Finley, American businessman
* Don Pardo, American television announcer
* Robert Pershing Wadlow, American tallest man record-holder
February 25
* Barney Ewell, athlete
* Bobby Riggs, tennis player
February 26
* Otis R. Bowen, politician
* Theodore Sturgeon, writer

March

March 1 – James N. Morgan, economist
March 3 – Arthur Kornberg, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
March 4 – Margaret Osborne duPont, American female tennis player
March 5 – James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
March 8 – Mendel L. Peterson, American underwater archaeologist
March 9
* Marguerite Chapman, American actress
* George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader
* Mickey Spillane, American writer
March 11 – Jack Coe, American evangelist
March 12 – Elaine de Kooning, American artist
March 13 – Eddie Pellagrini, American baseball player, coach
March 15 – Richard Ellmann, American literary biographer
March 16 – Frederick Reines, American physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995
March 17 – Ross Bass, American politician
March 18 – Bob Broeg, American sports writer
March 20 – Jack Barry, American television game show host, producer
March 23
* Helene Hale, American politician
* Stick McGhee, American jump blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter
March 25 – Howard Cosell, American attorney, lecturer, and sports journalist
March 26 – Lloyd McCuiston, American politician
March 28 – Alberto Valdés, American artist
March 29
* Pearl Bailey, African-American singer, actress
* Shirley Jameson, American female baseball player
* Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart

April

April 1 – Milt Earnhart, American politician
April 4 – Joseph Ashbrook, American astronomer
April 7 – Bobby Doerr, American baseball player
April 8
* Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States, Second Lady of the United States
* Charles P. Roland, American historian
April 14 – Mary Healy, American actress, variety entertainer and singer
April 15
*Louis O. Coxe, writer
* Edmund Jones, politician
April 17
* William Holden, actor
* Anne Shirley, actress
April 18 – Clifton Hillegass, author, founder of CliffsNotes
April 20 – Edward L. Beach Jr., naval captain and author
April 22
* Mickey Vernon, baseball player
* William Jay Smith, American poet
April 24 – Lou Dorfsman, graphic designer
April 27 – John Rice, baseball umpire
April 28
* Mildred Persinger, feminist
* Rodger Young, United States Army soldier, remembered in the song "The Ballad of Rodger Young"
April 29 – George Allen, American football coach

May

May 1 – Jack Paar, American television show host
May 3 – Richard Dudman, American reporter, editorial writer
May 9
* Russell M. Carneal, American politician, judge
* Orville Freeman, American politician
* Mike Wallace, American journalist
May 10
* T. Berry Brazelton, American pediatrician
* Jane Mayhall, American poet and novelist
* George Welch, U.S. soldier and pilot
May 11
* Richard Feynman, American physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965
* Phil Rasmussen, pilot
May 12 – Julius Rosenberg, American-born Soviet spy
May 15 – Eddy Arnold, country singer
May 17 – A. C. Lyles, film producer
May 18
* Claudia Bryar, actress
* Joe Krush, illustrator
May 20 – Edward B. Lewis, geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
May 21 – Lloyd Hartman Elliott, educator, president of George Washington University
May 23
* Frank Mancuso, major league baseball player, politician
* Naomi Replansky, poet

June

June 2 – Kathryn Tucker Windham, writer, storyteller
June 4 – Johnny Klein, drummer
June 6 – Edwin G. Krebs, biochemist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1992
June 8
* Robert Preston, actor and singer
* John D. Roberts, chemist and academic
* John H. Ross, pilot
June 9 – John Hospers, philosopher
June 10 – Wood Moy, actor
June 12
* Samuel Z. Arkoff, film producer
* Georgia Louise Harris Brown, architect
* Jerry A. Moore Jr., politician
June 13 – Wendell "Bud" Hurlbut, Theme park creator and entrepreneur
June 18
* Jerome Karle, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
* Lillian Ross, journalist on The New Yorker
* Elisabeth Waldo, violinist, composer
June 21
* Dee Molenaar, mountaineer, author and artist
* Robert V. Roosa, American economist and banker
* Josephine Webb, engineer
June 25 – Sid Tepper, songwriter
June 26 – Raleigh Rhodes, combat fighter pilot
June 27 – Adolph Kiefer, Olympic champion swimmer
June 28 – Marshall Brown, professional basketball player
June 29
* Gene La Rocque, U.S. admiral
* Francis W. Nye, United States Air Force major general

July

July 1 – Ralph Young, American singer, actor
July 3
* Johnny Palmer, American golfer
* Shirley Adelson Siegel, American activist and lawyer
* Ben Thompson, American architect and designer
July 4
* Joe Fortunato, American football, basketball, and baseball coach
* Eppie Lederer, American journalist and radio host
* Johnnie Parsons, American race car driver
* Pauline Phillips, American journalist and radio host, creator of Dear Abby
July 5 – George Rochberg, American composer
July 6
* J. Dewey Daane, American economist
* Herm Fuetsch, American professional basketball player
July 7 – Bob Vanatta, American head basketball coach
July 8
* Edward B. Giller, U.S. major general
* Bela E. Kennedy, American politician
* Craig Stevens, American actor
* Paul B. Fay, American businessman, soldier, and diplomat, 12th United States Secretary of the Navy
July 10
* Chuck Stevens, American major baseball
* Frank L. Lambert, American professor emeritus of chemistry at Occidental College
July 12
* Doris Grumbach, American novelist, memoirist, biographer, literary critic, and essayist
* Alice Van-Springsteen, American stuntwoman, jockey
* Vivian Mason, actress
* Paul Stenn, American football offensive tackle
July 14
* Jay Wright Forrester, computer engineer, systems scientist
* Arthur Laurents, novelist and screenwriter
July 16 – Leonard T. Schroeder, colonel
July 17 – Chandler Robbins, ornithologist
July 18
* James Duesenberry, economist
* Warren Hair, professional basketball player
July 20
* Edward S. Little, diplomat
* Cindy Walker, songwriter, country singer
July 22 – Stanley Lebergott, government economist
July 23
* Carl T. Langford, politician
* Pee Wee Reese, baseball player
July 24
* Irving London, hematologist and geneticist
* Ruggiero Ricci, violinist
July 25 – Jane Frank, artist
July 26 – Marjorie Lord, actress
July 27 – Leonard Rose, cellist
July 29 – Edwin O'Connor, novelist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner
July 30
* John L. Cason, actor
* Jimmy Robinson, actor
July 31
* Paul D. Boyer, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
* Hank Jones, pianist

August

August 3 – Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official
August 6 – Charles Coulston Gillispie, American historian
August 9 – Robert Aldrich, American writer and filmmaker
August 12 – Roy C. Bennett, American songwriter
August 13 – Tao Porchon-Lynch, American yoga master and author
August 19 – Oliver Brown, African-American plaintiff
August 20 – Jacqueline Susann, American novelist
August 21 – Bruria Kaufman, American-born Israeli physicist
August 22 – Martin Pope, American physical chemist
August 23 – Bernard Fisher, American surgeon
August 25 – Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor
August 26
* Hutton Gibson, American religion writer, father of actor Mel Gibson
* Katherine Johnson, African-American physicist and mathematician
August 27 – Simeon Booker, American journalist
August 30 – Ted Williams, American baseball player
August 31
* Griffin Bell, American politician
* Alan Jay Lerner, American lyricist
* Kenny Washington, African-American football player

September

September 1 – James D. Martin, American politician
September 3 – Helen Wagner, American soap opera actress
September 4
* Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster
* Gerald Wilson, American jazz trumpeter
September 5 - Fred McCarthy, cartoonist
September 6 – Hugh Gillis, American politician
September 13
* Ray Charles, American musician, singer and songwriter
* Rosemary Kennedy, sister of John F. Kennedy
September 15 – Nipsey Russell, African-American comedian
September 19 – Joseph Zeller, American politician
September 21 – John Gofman, American Manhattan Project scientist, advocate
September 26
* Harry Yee, bartender
* John Zacherle, television and radio host, singer, and voice actor
September 28 – Arnold Stang, comic actor

October

October 4 – Adrian Kantrowitz, American cardiac surgeon
October 9 – E. Howard Hunt, American Watergate break-in coordinator
October 13 – Robert Walker, American actor
October 17 – Rita Hayworth, American actress
October 18 – Bobby Troup, American singer-songwriter and actor, known for his role in Emergency!
October 19 – Robert S. Strauss, American politician, Democratic National Committee Chairman
October 22 – Fred Caligiuri, American baseball player
October 23
* Augusta Dabney, American actress
* Paul Rudolph, American architect
October 25 – Milton Selzer, American actor
October 27 – Teresa Wright, American actress
October 29 – Diana Serra Cary, born Peggy-Jean Montgomery, American silent film child actress
October 31 – Ian Stevenson, American parapsychologist

November

November 3
* Bob Feller, American baseball player
* Ann Hutchinson Guest, American movement, dance researcher
* Elizabeth P. Hoisington, American Brigadier General
* Russell B. Long, United States Senator from Louisiana
* Dean Riesner, American film, television screenwriter
November 4
* Art Carney, American actor, best known for his role in The Honeymooners
* Cameron Mitchell, American actor, best known for his role in The High Chaparral
November 7
* Fred Cusick, American ice hockey broadcaster
* Billy Graham, evangelist
November 8 – Bob Schiller, American screenwriter
November 9
* Spiro Agnew, 39th vice president of the United States from 1969 to 1973
* Thomas Ferebee, United States Air Force colonel
November 10 – John Henry Moss, American baseball executive, politician
November 11
* Stubby Kaye, American actor and comedian
* Louise Tobin, American singer
November 21 – Dorothy Maguire, American professional baseball player
November 28 – Jack H. Harris, American film producer, distributor and actor
November 29 – Madeleine L'Engle, children's fiction writer
November 30 – Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., American actor

December

December 6 – Nick Drahos, American football player
December 10 – Anne Gwynne, American actress
December 11 – John W. Reed, American legal scholar
December 12 – Joe Williams, American jazz singer
December 14 – Jack Cole, American cartoonist
December 15 – Jeff Chandler, American actor
December 17 – Dusty Anderson, American actress and model
December 18 – Hal Kanter, American comedy writer, producer and director
December 20 – Joseph Payne Brennan, poet and author
December 21
* Fred Gloden, American football player
* Donald Regan, American Treasury Secretary, White House Chief of Staff
December 24 – Dave Bartholomew, American musician, bandleader, composer and arranger
December 25
* Henry Hillman, American businessman and philanthropist
* George S. Vest, American diplomat
December 26 – Butch Ballard, American jazz drummer
December 29 – Leo J. Dulacki, American general
December 31
* Al Lakeman, Major League Baseball catcher
* Kyra Petrovskaya Wayne, Russian-American author

Undated

Nat Jaffe, swing jazz pianist
Sol Malkoff, calligrapher and designer

Deaths

January 8 - Ellis H. Roberts, politician
February 2 - John L. Sullivan, boxer, World Heavyweight Champion
February 4 - Jeannette Walworth, American journalist and novelist
February 7 - Effie Hoffman Rogers, educator, editor and journalist
February 9 - E. J. Richmond, litterateur and author
February 15 - Vernon Castle, ballroom dancer
March 10 - Jim McCormick, baseball pitcher
March 14 - Lucretia Garfield, First Lady of the United States
March 16 - Prosper P. Parker, civil engineer, Union Army officer and politician
March 27 - Henry Adams, historian
April 14 - James E. Ware, architect who devised the "dumbbell plan" for New York City tenements
May 1 - Grove Karl Gilbert, geologist
May 5 - Bertha Palmer, businesswoman, socialite and philanthropist
May 14 - James Gordon Bennett, Jr., newspaper publisher
May 17 - William Drew Robeson, African American Presbyterian minister, escaped slave and father of Paul Robeson
May 19 - Raoul Lufbery, fighter pilot
May 27 - Frederick Trump, German American businessman, paternal grandfather of Donald Trump
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
June 18 - Lizzie Halliday, serial killer
June 25 - Jake Beckley, baseball player
June 27 - George Mary Searle, astronomer
June 28 - Albert Henry Munsell, inventor of the Munsell color system
July 20 - Francis Lupo, U.S. Army soldier
July 22 - Roy Earl Parrish, American politician
July 27 - Gustav Kobbé, music critic and author
July 30 - Joyce Kilmer, poet
August 1 - John Riley Banister, policeman and cowboy
August 10 - William Pitt Kellogg, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1868 to 1872 and from 1877 to 1883
August 12 - Anna Held, singer
August 14 - Anna Morton, Second Lady of the United States
August 24 - Louis Bennett Jr., World War I flying ace
September 12 - Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1885 to 1897 and from 1901 to 1907
September 28
* True Boardman, silent film actor
* Freddie Stowers, African American corporal
September 29 - Frank Luke, fighter pilot
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
October 16 - Felix Arndt, pianist and composer
October 19 - Harold Lockwood, silent film actor
October 21
*Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, professor of jurisprudence
*Jennie O. Starkey, journalist
October 22 - Myrtle Gonzalez, silent film actress
October 28 - Edward Bouchet, physicist
November 4 - Andrew Dickson White, diplomat, academic and author
November 19 - Joseph F. Smith, Mormon leader
December - Sarah Jim Mayo, Washoe basket weaver
December 17 - John Green Brady, 5th Governor of the District of Alaska from 1897 to 1906
December 26 - William Hampton Patton, entomologist