1918 Calendar

February 11, 1918 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Earth Horse in Chinese astrology.

February 16, 1918 – The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.

March 4, 1918 – The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.

April 24, 1918 – First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs met three German A7Vs.

June 10, 1918 – The Austro-Hungarian battleship Ship SMS sinks after being torpedoed by an Italian MAS motorboat.

October 4, 1918 – An explosion kills more than 100 and destroys the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, New Jersey. Fires and explosions continue for three days forcing massive evacuations and spreading ordnance over a wide area, pieces of which were still being found as of 2007.

November 14, 1918 – Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.

November 18, 1918 – Latvia declares its independence from Russia.

November 21, 1918 – Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence activists, is formally adopted as national flag of the Republic of Estonia.

December 28, 1918 – Constance Markievicz while detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons.

March 5, 1918 – Milt Schmidt, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and manager

April 8, 1918 – Glendon Swarthout, American author (d. 1992)

May 10, 1918 – T. Berry Brazelton, American pediatrician

July 8, 1918 – Craig Stevens, American actor (d. 2000)

August 30, 1918 – Billy Johnson, American baseball player (d. 2006)

September 4, 1918 – Gerald Wilson, American jazz trumpeter and arranger

September 14, 1918 – Cachao López, Cuban musician (d. 2008)

October 18, 1918 – Constantine Mitsotakis, Greek politician

October 22, 1918 – Lou Klein, American baseball player (d. 1976)

December 19, 1918 – Professor Longhair, American blues musician (d. 1980)