1918 in the United States

Incumbents

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

• President: Woodrow Wilson
• Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark
• Congress: 65th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

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 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 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.
• 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, one of the worst train accidents in the US history occurs.

  July–September

• July 9 - Great train wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101.
• 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 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

• Progressive Era
• Lochner era
• U.S. occupation of Haiti
• World War I, U.S. involvement
• First Red Scare

  Births

January

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

  February

• February 3
• * 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, American athlete
• * Bobby Riggs, American tennis player
• February 26
• * Otis R. Bowen, American politician
• * Theodore Sturgeon, American writer

  March

• March 1 – James N. Morgan, American economist
• March 3 – Arthur Kornberg, American 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
• * 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 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, American writer
• * Edmund Jones, American politician
• April 17
• * William Holden, American actor
• * Anne Shirley, American actress
• April 18 – Clifton Hillegass, American author, founder of CliffsNotes
• April 20 – Edward L. Beach Jr., American naval captain and author
• April 22
• * Mickey Vernon, American baseball player
• * William Jay Smith, American poet
• April 24 – Lou Dorfsman, American graphic designer
• April 27 – John Rice, American baseball umpire
• April 28
• * Mildred Persinger, American feminist
• * Rodger Wilton 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, American pilot
• May 12 – Julius Rosenberg, American-born Soviet spy
• May 15 – Eddy Arnold, American country music singer
• May 17 – A. C. Lyles, American film producer
• May 18
• * Claudia Bryar, American actress
• * Joe Krush, American illustrator
• May 20 – Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• May 21 – Lloyd Hartman Elliott, American educator, president of George Washington University
• May 23
• * Frank Mancuso, American major league baseball player, politician
• * Naomi Replansky, American poet

  June

• June 2 – Kathryn Tucker Windham, American writer, storyteller
• June 4 – Johnny Klein, American drummer
• June 6 – Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1992
• June 8 – Robert Preston, American actor
• June 9 – John Hospers, American philosopher
• June 10 – Wood Moy, American actor
• June 12 – Jerry A. Moore Jr., American politician
• June 18
• * Jerome Karle, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Lillian Ross, American journalist on The New Yorker
• * Elisabeth Waldo, American violinist, composer
• June 21
• * Dee Molenaar, American mountaineer, author and artist
• * Josephine Webb, American engineer
• June 25 – Sid Tepper, American songwriter
• June 26 – Raleigh Rhodes, American combat fighter pilot
• June 27 – Adolph Kiefer, American former competition swimmer
• June 28 – Marshall Brown, American 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
• * 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, American actress
• * Paul Stenn, American football offensive tackle
• July 14
• * Jay Wright Forrester, American computer engineer, systems scientist
• * Arthur Laurents, American novelist and screenwriter
• July 16 – Leonard T. Schroeder, American colonel
• July 17 – Chandler Robbins, American ornithologist
• July 18
• * James Duesenberry, American economist
• * Warren Hair, American professional basketball player
• July 20
• * Edward S. Little, American diplomat
• * Cindy Walker, American songwriter, country singer
• July 22 – Stanley Lebergott, American government economist
• July 23
• * Carl T. Langford, American politician
• * Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player
• July 24 – Irving London, American hematologist and geneticist
• July 25 – Jane Frank, American artist
• July 26 – Marjorie Lord, American actress
• July 27 – Leonard Rose, American cellist
• July 29 – Edwin O'Connor, American novelist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner
• July 30
• * John L. Cason, American actor
• * Jimmy Robinson, American actor
• July 31
• * Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Hank Jones, American 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 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, American bartender
• * John Zacherle, American television and radio host, singer, and voice 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 – 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, model
• December 18 – Hal Kanter, American comedy writer, producer and director
• December 20 – Joseph Payne Brennan, American poet, 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, American Major League Baseball catcher

  Deaths

• January 8 - Ellis H. Roberts, politician
• February 2 - John L. Sullivan, boxer, World Heavyweight Champion
• 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 - G. K. 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 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
• 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 22 - Myrtle Gonzalez, silent film actress
• November 4 - Andrew Dickson White, diplomat, academic and author
• November 19 - Joseph F. Smith, Mormon leader
• December 17 - John Green Brady, 5th Governor of the District of Alaska from 1897 to 1906
• December 26 - William Hampton Patton, entomologist