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The First World War was supposed to be the war to end all wars. 1918 was a time of war in the United States. We began to ration sugar on July 1. Each person was allowed 8 ounces of sugar per week by the U.S. Food Administrator. Then, Herbert Hoover asks for volunteers to have wheatless Mondays and Wednesdays, meatless Tuesdays, porkless Thursdays and Saturdays, and the use of dark "Victory Bread." On July 24, the Fuel Administration orders four lightness nights per week. This was meant to conserve fuel for the coming winter since our country was at war at the time (WWI). This remained in effect until November 22.

• In January the House of Representatives passes a resolution allowing Women the right to vote. The Senate rejects it on October 1 (for the third time.)
• On January 8 President Wilson outlines his Fourteen Points proposal for ending the war in a message to Congress. Wilson calls for "open covenants openly arrived at" and for self-determination of government by Europe's peoples. He asks for the creation of the League of Nations to preserve the peace.
• The worst pandemic was carried through Europe, America, and Asia. This influenza killed 21.64 million people. The "Spanish" influenza started in China and eventually made it to the United States. The first sickness appeared in Boston on August 27. Two sailors turn up sick with the influenza at Commonwealth Pier. By September the flu spread all over the East Coast. Not only did people become sick, lives changed for a while. Schools closed, hospitals became full, buildings closed, and much more.
• The first U.S. airmail stamps are introduced, on August 12, 1918. The stamps are 24 cents each. 
• On September 11, the Boston Red Sox win the World Series by defeating the Chicago Cubs 4 games to 2. This would be the last World Series victory for any Red Sox team.
• The Great War has killed 1.8 million Germans, 1.7 million Russians, 1.4 million French, 1.2 million Austrians and Hungarians, between 750,000 and 950,000 British, 460,000 Italians, 325,000 Turks, and 115,000 Americans. About 20 million have been blinded, maimed, mutilated, crippled, permanently shell-shocked, or otherwise disabled.
• Milton S. Hershey established the Milton Hershey School for orphan boys. In 1918 he gave his entire fortune to the school 
• "Till We Meet Again" by Richard A. Whiting, who is 27 years old, Canadian-American Richard B. Eagan.
• "K-K-K-Katy" by Canadian-American songwriter Geoffrey O’Hara, 36
• Louis B. Mayer Pictures is organized at Los Angeles by Russian-American movie theater operator Louis Burt Mayer, 33, who in 1915 bought New England rights to D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation for about $25,000 and has decided to make films himself.
• "Believe It or Not!" is published for the first time by New York Globe sports cartoonist Robert LeRoy Ripley, 24, who sketches figures of men who have set records for such unlikely events as running backward and broad jumping on ice.
• A New York based firm introduced the Raggedy Ann Doll. The actual doll was to promote sales on the first book Raggedy Ann Stories.
• There were many artists at the time that made amazing art pieces. These were some of them: Gartenplan by Paul Klee, Henri Matisse and Portrait of Igor Stravinsky by Picasso, Diego Rivera's Landscape of Piguey. 
• U.S. Adopts Daylight Saving Time at this time in American history we were at war (WWI). The U.S. needed to save daylight and to have standard time for the Untied States. The adopted this law in 1918.
• "The Red Baron" a German ace pilot that had many victories during WWI, he was killed in 1918.

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last updated 12/04/05