1918

← 1917

This article is about the year 1918 Please help improve this article by conforming to date guidelines and by adding citations to reliable sources.

1919 →

1918 is famous for the end of the First World War, women's suffrage in the United States and the Spanish Influenza pandemic. Estimates suggest that the world population in 1918 was 1.8 billion.

Ongoing World events

• Woodrow Wilson was President (1913-1921); the previous year (1917), the United States entered World War I - joining the British, French, and other Allies against German and Central Powers.
• Women's suffrage in the United States (1770's-1966) Location: United States
• Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) Location: United States
• 1918 Pandemic (January 1918 to December 1920); Location: Worldwide
• Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic (September 1918 to April 1919); Location: Charlottesville-Albemarle
• War I (July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918); Global War
• City Beautiful Movement (1890s and 1900s); Location: United States
• Beginning of the City Beautiful Movement in Charlottesville (1919-1924); Location: Charlottesville and Albemarle County

Events

• April 22 – The State-sponsored tuberculosis sanatorium, Piedmont Sanatorium, opened in Burkeville (southeast of Farmville) for Negro consumptives.
• August 7 – The highest daily low temperature recorded in Charlottesville was 85°F (29.4°C). Official statistics, kept at the University Observatory, show that all previous heat records for this locality were broken this day, when "a maximum of 105 in the shade was recorded."
• August 8 – According to the Daily Progress, after 4 days and nights of racking heat, a rain storm “visited this afflicted place” something after 9 o’clock. The storm caused a drop of 36 degrees, the minimum for last night being 69 degrees. Less than an inch of rain fell.
• September 1 – Began on this day, the 1918 fiscal year would end on August 31, 1919.

• September 2 – City Council: First meeting of the two branches of the city government held this evening. The council organized by the election of the officers; Councilman Dr. W. M. Forrest was elected President of the Common Council. This new form of city government consisted of an Upper House (four Alderman - one elected from each of the four wards), Lower House (eight Councilmen - two elected from each of the four wards) and a citywide elected Mayor.

• October 3 – This afternoon, at the meeting of the Board of Health of the city, in view of the spread of influenza, it was decided to stop all large public gatherings until the disease was abated.

• October 3 – The Daily Progress reported on this Thursday that Mayor E. G. Haden ordered "all schools, public and private, churches, theaters, and all other places where there were public congregations closed until Monday, October 14th, 1918." . This order was extended week after week, along with additional closures and restrictions, until November 4.

• October 8 – The Daily Progress reported that the mayor also ordered pool halls closed in response to the influenza.

• October 10 – This afternoon, at a meeting of the Board of Health, it was decided to continue the closing orders, previously given on October 3, relative to the spread of Influenza, until October 21st. The Mayor, E. G. Haden, “ordered the Chief of Police to see that these orders were observed and that no congregation of people be allowed in the city.”
• October 10 – This evening at 8 o’clock, during the October meeting of the Common Council (precursor of the current form of City Council) the attending members voted 4 to 3, to raise the price of gas. Mr. Lacy L. Irvine tendered his resignation as a member of the Council from the Fourth Ward. In a letter to President Forrest, he said the step was made necessary by the unexpected sale of the property which he had occupied for some years, and his removal from the ward. The following members of the Council attended this session: Dr. W. M. Forrest (President), W. T. Elliott, J. E. Gleason, F. M. Huyett, W. F. Long, L. F. Smith and W. N. Via.
• November 5 – The 1918 elections elected the 66th United States Congress, and took place in the middle of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson's second term. United States Senator Thomas S. Martin was re-elected and became Minority leader.
• November 11 – World War I ends. At 5:00 on this day, the Allied powers and Germany signed an armistice document in the railway carriage of Ferdinand Foch, the commander of the Allied armies, and six hours later World War I came to an end. Charlottesville greeted the news with early morning whistles and an impromptu parade was held.

Deaths

• September 13 – Tuberculosis: “Clyde Bessie Handsbury, the 22-year-old daughter of Joseph Handsbury…One week ago another daughter of the household, Sadie Edna, aged 16, died of the same cause, tuberculosis. The funeral will be held from the First Baptist Church (colored)...”

• September 26 – Second Lieutenant George McIntire Baker of Company "L", 313th Infantry, 79 Division. A. E. F., was killed in action Argonne Forest France. A cenotaph in his honor was placed in the family plot at Maplewood Cemetery by his uncle, Paul Goodloe McIntire.

On this day, the U.S. Army launched one of the largest offensives in American Military history, the Meuse-Argonne Campaign of the First World War. More than one point two million soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces engaged in this critical battle that lasted until Armstice Day. Over twenty six thousand Americans lost their lives, and nearly one hundred thousand were wounded. Of the Americans who fell during the campaign fourteen thousand two hundred forty six were laid to rest at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in eastern France. Second Lieutenant George McIntire Baker is among the military dead.

• November 11 – End of World War I - Armistice of 11 November 1918 – Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies. It becomes official on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Influenza cases

See main article: 1918 flu pandemic in Charlottesville-Albemarle

The Spanish flu (also known as the 1918 flu pandemic) started in January 1918 and infected 500 million people - about a quarter of the world's population at the time. While peak mortality was reached in 1918, the pandemic did not end until two years later in late 1920. In Albemarle-Charlottesville, from 1918 to 1919, an estimated 5,000 people caught the flu and at least 227 of them (4.3 percent) died, out of a total population of almost 36,000. The flu predominantly killed people between the ages of 20 to 40 - those born between 1878 and 1898.

Births

• July 29 – Mary Lee Settle is born to Joseph Edward and Rachel Tompkins Settle in Charleston, West Virginia. A famous American writer of the twentieth century, Settle lived in Charlottesville throughout much of her adult life and later taught courses at the University of Virginia.