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1918
• On 8 January, US president Woodrow Wilson proposes the Fourteen Points as a basis for peace in World War I. • On the Western Front, the Allied advance uses tanks successfully during the second battle of the Marne (15-17 July). • On 16 July, the Russian imperial family is executed by the Bolsheviks. Leon Trotsky organises the Red Army during the ensuing civil war against counter-revolutionary armies. • In the Middle East, British troops capture Palestine and Syria, and defeat the Turks at the battle of Megiddo. The Ottoman empire sues for peace. • On 11 November, an armistice is declared as the German army surrenders and the war ends. The German kaiser abdicates, and Germany and Austria become republics. • British women over the age of 30 are given the vote. They do not achieve age-21 parity with men until 5 July 1928. • In December, the Coalition wins the British general election. David Lloyd George becomes prime minister. • A global influenza pandemic kills an estimated 20 million in one year, more than died during World War I. • German philosopher Oswald Spengler publishes his masterpiece of pessimism Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of the West). • The all-white Original Dixieland Jazz Band tours Europe. |
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