1918

St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church,The Hotel Commodore, and the Hotel Pennsylvania opened in New York City.

Movies included A Dog’s Life by Charlie Chaplin, Fatty in Coney Island by Mack Sennett, One Hundred Percent American starring Mary Pickford, Prunella starring Marguerite Clark, and Tarzan of the Apes starring Elmo Lincoln.

Fiction and verse of the year included Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Theodore Dreiser’s Free and Other Stories, Zane Grey’s The U.P. Trail, Ring W. Lardner’s Treat ‘Em Rough, The Red One by Jack London, Edith Wharton’s The Marne, Sherwood Anderson’s Mid-American Chants, Edgar Lee Masters’s Towards the Gulf, and Carl Sandburg’s Cornhuskers.

Popular songs included “Dream On, Little Soldier Boy” by Irving Berlin, “Everybody Knows I Love Him” by Russell Smith, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Eddie Green, “The Kaiser’s Got the Blues” by W.C. Handy, “Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning” by Irving Berlin and “When Alexander Takes His Ragtime Band To France” by Alfred Bryan, Cliff Hess and Edgar Leslie.

Enrico Caruso recoded “Over There.”

The O. Henry Awards were created to honor the short-story writer.

The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded for drama.

There is a massive flu epidemic in America, declining the population for the first time.

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded.

The Raggedy Ann doll began being manufactured.

Air mail service began between Washington, D.C. and New York for 24 cents.

February 3:  The New York Times began home delivery.

March:  James Joyce’s Ulysses began to be serialized by the Little Review.

May 11:  German was banned from being taught in schools.

May 24: 284,114 women registered to vote.

September 18:  Women were recruited for farmwork.

September 28:  A shuttle service between Times square and Grand Central Station.

October 16:  The Alien Act was passed by Congress.

November 11:  World War I ended.  150 tons of paper were cleared from streets in New York afterwards.