What Happened in June 1918

Historical Events

Billy Bishop Shooting Spree

Jun 1 Canadian ace Billy Bishop downs 6 aircraft over a three-day span, including German ace Paul Bilik, reclaiming his top scoring title from James McCudden

  • Jun 1 Chicago White Sox losing 5-4 against NY Yankees, load the bases in 9th with no outs; Chick Gandil lines to Frank Baker who turns a rare game winning triple play
  • Jun 3 Boston Red Sox pitcher Dutch Leonard throws his 2nd no-hitter; beats Detroit Tigers, 5-0 at Navin Field
  • Jun 3 US Supreme Court in Hammer v. Dagenhart rules child labor laws unconstitutional
  • Jun 4 French troops, with the aid of US troops, stop the Germans at Chateau-Thierry as they attempt to cross the Marne
  • Jun 6 Battle of Belleau Wood, 1st US victory of WW I
  • Jun 8 Nova Aquila, brightest nova since Kepler's nova of 1604, discovered
  • Jun 12 1st aerial bombing raid by an American unit, France
  • Jun 13 Phillies and Cards tie 8-8 in 19 innings
  • Jun 15 1" of snow falls in Northern Pennsylvania
  • Jun 22 Circus train rammed by troop train kills 68 (Ivanhoe, Illinois)
  • Jun 22 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Molla Bjurstedt beats Eleanor Goss 6-4, 6-3 for her 4th consecutive US singles title
  • Jun 25 Baku-Turkish communist party forms
  • Jun 26 The Australian steamer Wimmera is sunk by a mine laid north of Cape Maria van Diemen in 1917 by the German raider Wolf; 26 of its 151 passengers and crew were killed
  • Jun 27 Canadian hospital ship HMHS Llandovery Castle sunk by German U-boat off southern Ireland - only 24 of 258 people on board survive (U-boat officers later charged with war crimes) [1]
  • Jun 28 1st flight between Hawaiian Islands
  • Jun 29 A provisional government opposed to the Bolsheviks establishes itself at Vladivostok, the Russian port on the Sea of Japan
  • Jun 30 Prominent US Socialist and Pacifist Eugene Debs is arrested on charges of denouncing the government, a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917
1918 History

Famous Birthdays

  • Jun 2 Robert Manry, American copy editor of the Cleveland newspaper editor who sailed the Atlantic (Tinkerbelle), born in Landour, India (d. 1971)
  • Jun 2 Ruth Atkinson, American cartoonist (d. 1997)
  • Jun 3 Carl Pruitt, American jazz and blues session double-bassist, born in Birmingham, Alabama (d. 1977)
  • Jun 3 Lili St. Cyr [Marie Van Schaack], American striptease performer, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 1999)
  • Jun 3 Patrick Cargill, British actor (Help!, No Wreath for the General, Hammerhead), born in London, England (d. 1996)
  • Jun 4 (Bulee) "Slim" Gaillard, American jazz singer-songwriter ("Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)"), born in Claiborne, Alabama (d. 1991)
  • Jun 5 Branimir Sakač, Croatian composer (Matrix Symphony), born in Zagreb (d. 1979)
  • Jun 6 Kenneth Connor, English comedian and actor, best known for his "Carry On" films, born in Islington, London (d. 1993)
  • Jun 6 Richard Crane, American character actor (Surfside 6, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger), born in New Castle, Indiana (d. 1969)
  • Jun 6 Tom Scott, Scottish poet (Sea Dirge: A Mither's Keenin), born in Glasgow, Scotland (d. 1995)
  • Jun 8 John D. Roberts, American chemist, received American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal (2013), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2016)
  • Jun 8 Robert Preston [Meservey], American stage and screen actor and singer (The Music Man; Mame; The Last Starfighter), born in Newton, Massachusetts (d. 1987)
  • Jun 9 Rob de Vries, actor and director (Ciske de Rat, Silent Raid), born in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands (d. 1969)
  • Jun 10 Herbert "Barry" Morse, British-Canadian actor (The Fugitive, Space: 1999, Winds of War), born in Shoreditch, London (d. 2008)
  • Jun 12 Bob Carroll, American screenwriter (I Love Lucy, Stage Two Revue, Stranger), born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania (d. 2007)
  • Jun 12 Samuel Z. Arkoff, American film producer and co-founder of American International Pictures, born in Fort Dodge, Iowa (d. 2001)
  • Jun 13 "Wild Bill" Moore, American R&B and jazz tenor saxophone player ("We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll": Marvin Gaye's "Mercy, Mercy Me"), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1983)
  • Jun 13 Ben Johnson, American actor (Chisum, Battle Force, Dillinger), born in Foraker, Shidler, Oklahoma (d. 1996)
  • Jun 13 Helmut Lent, German night-fighter ace in World War II, born in Pyrehne, Landsberg (d. 1944)
  • Jun 14 Carter Harman, American composer, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2007)
  • Jun 14 LeRoy T. Walker, American sports executive (first black president US Olympic Committee 1992-96), born in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 2012)
  • Jun 15 André Donner, Dutch jurist (2nd President European Court of Justice), born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1992)

François Tombalbaye (1918-1975)

Jun 15 Dictator and 1st President of Chad (1960-75), born in Bessada, Moyen-Chari French Chad

  • Jun 17 Ajahn Chah, Thai Buddhist meditation master, born in Ubon, Thailand (d. 1992)
  • Jun 17 Maldwyn Thomas, Welsh businessman and Liberal Party politician (d. 2002)
  • Jun 18 Bert Schierbeek, Dutch writer and poet (Cross Roads), born in Glanerbrug, Overijssel (d. 1996)
  • Jun 19 Evelle Jansen Younger, American prosecutor (Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan), born in Stamford, Nebraska (d. 1989)
  • Jun 20 Zoltán Sztáray, Hungarian writer, born in Magyarcsaholy, Hungary (d. 2011)
  • Jun 21 Eddie Lopat, American baseball player (NY Yankees), born in New York City (d. 1992)
  • Jun 21 James Bysse Joll, British historian, born in Bristol, England (d. 1994)

Cicely Saunders (1918-2005)

Jun 22 English nurse, physician and writer who founded the first modern hospice, born in Barnet, England

  • Jun 22 Richard Eastham, American actor (Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Falcon Crest), born in Opelousas, Louisiana (d. 2005)
  • Jun 25 Ken Mayers, American actor (Little Big Man, Dick Tracey, Space Patrol), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1985)
  • Jun 26 Roger Voisin, American classical trumpet player (Boston Symphony, 1935-83), educator, and music editor, born in Angers, France (d. 2008)
  • Jun 27 Adolph Kiefer, American swimmer (Olympic gold 100m backstroke 1936), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2017)
  • Jun 29 Jack Harkness, British rose grower (R. Harkness & Co. Ltd) (d. 1994)
  • Jun 30 Stuart Foster, American singer (Galen Drake Show), born in Binghamton, New York (d. 1968)
Born in 1918

Famous Deaths

  • Jun 1 Friedrich Richard Faltin, composer, dies at 83
  • Jun 1 Jaroslav Novotny, Czech composer, dies at 32
  • Jun 4 Charles W. Fairbanks, 26th Vice President of the United States (Republican: 1905-09) and Senator, dies of nephritis at 66
  • Jun 10 Arrigio Enrico Boito, composer, dies at 76
  • Jun 17 Derek Barber, CEO (Countryside Commission), dies
  • Jun 25 Jake Beckley, American Baseball HOF first baseman (23,767 putouts MLB record; career .308 hitter; Pittsburgh Alleghenys/Pirates; NY Giants; Cincinnati Reds; St. Louis Cardinals), dies of heart disease at 50
  • Jun 26 Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet and Nobel Prize laureate, dies at 74