January 1918

January

• 01

  • Hymans becomes Belgian foreign ministerOn 1 January 1918 Liberal Paul Hymans took over Belgian diplomacy from Prime Minister Broqueville, whom colleagues suspected of favouring a compromise peace.
• 02

  • The Air Ministry is createdOn 2 January 1918 Lord Rothermere became Secretary of State for Air, and on 3 January the Air Council took over the duties of the Air Board.
• 03

  • Ukrainian delegation at BrestOn 3 January 1918 the Germans announced that a delegation of the Ukrainian Central Rada had arrived at Brest-Litovsk, wishing to negotiate peace on its own.
• 04

  • Sinking of the hospital ship RewaOn 4 January 1918 U-55 torpedoed the lit hospital ship Rewa in the Bristol Channel, carrying wounded from the Mediterranean. Four engine-room men were killed.
  • Recognition of Finnish independenceOn 4 January 1918 VTsIK approved the Lenin government's recognition of Finland's independence. France, Sweden and Germany followed that day, then others.
  • The Hogarth messageIn January 1918 Commander David Hogarth assured King Hussein at Jeddah that Jewish settlement in Palestine would not infringe the freedom of its inhabitants.
  • Demand for the surrender of Dutch shipsOn 4 January 1918 the British proposed that the Dutch charter 600,000 tons of shipping to the Allies in return for grain, fodder and coal.
• 05

  • Lloyd George on war aimsOn 5 January 1918 Lloyd George set out British war aims to trade unionists, demanding a restored Belgium and independent Poland and a league of nations.
  • Brest-Litovsk peace talks suspendedOn 5 January 1918 Berlin announced that the Brest talks were broken off, as the Bolsheviks wanted them moved to Stockholm. Days later Trotsky came after all.
• 08

  • British occupy Qasr-e ShirinThe British chronology records the British occupation of Qasr-e Shirin on 8 January 1918. Their column was to guard the road into Persia as the Russians left.
  • Key eventWilson's Fourteen PointsOn 8 January 1918 Wilson laid a fourteen-point peace programme before Congress. In the thirteenth he demanded an independent Poland with access to the sea.
  • Trotsky at Brest-LitovskOn 8 January 1918 peace talks resumed at Brest-Litovsk. The Soviet delegation was now led by Trotsky, who turned the sessions into a verbal duel with Kühlmann.
• 12

  • Start of operations against TafilehOn 12 January 1918 Sharif Nasir's Arabs took Jurf al-Darawish station on the Hejaz Railway, opening the expedition to Tafileh near the Dead Sea.
• 13

  • Estonians decide to declare independenceOn 13–14 January 1918 leaders of the Maapäev and Estonian parties secretly agreed in Tallinn to declare independence before the Germans arrived.
• 14

  • Bombardment of YarmouthOn the night of 14 January 1918 German destroyers shelled Great Yarmouth. About 50 shells fell within a few minutes; 4 people were killed and 8 wounded.
  • The January strike in Austria-HungaryOn 14 January 1918 Wiener Neustadt workers struck when their flour ration was halved. Within days the strike for bread and peace swept Vienna and the monarchy.
• 18

  • Opening of the Constituent AssemblyOn 18 January 1918 the Constituent Assembly met in Petrograd. It elected Chernov chairman and rejected the declaration of the Bolsheviks, who walked out.
• 19

  • Key eventDispersal of the Constituent AssemblyAt dawn on 19 January 1918 the guard broke up the Constituent Assembly; that evening Soviet power dissolved it. Russia's first free parliament met only once.
  • Mostowfi ol-Mamalek prime minister of Persia againThe British chronology records on 19 January 1918 Mostowfi ol-Mamalek's return as head of Persia's government. Moshaver ol-Mamalek took foreign affairs.
• 20

  • Sinking of BreslauOn 20 January 1918 off Imbros the German-Turkish cruiser Breslau (Midilli) ran into a minefield and sank. About 330 men died; Goeben ran aground.
• 22

  • Fourth UniversalOn 22 January 1918 the Central Rada issued the Fourth Universal. The Ukrainian People's Republic became independent as Bolshevik troops marched on Kiev.
• 23

  • Brest-Litovsk talks suspended againOn 23 January 1918 the last delegations left Brest. By radio the Bolsheviks accused the Central Powers of hiding their demands from their peoples.
• 24

  • Hertling and Czernin reply to WilsonOn 24 January 1918 Hertling and Czernin publicly replied to Wilson and Lloyd George. The chancellor was unyielding, the Austrian minister conciliatory.
  • Lawrence replaces KiggellOn 24 January 1918 General Herbert Lawrence became Haig's chief of staff. The ailing Launcelot Kiggell left after two years, under government pressure.
• 25

  • I Polish Corps against the BolsheviksAt noon on 25 January 1918 General Dowbor-Muśnicki's ultimatum expired. The I Polish Corps refused to be disarmed and took up the fight against the Bolsheviks.
• 26

  • Goeben is refloatedOn 26 January 1918 the Turkish battleship Turgut Reis pulled the cruiser Goeben off a Dardanelles sandbank. A week of British bombing had failed to destroy her.
• 27

  • Dunsterville's missionOn 27 January 1918 General Lionel Dunsterville left Baghdad with 41 Fords across Persia for the Caspian to organise a defence of the Caucasus against the Turks.
  • The Finnish Civil War beginsOn the night of 27/28 January 1918 the Red Guard seized Helsinki, while Mannerheim's Whites disarmed Russian garrisons in Ostrobothnia. A civil war began.
• 28

  • Russia breaks off relations with RomaniaOn 28 January 1918 the Romanian minister had to leave Petrograd. After the Romanians entered Bessarabia, Lenin cut ties and seized Romania's gold in Moscow.
  • Arabs destroy the Dead Sea flotillaAt dawn on 28 January 1918 Abdullah al-Fair's Bedouin raided the Al-Mazraa landing, sank the Turkish grain flotilla on the Dead Sea and took 60 prisoners.
  • End of the operations at TafilehOn 28 January 1918 the operations at Tafileh ended. The Arabs held the town and stopped shipping on the Dead Sea, but snow halted their march north.
  • The January strike in GermanyOn 28 January 1918 Berlin's armaments works came to a halt. 400,000 workers struck, about a million across Germany. They demanded peace and democracy.
  • Creation of the Red ArmyOn 28 January 1918 the Council of People's Commissars decided to create a volunteer Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in place of the disintegrating old army.
  • Battle of the Three MountainsOn 28 January 1918 the Italians attacked on the Asiago plateau and by 31 January retook Col del Rosso, Col d'Echele and Monte Valbella, with 2,600 prisoners.
• 30

  • Peace talks resume at Brest-LitovskOn 30 January 1918 the peace talks resumed at Brest. Trotsky brought delegates of Soviet Ukraine and challenged the right of the Kiev Rada to negotiate.
  • Latvian Provisional National Council calls for independenceOn 30 January 1918 the Latvian Provisional National Council resolved in Petrograd that Latvia must be an independent republic, but did not yet proclaim it.