March 6 - Finnish Air Force founded. The blue swastika is adopted as its symbol as a tribute to the Swedish explorer and aviator Eric von Rosen who donated the first plane. Von Rosen had painted the Buddhist symbol on the plane as his personal lucky insignia.
March 7 - World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.
March 23 - The giant German cannon, the so called Paris Gun begins to shell Paris from 114 km (75 miles) away.
March 23 - In London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E Robinson, US-born magician) dies during his trick where he was supposed to "catch" two separate bullets – one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in hospital.
August - "Spanish Flu" Influenza becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people die in the following six months (almost two times as many as died during the war).
August 1 - Emma Susan Daugherty Banister becomes the first female sheriff in the United States following the death of her husband, John Riley Banister.
August 8 - World War I: Battle of Amiens - Canadian troops, backed by Australians, begin a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff will later call this the "black day of the German army."
August 30 - Strike of 20,000 London policemen with demands of increased pay and union recognition.
October 3 - Abdication of King Ferdinand of Bulgaria in the wake of the collapse of the Bulgarian military position in World War I. He is succeeded by his son, Boris III.
December 1 - Iceland becomes a self-governing kingdom, yet remains in personal union with the king of Denmark who also becomes king of the Kingdom of Iceland.
December 1 - New voting laws in Sweden: votes no longer dependent on taxable assets; one person, one vote.
