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 21 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins
March 23 - The giant German cannon Big Bertha 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 (three times as many as died during the war).
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.