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2018 in the United States

This is a list of events in the year 2018 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

State governments

Events

January

February

March

April

  • April 3 – Three people suffer gunshot wounds when a female shooter, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, attacks the YouTube headquarters in California, before killing herself.
  • April 4
  • China announces 25% tariffs on 106 US Products, including cars and soybeans.
  • Thousands of people gather in Memphis, Tennessee, to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • April 6 – The Trump administration imposes sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs and 17 senior government officials, accusing them of "malign activity around the globe".
  • April 9 – The FBI raids the home, office and hotel room of President Trump's long-time lawyer, Michael Cohen, pursuant to a federal search warrant.
  • April 10 – Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is questioned in a joint session of several US senate committees, after the revelation that 87 million people had their private information accessed by Cambridge Analytica.
  • April 11 – House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan announces that he will not run for re-election in November.
  • April 13 – President Trump orders targeted strikes in Syria to retaliate for a suspected chemical weapons attack.
  • April 17 – Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, a Boeing 737-700 suffers an engine failure at cruise altitude, debris enters the fuselage causing substantial damage to the aircraft and loss of cabin pressure and diverts at Philadelphia International Airport. One passenger dies and seven are injured.
  • April 18 – Coffee chain Starbucks is the subject of racism accusations when two black men are arrested at its Philadelphia store after asking to use a restroom reserved for paying customers.
  • April 19 – Jim Bridenstine is confirmed as the next NASA administrator.
  • April 20 – Smallville actress Allison Mack appears in court on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy.
  • April 22 – Four people are killed at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, when a naked gunman, Travis Reinking, shoots them with a semi-automatic rifle before fleeing on foot. The gunman is captured the next day after a manhunt and James Shaw Jr. propelled to national fame as a hero after disarming the armed aggressor and saving others in the restaurant.
  • April 23 – French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in the U.S. for a three-day visit, during which he meets President Trump and makes a speech to Congress.
  • April 24 – Joseph James DeAngelo, a suspect in the Golden State Killer case, is apprehended after law enforcement matched his DNA to the serial rapist and murderer.
  • April 26
  • TV star Bill Cosby is found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
  • CIA Director Mike Pompeo is confirmed as Secretary of State by the Senate.
  • Veteran TV anchor Tom Brokaw is accused of sexual harassment by a former NBC News anchor.
  • April 27 – ', directed by the Russo brothers, is released by Marvel Studios as the 19th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the sequel to 2012's The Avengers and 2015's '. It becomes the highest-grossing film of 2018 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time at that point (now the fifth), earning $2.048 billion as the fourth film to cross $2 billion. The film is also one of the most expensive of all time (unadjusted for inflation).

May

  • May 1 – A study conducted by health services company Cigna reveals that American adults are experiencing a "loneliness epidemic" with nearly half of Americans reporting they sometimes or always feel alone (46 percent) or left out (47 percent).
  • May 2
  • The state of Iowa approves the so-called "heartbeat" bill, banning most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.
  • A C-130 military plane crash in Savannah, Georgia kills nine people.
  • Following a series of small earthquakes, the USGS warns that the KÄ«lauea volcano in Hawaii could erupt. Two days later it erupts, there are stronger earthquakes and Hawaii declares a state of emergency, evacuating 1,700 residents.
  • May 4
  • The national unemployment rate hits 3.9 percent, the lowest rate since 2000.
  • The Trump administration announces an end to the special Temporary Protected Status program for 57,000 Hondurans.
  • May 5
  • NASA's InSight spacecraft, designed to study the interior and subsurface of Mars, successfully launches at 11:05 UTC, with an expected arrival on November 26, 2018.
  • The state of California becomes the world's fifth-largest economy, with the state's GDP surpassing that of the United Kingdom's.
  • In horse racing, pre-race favorite Justify wins the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby, becoming the first horse since 1882 to win the race while unraced as a two-year-old. The race was run under the wettest conditions in its history; by post time, more than 2.8 inches (7.1 cm) of rain had fallen on race day, breaking a record that had lasted since 1918.
  • May 8
  • The Senate Intelligence Committee releases an unclassified version of its investigation into Russian cyberattacks in 2016, concluding: "Russian-affiliated cyber actors were able to gain access to restricted elements of election infrastructure. [...] In a small number of states, these cyber actors were in a position to, at a minimum, alter or delete voter registration data; however, they did not appear to be in a position to manipulate individual votes or aggregate vote totals."
  • New York's attorney general Eric Schneiderman resigns over multiple allegations of assault.
  • President Trump announces his intention to withdraw the United States from the Iranian nuclear agreement. In a statement, former U.S. President Barack Obama calls the move "a serious mistake".
  • The National Centers for Environmental Information reports that April 2018 was the coldest month in the U.S. since 1997.
  • May 9 – The California Energy Commission introduces its 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards, requiring all new homes to be fitted with solar power from 2020. It is the first state in the US to enact such a law.
  • May 10
  • At around 2 a.m. local, President Trump ceremoniously greets three freed Korean-Americans, who were detained by North Korea for more than a year for "anti-state activities", on Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
  • NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) is cancelled by the Trump administration.
  • May 11 – U.S. fighter jets intercept two Russian TU-95 bombers in Alaskan airspace.
  • May 16 – President Trump meets with Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
  • May 17 – The KÄ«lauea shield volcano on the Big Island of the state of Hawaii erupts from its summit, shooting ash into the sky.
  • May 18 – A school shooting takes place at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas. Eight students and two teachers are killed and thirteen other people are injured.
  • May 20 – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin states that the Trump administration will put its proposed tariffs on Chinese imports "on hold", averting fears of a trade war between the two countries.
  • May 21 – The Supreme Court, in a 5–4 ruling, upholds a law preventing employees from filing class action lawsuits against their employers over pay and hour disputes.
  • May 23 – It is reported that Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump.
  • May 24 – Actor Morgan Freeman is accused of sexual harassment by eight women.
  • May 25 – Harvey Weinstein is charged with rape and several other counts of sexual abuse involving two separate women after turning himself in to police in New York City.
  • May 28 – The Center for the Study of the Drone at New York's Bard College estimates that just over 900 law enforcement agencies, fire departments, and emergency services across the country are now using drones, no longer seen as a novelty by officials.
  • May 29
  • ABC TV cancels comedian Roseanne Barr's show after she tweets a racist comment, likening Valerie Jarrett to an ape.
  • Missouri Governor Eric Greitens announces his resignation (effective June 1) amid a sex scandal.
  • Starbucks temporarily closes its stores for one day to undergo racial sensitivity training following an incident in April in which two black men were arrested in its Philadelphia store.
  • May 30
  • By a majority of 23–12, the California State Senate votes to approve a bill that would reinstate the net neutrality regulations repealed by the Federal Communications Commission in December.
  • The FDA approves the first artificial iris.
  • May 31 – The Trump administration announces that it will extend its tariffs on imported steel (25%) and aluminium (10%) to include the EU, Mexico and Canada, starting at midnight.

June

July

  • July 5 – Scott Pruitt resigns as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, effective July 6. He is replaced by Andrew Wheeler.
  • July 6
  • U.S. tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods come into effect, as President Trump suggests the final total could reach $550bn. China accuses the U.S. of starting the "largest trade war in economic history" and announces immediate retaliatory tariffs.
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp, directed by Peyton Reed, is released by Marvel Studios as the 20th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man.
  • July 9 – President Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh, a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to become an Associate Justice for the Supreme Court of the United States.
  • July 11 – President Trump attends the NATO Summit in Brussels.
  • July 12 – President Trump arrives in the UK. The four-day visit includes talks with Theresa May, tea with the Queen and a trip to Scotland. There are mass protests in London, featuring a 'Trump baby' blimp flown over Westminster.
  • July 13 – Special counsel Mueller charges 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking during the 2016 election.
  • July 16 – President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin for private talks in the Finnish capital Helsinki. In a press conference afterwards, Trump praises Russia and Putin, drawing sharp criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike. Senator John McCain describes it as "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."
  • July 18 – In an interview with CBS News, President Trump says he holds Putin personally responsible for interference in the 2016 US election; a sharp contrast to his earlier comments in Helsinki.
  • July 19
  • The Trump administration proposes limiting habitat protections for endangered species.
  • 17 people die after an amphibious "duck boat" capsizes while carrying 31 tourists on Table Rock Lake, Missouri.
  • President Trump invites Vladimir Putin to visit America.
  • July 20 – The New York Times reports that President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen secretly recorded his client discussing payments to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had an affair with Trump.
  • July 26
  • Tesfaye Cooper is convicted of hate crime and aggravated kidnapping charges in Illinois and sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the 2017 Chicago torture incident. He is the fourth and final member of an African-American group to be convicted in relation to the kidnapping of a mentally disabled white man in Chicago who livestreamed their torture of him on Facebook, shouting "Fuck Trump" and "Fuck white people" while doing so.
  • The share price of Facebook drops by almost 20 percent after the company warns investors that user growth has slowed following the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal. More than $109bn is wiped from its market value, the biggest stock market loss in corporate history, which includes a $14.5bn personal loss for founder Mark Zuckerberg.
  • Michael Avenatti, the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, claims he is representing three other women who were allegedly paid by Donald Trump, AMI and Michael Cohen to keep quiet.
  • July 28 – John Delaney announces his candidacy for U.S. president in 2020.
  • July 29 – Wildfires in northern California continue to rage across vast swathes of land, destroying hundreds of structures and causing several deaths.

August

  • August 1 – President Trump calls for the Russia investigation to end "right now", urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to halt the inquiry into alleged election meddling, while accusing special counsel Robert Mueller of being "totally conflicted".
  • August 2
  • The U.S. Department of Commerce proceeds with applying revised tariffs on Canadian newsprint.
  • Apple, Inc. becomes the first public company to achieve a market capitalization of $1 trillion, as its share price exceeds a new record high above $207.
  • August 5 – President Trump admits that his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., attended a meeting at Trump Tower during the 2016 election campaign "to get information on an opponent," but insists it was "totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!"
  • August 6 – The ongoing wildfires in California are officially declared as the largest in the state's history.
  • August 7
  • The U.S. reimposes sanctions on Iran.
  • Harvard University has four Black women faculty deans for the first time in history: Michelle Ann Williams (School of Public Health), Tomiko Brown-Nagin (Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study), Bridget Terry Long (Graduate School of Education), and Claudine Gay (Faculty of Arts and Sciences).
  • August 8 – Missouri voters vote against the right-to-work law by 67% to 33%.
  • August 10
  • In a landmark case, Monsanto is ordered to pay $289m to 46-year-old Dewayne Johnson, after a jury rules that the company's Roundup weedkiller caused his terminal cancer and that the corporation failed to warn him of the health hazards.
  • A Horizon Air Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 is stolen from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport with no passengers on board, prompting F15 fighter jets to scramble and intercept. After being contacted by Seattle/Tacoma air traffic control, the plane crashes near Ketron Island in Pierce County, Washington, killing the 29-year-old male pilot.
  • The Democratic National Committee reverses its ban on accepting donations from the fossil fuel industry.
  • August 12
  • NASA launches the Parker Solar Probe to study the Sun at close range and the solar wind.
  • The Unite the Right 2 rally is held at Lafayette Square near the White House in Washington, D.C.. Organized by Jason Kessler to mark the anniversary of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which ended in violence, the rally attracts some 20 to 30 of Kessler's supporters and thousands of counter-demonstrators amid a heavy police presence.
  • August 14 – Nebraska executes Carey Dean Moore, who was convicted of murder, in the state's first execution for 21 years and the first by lethal injection.
  • August 15 – Former CIA Director John O. Brennan, an outspoken critic of Trump, has his security clearance revoked by the President. The move is criticized as political retribution for Brennan's comments.
  • August 19 – ' airs for the first time on Syfy.
  • August 21
  • Police in Iowa announce they have found a body in Poweshiek County during their investigation into the Disappearance of Mollie Tibbetts. They were led to the site by suspect Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an undocumented immigrant.
  • Michael Cohen, who worked as a lawyer for Donald Trump from 2006 until May 2018, pleads guilty to eight charges: five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate or campaign.
  • Paul Manafort, the former election campaign chairman for Trump, is convicted on eight out of eighteen charges of tax and bank fraud.
  • August 22 – Mark Chapman, the man who shot and killed former Beatle John Lennon in 1980, is denied parole for the tenth time.
  • August 23 – Intelligence specialist Reality Winner is sentenced to five years and three months in prison as part of a plea deal after pleading guilty to felony transmission of national defense information.
  • August 25 – Arizona Senator John McCain dies at his home in Cornville, Arizona from glioblastoma, a rare aggressive form of brain cancer he had been battling for the past thirteen months at the time, four days before his 82nd birthday.
  • August 26 – A mass shooting occurs during a Madden NFL 19 tournament at the Jacksonville Landing in Jacksonville, Florida, resulting in three fatalities including the perpetrator.
  • August 28
  • California approves S.B. 100, a proposal to transition the state to 100% emissions-free electricity sources by 2045.
  • Shayna Hubers is convicted of the 2012 murder of her boyfriend Ryan Poston for a second time. Her previous conviction in relation to his fatal shooting had previously been overturned due to a member of the jury being ineligible.

September

  • September 5
  • In an editorial in The New York Times, an unnamed senior Trump official writes that members of the administration are working to frustrate parts of the President's agenda to protect the country from his "worst inclinations". Trump responds by calling the anonymous writer "gutless" and the newspaper "phony".
  • Hurricane Florence becomes the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season.
  • September 8 – The Cortlandt Street subway station reopens in Lower Manhattan, 17 years after it was destroyed by the 9/11 attacks.
  • September 13 – Overpressured natural gas lines in the Merrimack Valley in Massachusetts cause a massive outbreak of explosions and fires in nearly 40 homes, killing one and injuring dozens.
  • September 14 – Hurricane Florence makes landfall in North Carolina, with evacuation warnings in place for more than a million people.
  • September 15 – NASA launches ICESat-2, the agency's most technologically advanced ice-monitoring spacecraft to date.
  • September 16 – Christine Blasey Ford alleges that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s.
  • September 22 – Christine Blasey Ford agrees to testify against Brett Kavanaugh the following week.
  • September 23 – A second woman comes forward with sexual misconduct claims against Brett Kavanaugh.
  • September 25 – TV star Bill Cosby, 81, is given a three to 10-year jail term for drugging and molesting a woman in 2004. Judge Steven O'Neill designates Cosby a "sexually violent predator", meaning he must undergo counselling for life and be listed on the sex offender registry.
  • September 26 – A third woman accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
  • September 27
  • Christine Blasey Ford appears before a Senate Judiciary Committee to give evidence against Brett Kavanaugh.
  • The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) files a suit in New York alleging securities fraud by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

October

  • October 2 – The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, triggering a diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
  • October 5 – A Star Is Born is theatrically released by Warner Bros. A remake of the 1934, 1957 and 1976 versions, it was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $436 million worldwide and receiving praise for the performances Bradley Cooper (who also directed), Lady Gaga and Sam Elliott as well as the screenplay, cinematography and music.
  • October 6
  • The Senate confirms Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination by a vote of 50–48, amid controversy over sexual assault claims against him.
  • Twenty people are killed in a crash involving a limousine transporting birthday party guests in Schoharie County, New York. It is the deadliest transport crash in the U.S. since Colgan Air Flight 3407, also in New York state, which claimed 50 lives in 2009.
  • October 9 – America's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, a senior Trump cabinet member, resigns unexpectedly.
  • October 10 – Hurricane Michael approaches the Florida Panhandle, attaining peak wind speeds of 155 mph (250 km/h) and becoming the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in that region.
  • October 17 – After 50 years of performing the characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, longtime Sesame Street puppeteer Caroll Spinney announces his retirement in 2015. Spinney's role was limited to voice only due to health problems.
  • October 20 – President Trump announces that the US will "terminate" the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty over alleged Russian violations.
  • October 24 – After a bomb was found at the home of George Soros in the suburbs of New York, suspected explosive devices are also sent to former US President Barack Obama and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The latter devices are intercepted by technicians who screen mail sent to former US officials. The Time Warner building in New York (home to news broadcaster CNN) is also evacuated, after a package containing an explosive and suspicious powder is found addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan. Additional suspicious packages, addressed to Democratic Representative Maxine Waters and former Attorney General Eric Holder, are investigated by law enforcement.
  • October 25 – A suspicious package is found in Tribeca, New York City, addressed to actor Robert De Niro. Authorities also find two packages in Delaware, addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden.
  • October 26
  • Two more suspicious packages are found, addressed to New Jersey senator Cory Booker and the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper.
  • The perpetrator, Cesar Sayoc Jr., is captured in Plantation, Florida, in connection with the mail bombing attempts. He is questioned by FBI agents with the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
  • October 27 – A mass shooting occurs at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving 11 congregants dead. A 46-year-old male suspect is arrested and charged on making anti-semitic chants.
  • October 28 – The Boston Red Sox defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers, four games to one, to win their ninth World Series Championship.
  • October 29 – 800 U.S. soldiers are deployed to the Mexico–United States border as a part of Operation Faithful Patriot, reinforcing the border against incoming Central American migrant caravans.
  • October 30
  • NASA announces that its Kepler space telescope mission has ended, with the telescope having run out of fuel two weeks before, after nine-and-a-half years in space. The telescope discovered 2,681 exoplanets, with a further 2,900 candidates at the time of its retirement. The spacecraft also discovered that there are more planets than stars in our galaxy.
  • The Supreme Court of Hawaii approves the resumption of construction on Mauna Kea of one of the world's biggest telescopes, the Thirty Meter Telescope, costing $1.4 billion. Some native Hawaiians, regarding the mountain as sacred, opposed the construction since 2015.

November

  • November 2 – Bohemian Rhapsody, a biographical film about Queen singer Freddie Mercury, is released in theaters nationwide, becoming a major box office success, grossing over $905 million worldwide on a production budget of about $50 million, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2018 worldwide and setting the all-time box office records for the biopic and drama genres.
  • November 6
  • Mid-term elections: The Democrats gain 40 seats to take control of the House of Representatives, but lose two seats in the Senate.
  • Gubernatorial elections: The Democrats gain seven new seats.
  • Michigan becomes the tenth state to legalize recreational marijuana.
  • November 7
  • Attorney General Jeff Sessions tenders his resignation at President Trump's request.
  • 12 people and the perpetrator are killed in a shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill, in Thousand Oaks, California, about 40 miles (65 km) north-west of Los Angeles.
  • November 8
  • The White House shares apparently doctored footage posted by InfoWars, a conspiracy theory website, showing Jim Acosta making contact with a Trump aide, in a bid to justify its suspension of the CNN reporter's press pass.
  • Federal judge Brian Morris rules that the Keystone Pipeline cannot be built until a new Environmental impact assessment is completed. Four months later, on March 30, 2019, President Donald Trump issued a new permit.
  • November 8–25 – Major wildfires in California, including the Woolsey in southern California and Camp to the north, leave 91 dead and at least 1,000 missing, with more than 250,000 residents forced to flee. President Trump suggests that wildfires could be stopped by spending "a lot of time on raking and cleaning".
  • November 21 – William Riley Gaul, a 18-year-old college football player murdered his ex-girlfriend Emma Walker in Knoxville, Tennessee.
  • November 23 – Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) is released.
  • November 26 – SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg dies at the age of 57 from ALS.
  • November 27 – Leah Walden is sentenced to 70 years in prison for the murder of Reese Bowman.
  • November 29 – President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress in relation to the Russia inquiry.
  • November 30
  • Former President George H. W. Bush dies from Parkinson's disease at the age of 94 at his home in Houston, Texas. His passing was announced the next morning and at the time, he was both the nation's oldest and longest living president, a record surpassed by Jimmy Carter in 2019.
  • Anchorage is hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

December

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

See also

References

External links