The 2018 North American cold wave takes place, with record low temperatures in the Midwestern and Eastern United States. Times Square in New York City has a temperature of 9°F (−13°C), with −4°F (−20°C)wind chill,[1] in addition to Omaha having a temperature of −15°F (−26°C) on December 30, 2017, lower than the previous record set in 1884.[2]
January 11 – During a meeting with lawmakers about immigration, President Trump is reported to have asked, "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?"[9][10] His remarks are condemned as "racist" and "shocking" by a UN spokesman.[11] (comp. Donald Trump racial views) The government of Botswana demands a clarification,[12] and Ambassador Earl R. Miller is asked if the USDS regards Botswana as a "shithole" country.[13] The event is termed by many media outlets "Shitholegate".[14]
January 12 – A Baltimore woman who was a patient at the University of Maryland Medical Center is taken outside and left by hospital employees in freezing temperatures wearing nothing but her hospital gown and socks. She is stranded until bystander Imanu Baraka calls 911.[15]
January 15 – Turpin case: Police in California arrest a couple, 57-year-old computer engineer at Northrop Grumman David Allen Turpin and his wife, 49-year-old Louise Anna Turpin, who allegedly held their 13 children captive, some chained to beds in the dark.[17]
January 16
Democrat Patty Schachtner wins the special election for Wisconsin's 10th Senate District, the same district President Trump won by 17 points.[18]
A meteor is reported near Michigan that causes a magnitude 2.0 earthquake.[19]
January 18 – Scotland Yard reveals that U.S. actor Kevin Spacey is being investigated over a third accusation of sexual assault in the UK, from 2005.[20]
January 23 – A tsunami alert is triggered after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake is recorded off the southern Alaskan coast.[26]
January 24
Disgraced Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar receives a prison sentence of up to 175 years after testimony from nearly 160 of his victims.[27]
January 30 – President Trump gives his first official State of the Union Address.[28] 75 percent of State of the Union viewers approved of Trump's address.[29]
February 15 – Pearl Fernandez pleads guilty to the murder of her son Gabriel Fernandez, an eight-year old tortured and killed in California. Her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre is also later convicted of murder in relation to the case.[36]
February 16
Special Counsel Robert Mueller announces that 13 Russians have been charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election.[37]
March 5 – Ohio Attorney GeneralMike DeWine sues agricultural giant Monsanto, alleging the company concealed dangers posed by a toxic chemical compound it manufactured for nearly a half century.[46]
March 6 – Gary Cohn, a top economic adviser to President Trump, resigns his position.[47][48]
President Trump accepts an invite from Kim Jong-un through South Korean officials for a meeting by May.[51]
Former drug firm executive Martin Shkreli is sentenced to seven years in federal prison for defrauding investors.[52]
March 13 – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is fired (effective March 31) by President Trump. CIA Director Mike Pompeo is nominated to replace him.[53]
Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe is dismissed for "lack of candor" days before he was due to retire with pension rights. McCabe denies the claims and insists he was targeted because of his involvement in the Russia inquiry.[60]
Facebook suspends Cambridge Analytica, a data firm accused of mishandling Facebook user profiles.[61]
Uber suspends all of its self-driving cars worldwide after a woman is killed by one of the vehicles in Tempe, Arizona.[63]
British TV station, Channel 4, airs a documentary about Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis company that worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Undercover reporters, talking to executives from the firm, discover the use of bribes, honey traps, fake news campaigns and operations with ex-spies to swing election campaigns around the world.[64][65]
California residents are ordered to evacuate ahead of a storm described as an "atmospheric river".[66]
March 20 – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg receives a formal request from the British government to answer questions regarding Cambridge Analytica and the "catastrophic failure of process" behind the data breach.[67][68]
March 21 – It is reported that the Opioid epidemic may be worse than previously thought due to omissions on death certificates.[69][70]
March 22
President Trump announces tariffs on up to $60bn in Chinese goods and plans to limit the country's investment in the US. The Dow Jones falls sharply in response.[71]
President Trump replaces his National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster with former United Nations ambassador John Bolton.[72]
March 25 – Advocates warn that Congress needs to devote more money to address the growing opioid epidemic.[73]
March 26
Six children are killed by their adoptive mothers, Jennifer and Sarah Hart, when their SUV intentionally drives over a California cliff in a mass murder-suicide.[74] Both perpetrators were known to have abused their six children before the crash.[75]
President Trump orders the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats following the ex-spy poisoning case in the UK.[76]
March 28 – At least 12 states are reported to be suing the Trump administration over inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census.[77]
March 29
Russia announces it will expel 60 US diplomats and close the US Consulate in St. Petersburg in retaliation for the US expelling 60 Russian diplomats.[78]
President Trump nominates Ronny Jackson, current physician to the President, to replace Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.[79]
Mark Zuckerberg disavows a 2016 memo on Facebook's expansion plans, saying in a statement that Andrew Bosworth "is a talented leader who says many provocative things. This was one that most people at Facebook including myself disagreed with strongly. We've never believed the ends justify the means."[80]
April
April 3 – Three people suffer gunshot wounds when a female shooter, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, attacks the YouTube headquarters in California, before killing herself.[81]
April 4
China announces 25% tariffs on 106 US Products, including cars and soybeans.[82]
April 6 – The Trump administration imposes sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs and 17 senior government officials, accusing them of "malign activity around the globe".[84]
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.[85]
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.[86]
April 11 – House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan announces that he will not run for re-election in November.[87]
April 13 – President Trump orders targeted strikes in Syria to retaliate for a suspected chemical weapons attack.[88]
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 20 – Smallville actress Allison Mack appears in court on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy.[90]
April 22 – Four people are killed at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, when a naked gunman shoots them with a semi-automatic rifle before fleeing on foot.[91] 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.[92][93]
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.[94]
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).[100]
May 2
The state of Iowa approves the so-called "heartbeat" bill, banning most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.[101]
Following a series of small earthquakes, the USGS warns that the Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii could erupt.[103] Two days later it erupts, there are stronger earthquakes and Hawaii declares a state of emergency, evacuating 1,700 residents.[104]
May 4
The national unemployment rate hits 3.9 percent, the lowest rate since 2000.[105]
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.[107][108]
The state of California becomes the world's fifth-largest economy, with the state's GDP surpassing that of the United Kingdom's.[109]
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 (7.1cm) of rain had fallen on race day, breaking a record that had lasted since 1918.[110][111][112]
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."[113]
New York's attorney general Eric Schneiderman resigns over multiple allegations of assault.[114]
President Trump announces his intention to withdraw the United States from the Iranian nuclear agreement.[115] In a statement, former U.S. President Barack Obama calls the move "a serious mistake".[116]
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.[119]
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.[120]
NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) is cancelled by the Trump administration.[121]
May 11 – U.S. fighter jets intercept two Russian TU-95 bombers in Alaskan airspace.[122]
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.[124]
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.[125]
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.[126]
May 24 – Actor Morgan Freeman is accused of sexual harassment by eight women.[127]
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.[128]
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.[129]
Missouri Governor Eric Greitens announces his resignation (effective June 1) amid a sex scandal.[131]
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 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.[134]
Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade both die of suicide, leading to growing concerns of alarming public health that can lead to people living with breakdowns and mental health before asking others if can have any intention on taking their own lives.
June 8–9 At the G7 summit in Canada, President Trump pushes for the reinstatement of the G8 (to include Russia). He also proposes the elimination of tariffs.[138]
June 14 – The Sand Blaster roller coaster on the Daytona Beach boardwalk derails. Six people are taken to hospital, with two suffering traumatic injuries.[140]
Pixar Animation Studios' 20th feature film, Incredibles 2, the sequel to 2004's The Incredibles, is released in theaters. It is currently Pixar's biggest financial success, grossing over $1.242 billion worldwide.
June 17 – A shooting at an all-night arts festival in Trenton, New Jersey, leaves one person dead and seventeen people injured.[142]
June 18
70 former U.S. Attorneys deliver a letter to Jeff Sessions, urging that he end his "dangerous, expensive, zero tolerance" migrant policy, which separates children at the border, calling it "inconsistent with the values of the institution in which we served."[143]
Motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson announces that it will shift some production outside the U.S. as a result of retaliatory tariffs introduced by the European Union.[148]
June 26 – The Supreme Court upholds President Trump's travel ban in a 5–4 decision.[151]
June 27
In a landmark 5–4 decision that overturns Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977), the Supreme Court rules in Janus v. AFSCME that it is a violation of the First Amendment for public-sector unions to compel non-members to pay fair-share representation fees.
U.S. tariffs on $34billion 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.[159][160]
July 13 – Special counsel Mueller charges 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking during the 2016 election.[162]
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.[163] Senator John McCain describes it as "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."[164]
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.[165]
President Trump invites Vladimir Putin to visit America.[168]
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.[169]
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.[170]
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.[171]
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.[172]
July 28 – John Delaney announces his candidacy for U.S. president in 2020.[173]
July 29 – Wildfires in northern California continue to rage across vast swathes of land, destroying hundreds of structures and causing several deaths.[174]
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".[175]
Apple, Inc. becomes the first public company to achieve a market capitalization of $1trillion, as its share price exceeds a new record high above $207.[177]
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!"[178][179]
August 6 – The ongoing wildfires in California are officially declared as the largest in the state's history.[180]
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.[186]
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.[195]
August 15 – Former CIA Director John O. Brennan, an outspoken critic of Trump, has his security clearance revoked by the President.[196] The move is criticized as political retribution for Brennan's comments.[197]
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.[199]
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.[200]
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.[202]
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.[203]
California approves S.B. 100, a proposal to transition the state to 100% emissions-free electricity sources by 2045.[205][206]
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.[207]
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".[208] Trump responds by calling the anonymous writer "gutless" and the newspaper "phony".[209]
September 8 – The Cortlandt Street subway station reopens in Lower Manhattan, 17 years after it was destroyed by the 9/11 attacks.[212]
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.[213]
September 22 – Christine Blasey Ford agrees to testify against Brett Kavanaugh the following week.[217]
September 23 – A second woman comes forward with sexual misconduct claims against Brett Kavanaugh.[218]
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.[219]
September 26 – A third woman accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.[220]
September 27
Christine Blasey Ford appears before a Senate Judiciary Committee to give evidence against Brett Kavanaugh.[221]
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.
October 9 – America's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, a senior Trump cabinet member, resigns unexpectedly.[225]
October 10 – Hurricane Michael approaches the Florida Panhandle, attaining peak wind speeds of 155mph (250km/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 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.[227]
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.[228]
October 26
Two more suspicious packages are found, addressed to New Jersey senator Cory Booker and the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper.[229]
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.[230]
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.[231][232]
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.[234][235][236]
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 $1.4billion. Some native Hawaiians, regarding the mountain as sacred, opposed the construction since 2015.[237]
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.
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 (65km) north-west of Los Angeles.[240]
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.[241]
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.[244][245][246] President Trump suggests that wildfires could be stopped by spending "a lot of time on raking and cleaning".[247]
November 29 – President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress in relation to the Russia inquiry.[253]
November 30
Former President George H. W. Bushdies 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. (Jimmy Carter (who was born four months after Bush) held the record for being America's oldest living POTUS in March 2019.)
December 12 – Michael Cohen, the ex-Trump lawyer who once said he'd "take a bullet" for the president, is given a 36-month jail term.[255]
December 13 – In a rare rebuke to the White House, the Senate votes 56–41 to end US military assistance to Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen over alleged war crimes. It passes a separate resolution that holds Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally responsible for the death of Saudi dissident Jamal Kashoggi.[256]
Denise Williams is found guilty of the murder of her husband Jerry Michael Williams, who disappeared in December 2000 and was assumed to have accidentally drowned at Lake Seminole, Florida.[258]
December 18 – The Donald J. Trump Foundation is shut down, amid allegations that President Trump and others illegally misused its funds.[259]
December 20 – Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigns, effective February 28, 2019, after failing to persuade Trump to reconsider his decision of the previous day to withdraw the remaining American troops from Syria.[260][261]
December 21
The Dow Jones closes at 22,445.37 after its worst week since 2008.[262][263]
Aquaman, directed by James Wan, is released as the sixth film in the DC Extended Universe, becoming currently the franchise's biggest financial success.
U.S. envoy Brett McGurk resigns over Trump's decision to pull troops from Syria.[265]
December 24 – Actor Kevin Spacey is charged with sexually assaulting a teenager at a bar in Massachusetts in July 2016 and ordered to appear in court on January 7.[266]