1. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates as Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, facing the reality of the revolution in Germany. The abdication is announced by Chancellor Maximilian of Baden who resigns later that day in favor of Social Democrat Freidrich Ebert. Germany is then declared a republic. This made the impending end of the war inevitable and obvious to all.
The Casper Daily Tribune was not subtle in its views on the Kaiser.
The German empire, which came into being in 1870, with the King of Prussia perpetually as its Emperor, was at an end. Monarchy in Germany, which saw many royal titles lessor than Emperor including various kings, was also at an end. Wilhelm went into exile in the Netherlands where he would live to see the beginning of World War Two, passing away in June 1941.
The Casper Daily Press was more subdued in its reporting and correctly noted that things weren't over yet. It was incorrect in the establishment of a German regency. . . and in the spelling of cavalry. It noted, however, the ongoing disaster of the Spanish Flu, which the other Casper paper managed to miss.
In a lot of ways, he was the worst possible German monarch for his times, taking his imperial role seriously even until his death, and remaining a German chauvinist in spite of the disaster that he had lead his nation into. Ironically, his parents had very much sympathized with republican ideals and likely would have moved the country in that direction if they'd been allowed to. Wilhelm, however, idolized imperial military ideals since his childhood.
This Cheyenne paper correctly predicted the probable remaining length of the war.
His resignation paved the way to an end of the war in very short order, but it also permanently tainted the new Socialist German republic with the legacy of defeat and would help doom the democratic order in Germany.
The Laramie Boomerang was most subdued of all, but had the interesting headline of about the war solving the "social problem", demonstrating how war changes everything. Also, a tragic community loss due to the war was reported.
Also complicit in the end of Imperial Germany, in all sorts of ways, was its Army. And directly implicit in the final act of the German Empire was the Army's abandonment of the monarchy, something it would forget in short order as it began to reconstruct a false narrative of the war's end.
2. The battleship HMS Britannia was sunk by the German submarine UB-50 with the loss of 50 hands.
The HMS Britannia sinking.
3. The American Navy's cargo ship the USS Saetia was sunk by a mine laid by the U-117.
USS Saetia.
4. Pieter Jelles Troelstra declared that a socialist revolution was possible in Denmark, leading to the arming of Dutch police officers.
5. The Mexican government issues orders to discharge soldiers younger than 18 years of age.
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