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, in addition to Omaha having a temperature of −15 °F (−26 °C) on December 30, 2017, lower than the previous record set in 1884.
Retail sale of marijuana begins in California, the largest U.S. state to allow the sale of marijuana for recreational use.
January 3 – President Donald Trump boasts on Twitter that his nuclear button is "much bigger" and "more powerful" than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's.
January 6 – The 2017–18 United States flu season causes dozens of deaths.
January 8 – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that 2017 was the costliest year on record for climate and weather-related disasters in the United States.
January 9 – The 2018 Southern California landslides occur, killing at least 13 people, and injuring 25. The main damage occurs in Montecito, California, which was nearly burned by the Thomas Fire a month prior.
January 10 – The city council of Washington, D.C., renames the street outside Russia's embassy after Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician and critic of Vladimir Putin who was shot dead outside the Kremlin.
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?" His remarks are condemned as "racist" and "shocking" by a UN spokesman. (comp. Donald Trump racial views) The government of Botswana demands a clarification, and Ambassador Earl R. Miller is asked if the USDS regards Botswana as a "shithole" country. The event is termed by many media outlets "Shitholegate".
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.
January 13 – The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sends a false alarm warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack, causing widespread panic across the state.
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.
January 16
Democrat Patty Schachtner wins the special election for Wisconsin's 10th Senate District, the same district President Trump won by 17 points.
A meteor is reported near Michigan that causes a magnitude 2.0 earthquake.
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.
January 20 – Senate Democrats block a bill that would have kept the government running until mid-February and the government shutdown of January 2018 begins.
January 22
Amazon opens the first Amazon Go store to the public, the first completely cashier-less grocery store, located in Seattle.
Minnie Mouse receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her 90th anniversary.
January 23 – A tsunami alert is triggered after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake is recorded off the southern Alaskan coast.
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.
President Trump attends the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland.
January 30 – President Trump gives his first official State of the Union Address. 75 percent of State of the Union viewers approved of Trump's address.
February
February 2 – President Trump approves the release of a controversial Republican memo accusing the FBI of abusing its powers during the inquiry into alleged Russian meddling of US elections.
February 4 – The Philadelphia Eagles win their first Super Bowl in franchise history by defeating the New England Patriots, 41–33, in Super Bowl LII, ending a 57-year championship drought.
February 5 – The Dow Jones share index closes down 4.6%, its biggest drop since the 2008 financial crisis.
February 6 – SpaceX successfully launches its Falcon Heavy rocket from LC39A at John F. Kennedy Space Center.
February 9–25 – The United States compete at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and win 9 gold, 8 silver, and 6 bronze medals.
February 14 – A mass shooting occurs at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, resulting in 17 fatalities. It is the deadliest high school shooting in the United States, surpassing the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
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.
February 16
Special Counsel Robert Mueller announces that 13 Russians have been charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, is released by Marvel Studios as the 18th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It becomes the second-highest-grossing film of 2018 and the ninth highest-grossing film of all time at that point (now the thirteenth), earning $1.347 billion during its run.
February 18 – In Stock Car racing, Austin Dillon wins the 60th running of the Daytona 500. Darrell Wallace Jr. finishes 2nd highest finish for an African-American in the Daytona 500.
February 22 – Teachers and other education personnel in West Virginia go on the first ever statewide strike in state history.
February 23
President Trump announces a plan for the largest ever package of sanctions against North Korea, aimed at cutting off revenue for its nuclear program.
President Trump's former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, admits charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators in a plea deal.
February 24 – Paul Manafort is indicted with five federal criminal charges including money laundering and foreign lobbying violations.
February 25 – In the wake of concerns about gun control, a number of major companies announce they are severing ties with the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) – including Alamo, Allied Van Lines, Avis Rent a Car, Budget Rent a Car, Delta, Enterprise, First National Bank of Omaha, Hertz, Met Life, National, SimpliSafe, Symantec, Teladoc, and United.
March
March 1 – President Trump announces tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium imports.
March 4 – The 90th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, are held at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, with Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water winning four awards out of 13 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell respectively win Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Gary Oldman wins Best Actor for Darkest Hour and Allison Janney wins Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya. The telecast garners 26.5 million viewers, at that point the least-watched televised ceremony in Oscar history.
March 5 – Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine sues agricultural giant Monsanto, alleging the company concealed dangers posed by a toxic chemical compound it manufactured for nearly a half century.
March 6 – Gary Cohn, a top economic adviser to President Trump, resigns his position.
March 7
Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who alleges she had an affair with President Trump, files a lawsuit against him alleging that a nondisclosure contract she signed is invalid.
Florida passes a law by 67–50 votes to raise the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
March 9
President Trump accepts an invite from Kim Jong-un through South Korean officials for a meeting by May.
Former drug firm executive Martin Shkreli is sentenced to seven years in federal prison for defrauding investors.
March 13 – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is fired (effective March 31) by President Trump. CIA Director Mike Pompeo is nominated to replace him.
March 14
Democrat Conor Lamb wins the 2018 special Congressional election in Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, previously considered a safe seat for Republicans.
The Senate passes, by 67 to 31, a bill to reform the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a set of post-financial crisis rules.
President Trump appoints Larry Kudlow to be Director of the National Economic Council, succeeding Gary Cohn.
March 15 – A pedestrian bridge collapses at Florida International University, resulting in 6 fatalities.
March 16
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.
Facebook suspends Cambridge Analytica, a data firm accused of mishandling Facebook user profiles.
In the NCAA Tournament, the UMBC Retrievers defeat the Virginia Cavaliers, 74–54, becoming the first 16th-seed in NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament history to defeat a 1-seed.
March 19
Uber suspends all of its self-driving cars worldwide after a woman is killed by one of the vehicles in Tempe, Arizona.
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.
California residents are ordered to evacuate ahead of a storm described as an "atmospheric river".
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.
March 21 – It is reported that the Opioid epidemic may be worse than previously thought due to omissions on death certificates.
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.
President Trump replaces his National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster with former United Nations ambassador John Bolton.
March 25 – Advocates warn that Congress needs to devote more money to address the growing opioid epidemic.
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. Both perpetrators were known to have abused their six children before the crash.
President Trump orders the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats following the ex-spy poisoning case in the UK.
March 28 – At least 12 states are reported to be suing the Trump administration over inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census.
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.
President Trump nominates Ronny Jackson, current physician to the President, to replace Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.
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."
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 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 – Avengers: Infinity War, 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 Avengers: Age of Ultron. 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 Kīlauea 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 Kīlauea shield volcano on the Big Island of the state of Hawaii erupts from its summit, shooting ash 30,000 feet (9,100 m) 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
June 4 – In a 7–2 decision (Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission), the Supreme Court rules in favor of a Colorado baker who, citing the First Amendment's protection of religion, refused to create a customized wedding cake for a homosexual couple.
June 7 – The Washington Capitals defeat the Vegas Golden Knights in game five of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals to give the Capitals their first Stanley Cup in franchise history and the first championship for the city of D.C. since the Redskins won Super Bowl XXVI. Capitals left-winger Alex Ovechkin is the playoff MVP.
June 8
The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory unveils Summit as the world's most powerful supercomputer, with a peak performance of 200,000 trillion calculations per second, or 200 petaflops.
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.
The Golden State Warriors defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers, four games to none, to win the NBA Championship.
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.
June 11–12 – In a historic first, President Trump meets with Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, in Singapore.
June 14 – The Sand Blaster roller coaster on the Daytona Beach boardwalk derails. Six people are taken to hospital, with two suffering traumatic injuries.
June 15
Federal judge Amy Berman Jackson cancels Paul Manafort's bail and orders that he be jailed for alleged witness tampering.
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.
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."
Rapper XXXTentacion is shot and killed in Deerfield Beach, FL on the same day fellow rapper Jimmy Wopo is also shot and killed in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
Big City Greens debuts on Disney Channel.
June 19
The United States announces that it will withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Koko, a western Lowland gorilla largely known for having learned to communicate in American Sign Language, dies in her sleep in California.
Antwon Rose Jr. a 17-year-old African-American man is shot and killed by white Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld.
June 25
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.
Epidiolex, for the treatment of epilepsy, becomes the first drug derived from marijuana to win federal approval.
June 26 – The Supreme Court upholds President Trump's travel ban in a 5–4 decision.
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.
Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy announces that he will retire from the United States Supreme Court on July 31, prompting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to vow that Kennedy's successor will be confirmed by the fall.
June 28
The 2018 North American heat wave begins.
575 women protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are arrested during a demonstration outside the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
Five people are killed in a mass shooting in the newsroom of The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.
Mass arrests of Occupy ICE demonstrators are made by Homeland Security agents at an ICE facility in Portland Oregon.
June 30 – Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate across all 50 U.S. states against family separations carried out by the United States.
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 – The Last Sharknado: It's About Time 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 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 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. (Jimmy Carter (who was born four months after Bush) held the record for being America's oldest living POTUS in March 2019.)
Anchorage is hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.
December
December 11 – The Balangiga bells, which had been taken by the United States Army from Balangiga, Eastern Samar in 1901 as war trophies during the Philippine–American War, are returned to the Philippines after 117 years of U.S. possession.
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.
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.
December 14
Federal judge Reed O'Connor rules that the health insurance mandate component of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional.
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.
December 18 – The Donald J. Trump Foundation is shut down, amid allegations that President Trump and others illegally misused its funds.
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.
December 21
The Dow Jones closes at 22,445.37 after its worst week since 2008.
Aquaman, directed by James Wan, is released as the sixth film in the DC Extended Universe, becoming currently the franchise's biggest financial success.
December 22
A partial shutdown of the government begins after Congress fails to agree a budget.
U.S. envoy Brett McGurk resigns over Trump's decision to pull troops from Syria.
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.
December 31 – Senator Elizabeth Warren announces her intention to run for president in the 2020 election.
Deaths
January
January 1
Robert Mann, violinist and composer (b. 1920)
Milton P. Rice, politician (b. 1920)
Jon Paul Steuer, actor and singer (b. 1984)
Betty Willis, soul singer (b. 1941)
January 2
Frank Buxton, actor, writer, author, and director (b. 1930)
Emily Dole, professional wrestler (b. 1957)
Rick Hall, record producer, songwriter, and music publisher (b. 1932)
Thomas S. Monson, religious leader and writer (b. 1927)
Betty Woodman, ceramic artist and sculptor (b. 1930)
January 3
Fred Bass, bookseller (Strand Bookstore) (b. 1928)
Heriberto Hermes, Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1933)
Rob Picciolo, baseball player and coach (b. 1953)
Alan Sagner, public servant and political fundraiser (b. 1920)
January 4
Dick Bestwick, football coach (b. 1930)
Brendan Byrne, politician (b. 1924)
Gerard Conley, politician (b. 1929)
Carmen Cozza, baseball and football player, and coach (b. 1930)
Bruce Halle, auto parts executive and philanthropist, founder of Discount Tire (b. 1930)
Jack N. Merritt, army general (b. 1930)
January 5
Robert Q. Crane, politician (b. 1926)
Carole Hart, television writer (b. 1943)
Norman Lamb, politician (b. 1935)
Jerry Van Dyke, actor (b. 1931)
John Young, astronaut (b. 1930)
January 6
Horace Ashenfelter, Olympic athlete (b. 1923)
Thomas Bopp, astronomer (b. 1949)
Rita Crocker Clements, political organizer (b. 1931)
Marjorie Holt, politician (b. 1920)
Bob Jenson, politician (b. 1931)
William R. Ojala, politician (b. 1925)
Jimmy Robinson, recording engineer (b. 1950)
Dave Toschi, police detective (Zodiac Killer) (b. 1931)
Frank Varrichione, football player (b. 1932)
January 7
Will Gay Bottje, composer (b. 1925)
Joe Ellis Brown, politician (b. 1933)
Tom Dowling, football coach (b. 1940)
Anna Mae Hays, military officer and nurse (b. 1920)
Tom Netherton, singer (b. 1947)
Dick Young, baseball player (b. 1927)
Doug Young, voice actor (b. 1919)
January 8
Bruce Cole, humanist (b. 1938)
Frank Kreith, Austrian-born mechanical engineer (b. 1922)
Denise LaSalle, singer, songwriter, and record producer (b. 1934)
George Lindbeck, Lutheran theologian (b. 1923)
Kynaston McShine, curator (b. 1935)
James N. Morgan, economist (b. 1918)
Chuck Murphy, prelate (b. 1947)
Myron Rush, Kremlinologist (b. 1921)
Charles H. Turner, American attorney (b. 1935)
January 9
Terence Marsh, British production designer (b. 1931)
Joseph Wayne Miller, actor (b. 1981)
Milton J. Rosenberg, psychology professor and radio host (b. 1925)
January 10
Charles Davis, Olympic sports shooter (b. 1927)
John Sherrill Houser, artist (b. 1935)
William B. Keene, judge (b. 1925)
Katherine Kellgren, narrator and actress (b. 1969)
Tom Luken, politician (b. 1925)
Doreen Tracey, British-born American performer (b. 1943)
January 11
Doug Barnard Jr., politician (b. 1922)
Gene Cole, athlete (b. 1928)
Stephane Gauger, Vietnamese-born film director and screenwriter (b. 1969)
Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., lawyer (b. 1929)
John W. Hennessey Jr, academic (b. 1925)
Edgar Ray Killen, Ku Klux Klan leader and convicted murderer (b. 1925)
January 12
Lisa Chedekel, journalist (b. 1960)
Frankie Muse Freeman, civil rights attorney (b. 1916)
Robert W. Hamilton, legal scholar (b. 1931)
Keith Jackson, sports commentator, journalist, author, and radio personality (b. 1928)
John V. Tunney, politician (b. 1934)
January 13
Jean Porter, actress (b. 1922)
Naomi Stevens, actress (b. 1925)
January 14
Barbara Cope, rock 'n' roll groupie (b. 1950)
Paul Lustig Dunkel, American flutist and conductor (b. 1943)
Dan Gurney, racing driver (b. 1931)
Bill Hughes, jazz trombonist (b. 1930)
Mario Martinez, weightlifter (b. 1957)
Samuel A. Schreiner Jr., writer (b. 1921)
Milton Shadur, federal judge (b. 1924)
Marlene VerPlanck, jazz singer (b. 1933)
Hugh Wilson, film director and television producer (b. 1943)
January 15
Romana Acosta Bañuelos, public servant (b. 1925)
Bob Barton, baseball player (b. 1941)
Anshel Brusilow, American violinist and conductor (b. 1928)