1718

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Year 1718 (MDCCXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of

January - June

January - France declares war on Spain leading to the two-year War of the Quadruple Alliance.
January 19 - Lady Mary Wortley Montagu gives birth to a daughter.

May - Blackbeard leads 300 sailors in four ships to blockade the port of Charleston, South Carolina, in late May. The Queen Anne's Revenge and Adventure are both lost at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, one week later. Blackbeard allows Stede Bonnet to once again command the Revenge, which is renamed the Royal James. Bonnet rescues 25 sailors abandoned by Blackbeard on a sandbar and continues his life of piracy.
June - Blackbeard and Bonnet take refuge in Bath, North Carolina, where Governor Charles Eden pardons them and their crew.

July - December

July 21 - Treaty of Passarowitz is signed.
August 12 - New Orleans, Louisiana, is founded.
October - Stede Bonnet and his crew are captured near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and taken to Charleston, South Carolina, where they are tried for piracy. All but four of Bonnet's crew are found guilty and sentenced to death.
October 24 - Stede Bonnet escapes from prison.
November 8 - 22 of Stede Bonnet's pirate crew are hanged at Charleston.
November 22 - Citing violations of the amnesty agreement with Blackbeard, Virginia Governor Alexander Spottswood sends a Royal Navy contingent to North Carolina, where they battle Blackbeard and his crew in Ocracoke Inlet. Blackbeard is killed in action after receiving five musketball wounds and 20 sword lacerations.

December 6 - After the death of Charles XII on November 30, Ulrika Eleonora becomes Queen of Sweden.
December 10 - Stede Bonnet is hanged at Charleston after being recaptured.
December 17 - Austria, Great Britain, and France declare war on Spain, launching the War of the Quadruple Alliance.

Undated

The Funj warrior aristocracy deposes the reigning mek and places one of their own ranks on the throne of Sennar. (History of Sudan)
White potato reaches New England from England.

Ongoing events

Great Northern War (1700-1721)

Births

January 7 - Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general (died 1790)
January 29 - Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor (died 1794)
February 17 - Matthew Tilghman, American delegate to the Continental Congress (died 1790)
March 31 - Marianne Victoria of Borbón, queen regent of Portugal (died 1781)
April 4 - Benjamin Kennicott, English churchman and Hebrew scholar (died 1783)
April 7 - Hugh Blair, Scottish preacher and man of letters (died 1800)
April 20 - David Brainerd, American missionary (died 1747)
April 24 - Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (died 1784)
April 26 - Esek Hopkins, American Revolutionary War admiral (died 1802)
April 27 - Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (died 1790)
May 16 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (died 1799)
May 17 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (died 778)
May 23 - William Hunter, Scottish anatomist (died 1783)
May 30 - Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician (died 1793)
June 5 - Thomas Chippendale, English furniture maker (died 1779)
June 17 - George Howard, British field marshal (died 1796)
July 5 - Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, Viceroy of Ireland (died 1794)
July 18 - Saverio Bettinelli, Italian writer (died 1808)
July 31 - John Canton, English physicist (died 1772)
August 11 - Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-born British colonial governor (died 1791)
September 18 - Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (died 1783)
October 19 - Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France (died 1804)
October 28 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian Jesuit missionary and geographer (died 1793)
November 3 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman (died 1792)
date unknown - István Hatvani, Hungarian mathematician (died 1786)

Deaths

January 6 - Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (born 1664)
January 6 - Richard Hoare, English goldsmith and banker (born 1648)
January 17 - Captain Benjamin Church, Plymouth Colony settler and military officer (born c.1639)
February 1 - Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician (born 1660)
February 18 - Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist (born 1663)
May 7 - Mary of Modena, queen of James II of England (born 1658)
May 30 - Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle, Dutch favorite of William III of England (born 1670)
July 28 - Etienne Baluze, French scholar (born 1630)
July 30 - William Penn, American settler, founder of Pennsylvania (born 1644)
November 22 - Blackbeard, English pirate (born c.1680)
November 30 - King Charles XII of Sweden (born 1682)
December 6 - Nicholas Rowe, English poet and dramatist (born 1674)
December 9 - Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encylopedist (born 1650)
December 19 - Stede Bonnet, the "gentleman pirate" (birth unknown)