Born in 1718:

• Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi.
• English politician Robert Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich.
• American naval pioneer Esek Hopkins.
• English physicist John Canton.
• French missionary and musical historian Jean Joseph Marie Amiot.
• English furniture maker Thomas Chippendale.
• Italian composer Giuseppe Scarlatti, in Vienna.
• Swiss astronomer Philippe Loys de Cheseaux.
• Japanese poet Karai Senryu.
• Japanese mathematician Matsunaga Ryohitsu.

Died in 1718:

• English Quaker leader William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.
• Italian Franciscan friar and globe-maker, Vincenzo Coronelli.
• Swedish King Charles XII, to the great relief of the Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Poles, and Russians (see below).
• English philosopher Richard Cumberland, bishop of Peterborough.
• French mathematician Philippe de la Hire.
• Irish writer Thomas Parnell.
• Russian Prince Alexis, tortured to death on the orders of his father, Tsar Peter the Great.
• Mary of Modena, widow of English King James II, in exile in France.
• English dramatist Nicholas Rowe.
• The notorious English pirate captain Edward Teach, also known as "Blackbeard". See below.

• French colonists in Louisiana build a settlement around a portage from Lake Ponchartrain to the Mississippi River, naming it New Orleans.
• Twenty-five year old Francois Arouet is released from the Bastille. Prison has been good for Arouet.  In prison, he began a new epic poem, and adopted a new nom de plume -- "Voltaire".
• Charles XII is unable to attack Russia because he is negotiating peace with them, so he decides upon a different course for furthering his glory.  He leads an army of 60,000 into Norway, but is killed leading a siege of Fredrikshald.  He  is succeeded by his sister Ulrica Leonora, but Swedish nobles and clergy force a new constitution on her, giving them most of the power. In Sweden, that is. Peter seizes the opportunity and halts peace talks.
• Martín de Alarcón leads an expedition into Texas, founding a presidio and mission at San Antonio de Béxar.
• Blackbeard lays siege to Charleston in the Carolina colony, looting several ships he captures trying to enter the harbor. But then his ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, is grounded (perhaps deliberately).  Hearing of George I's pardon of pirates who will surrender, he moves to Bath and retires.  Well, publicly, that is; his ships are still ravaging the Atlantic coast.   Fed up with Carolina governor Eden's inaction (and possible complicity), Virginia governor Alexander Spotswood sends two sloops led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard across into Carolina, and eventually catch up with him. Blackbeard is killed in a pitched battle on board his ship Adventure, near Ocracoke Onlet in what is now North Carolina. Maynard has Blackbeard decapitated and hangs the head as a trophy from his bowsprit.  Legend has it that 12-year-old Benjamin Franklin writes a ballad about Blackbeard.
• With the Treaty of Passarowitz (Pozarevac), The Ottoman Empire signs away the territory Austrian general Prince Eugene of Savoy has conquered from it,  but gains the Peloponessos and Dalmatia from Venice.
• War of the Quadruple Alliance: Spain invades Sicily (they had invaded Sardinia the year before).
  • This disconcerts Duke Victor Amadeus of Savoy, since his possession of the island allowed him to style himself "King of Sicily".  This disconcerts Great Britain, France and Austria as well.
  • (August 2) These countries form a Quadruple Alliance against Spain.
  • (August 9) A British fleet transfers an Austrian army across to Sicily, meanwhile destroying the Spanish fleet near Messina .

1717 - 1718 - 1719

How they Were Made - 18th Century