1718

January – June

• January - France declares war on Spain, leading to the 2-year War of the Quadruple Alliance.
• May - English pirate Blackbeard leads 400 sailors in four ships, to blockade the port of Charleston, South Carolina. The Queen Anne's Revenge and Adventure are both lost at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, a week later. Blackbeard allows Stede Bonnet to command the Revenge once again. Bonnet rescues 25 sailors abandoned by Blackbeard on a sandbar and continues his life of piracy.
• May 1 - San Antonio is founded by Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares with the construction of the initial Mission San Antonio de Valero.
• May 7 - The settlement of New Orleans is founded in New France.
• June - Blackbeard and Bonnet take refuge in Bath, North Carolina, where Governor Charles Eden pardons them and their crew.
• June 16 - The Treaty of Baden is signed, ending the Toggenburg War.

  July–December

• July 21 - The Treaty of Passarowitz is signed.
• August 11 - Battle of Cape Passaro: a Spanish fleet is defeated by the British Royal Navy under Admiral George Byng, off Capo Passero, Sicily, a prelude to the War of the Quadruple Alliance.
• September - The Dzungar Khanate destroys a Qing army in the Battle of the Salween River.
• 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 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 11 - Lightning strikes the powder magazine at the Old Fortress, Corfu, causing a major catastrophe on the island.
• November 18 - Voltaire's first play, Oedipus, premières at the Comédie-Française in Paris. This is his first use of the pseudonym.
• November 22 - Citing violations of the amnesty agreement with Blackbeard, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood 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 twenty sword lacerations.
• December 5 - Following the death of Charles XII on November 30, his sister Ulrika Eleonora proclaims herself Queen regnant of Sweden, as the news of her brother's death reaches Stockholm.
• December 10 - Stede Bonnet is hanged at Charleston, after being recaptured.
• December 17 - The Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Great Britain and Dutch Republic join the Kingdom of France in formally declaring war on Spain, launching the War of the Quadruple Alliance.

  Date unknown

• Islamization of Sudan: The Funj warrior aristocracy deposes the reigning mek and places one of their own ranks on the throne of Sennar.
• The white potato reaches New England from England.
• Coffee is grown in Surinam.

  Births

• January 7 - Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general
• January 29 - Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor
• February 17 - Matthew Tilghman, American delegate to the Continental Congress
• March 31 - Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, queen regent of Portugal
• April 4 - Benjamin Kennicott, English churchman and Hebrew scholar
• April 7 - Hugh Blair, Scottish preacher and man of letters
• April 20 - David Brainerd, American missionary
• April 24 - Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter
• April 26 - Esek Hopkins, American Revolutionary War admiral
• April 27 - Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler
• May 16 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician
• May 17 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician
• May 23 - William Hunter, Scottish anatomist
• May 30 - Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician
• May 31 - Jacob Christian Schäffer, German inventor, botanist and professor
• June 5 - Thomas Chippendale, English furniture maker
• June 17 - George Howard, British field marshal
• July 5 - Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, Viceroy of Ireland
• July 18 - Saverio Bettinelli, Italian writer
• July 31 - John Canton, English physicist
• August 11 - Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-born British colonial governor
• September 18 - Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman
• October 19 - Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France
• October 2 - Louisa Catharina Harkort, German ironmaster
• October 28 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian Jesuit missionary and geographer
• November 3 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman
• November 28 - Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht, Swedish writer
• date unknown
• * István Hatvani, Hungarian mathematician
• * Salomée Halpir, Lithuanian oculist

  Deaths

• January 6
• * Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist
• * Richard Hoare, English goldsmith and banker
• January 7 - Empress Xiaohuizhang, Qing Dynasty empress and consort of the Shunzhi Emperor of China
• January 17 - Captain Benjamin Church, Plymouth Colony settler and military officer
• February 1 - Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician
• February 5 - Elizabeth Capell, Countess of Essex, British countess
• February 17
• * Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, illegitimate daughter of King Charles II of England
• * Prince George William of Great Britain, member of the British Royal Family
• February 18 - Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist
• March 9 - Marko Gerbec, Carniolan physician, scientist
• March 13 - Friedrich Nicolaus Bruhns, German organist and composer
• April 3 - Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician
• April 18 - Michael Wening, German engraver
• April 21 - Philippe de La Hire, French mathematician and astronomer
• April 23 - Sir Edward Blackett, 2nd Baronet, English politician
• May 7 - Mary of Modena, queen of James II of England
• May 19 - Juan Andrés de Ustariz, Royal Governor of Cuba
• May 16 - Jonas Danilssønn Ramus, Norwegian priest and historian
• May 24 - Jeremiah Dummer, American silversmith
• May 30
• * Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle, Dutch favorite of William III of England
• * Bernard Nieuwentyt, Dutch mathematician and philosopher
• June 9 - Jonathan Corwin, American judge of the Salem witch trials
• June 13 - Louis, Count of Armagnac, French noble
• June 17
• * Margherita Maria Farnese, Italian noblewoman
• * James Tyrrell, English barrister and writer
• July 28 - Étienne Baluze, French scholar
• July 30 - William Penn, American settler, founder of Pennsylvania
• August 2 - Al-Mahdi Muhammad, Yemeni imam
• August 4 - René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, lord-founder of Rimouski in eastern Quebec, Canada
• September 11 - Domenico Martinelli, Italian architect
• September 12 - Louise de Maisonblanche, illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV of France
• September 20 - George St Lo, Royal Navy officer and administrator
• October 9 - Richard Cumberland, English philosopher
• October 19 - Alphonse Henri, Count of Harcourt, French noble
• November 3 - Karl, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
• November 22
• * Blackbeard, English pirate
• * Durgadas Rathore, Indian ruler
• c. December - Black Caesar, African pirate
• December 6 - Nicholas Rowe, English poet and dramatist
• December 9 - Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encyclopedist
• December 11 - King Charles XII of Sweden
• December 10 - Stede Bonnet, Barbadian "gentleman pirate"
• December 28 - Jan Brokoff, German sculptor
• date unknown - Marie Grubbe, Danish countess