Editing 1718 (section)

=== April &ndash; June ===
[[File:New Orleans PD 1.jpg|thumb|right| [[May 7]]: [[New Orleans]]]]
* [[April 4]] &ndash; Great Britain, France and the Dutch Republic agree on the phasing out of the authority of the [[House of Medici]] over the semi-independent [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]] by declaring that [[Gian Gastone de' Medici]] will be the last of the Medici family to rule the Italian duchy and that Spain's [[Spanish royal family|House of Borbón]] will eventually control the Tuscan monarchy.  [[Charles III of Spain|Don Carlos of Spain]], the two-year old son of [[Philip V of Spain|King Philip V]], is designated as the eventual heir, despite the objections of the 75-year old Grand Duke, [[Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Cosimo III de' Medici]].<ref>Harold Acton, ''The Last Medici'' (Macmillan, 1980) p. 172</ref>
* [[May 1]] &ndash; [[San Antonio]] is founded by [[Antonio de Olivares|Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares]] with the construction of the initial [[Alamo Mission in San Antonio|Mission San Antonio de Valero]].
* [[May 7]] &ndash; The settlement of [[New Orleans]] is founded in [[New France]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyorb.com/events/date/1718 |title=Historical Events for Year 1718 &#124; OnThisDay.com |website=Historyorb.com |access-date=2018-04-04}}</ref>
* [[May 22]] &ndash; Sailing the ''[[Queen Anne's Revenge]]'' English [[pirate]] Edward Teach ("[[Blackbeard]]") leads 400 sailors in four ships, and blockades the port of [[Charleston, South Carolina]] for an entire week, plundering all arriving ships.<ref>Angus Konstam, ''The Pirate World: A History of the Most Notorious Sea'' (Bloomsbury, 2019)</ref>  After their departure, ''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'' (which is renamed the ''Royal James'') once again. Bonnet rescues 25 sailors abandoned by Blackbeard on a sandbar and continues his life of piracy.
* [[June 3]] &ndash; Pirates "Blackbeard" and Stede Bonnet accidentally run aground in the ship ''[[Queen Anne's Revenge]]'' after sailing into [[Topsail Inlet]] in the British colony of [[North Carolina]].  Learning of the royal pardon available to all pirates who surrender before September 5, Teach negotiates a settlement with Colonial Governor [[Charles Eden (politician)|Charles Eden]] for a pardon for himself, Bonnet and the rest of his crew in return for the Governor receiving some of the pirates' plunder.<ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/last-days-blackbeard-180949440/ "The Last Days of Blackbeard"], By Colin Woodard, ''Smithsonian'' magazine (February 2014)</ref>
* [[June 16]] &ndash; The [[Treaty of Baden (1718)|Treaty of Baden ]] is signed, ending the [[Toggenburg War]].
* [[June 19]] &ndash; A [[1718 Tongwei-Gansu earthquake|7.5 earthquake]] shakes [[Tongwei County]] in [[China]], killing 73,000 people.