17th century


 * 1602: William Shakespeare wrote the tragedy Troilus and Cressida. Unknown to Shakespeare, his tale was based on the later life of Vicki, a former companion of the First Doctor, who adopted the identity of Cressida after leaving the TARDIS. (TV: The Myth Makers)
 * 1603:
 * John Dee realised that the Doctor would pay no more visits to Elizabeth I. Soon afterwards, the queen died, succeeded by her cousin, James VI of Scotland. When the king arrived to claim his throne as James I of England, he was accompanied by William Lethbridge-Stewart, an ancestor of the Brigadier. (PROSE: Birthright, The Dying Days)
 * Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London for his involvement in a plot to remove James I from the throne. At some time during his thirteen year imprisonment, he shared a cell with the Doctor and annoyed him by going on and on about "some new vegetable he'd discovered." (TV: The Mind of Evil)
 * Francis Pearson wrote The Adventures of Macbeth's Head. (PROSE: Managra)
 * 1605: After the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, Robert Catesby and Sir Thomas Percy fled to Holbech House in Staffordshire, where they were shot and killed by the Sheriff of Worcester's men. (PROSE: The Plotters)
 * 1606: Robert Hay was executed under the name Guy Fawkes for his role in the Gunpowder Plot. (PROSE: The Plotters)
 * 1607: Richard Maynarde was born. (TV: Silver Nemesis)
 * 1608: Jared Khan, posing as Dr. John Dee, faked his death. (PROSE: Birthright)
 * 1609: The First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Vicki visited Venice. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
 * 1610:
 * March - A mob was so enraged at how exceptionally bad Francis Pearson's latest play was that they burned all extant copies of his works. (PROSE: Managra)
 * September - Francis Pearson and Edward Kelley met in Prague, and visited the home of Elizabeth Bathory. (PROSE: Managra)
 * 1611:
 * The King James Bible was first published. The Doctor had met two of its translators, Haldann and Otley, in 1605. (PROSE: The Plotters)
 * Elizabeth Bathory was walled up alive for slaughtering hundreds of young women and bathing in their blood, believing that doing so would preserve her youth. The Doctor had tried and failed to save one girl from the Blood Countess, and this failure haunted him for centuries. Not mentioned at Elizabeth's trial were the black magic rituals she conducted with Edward Kelley and Francis Pearson, which brought the Mimic to Earth. Horrified by the rituals, Pearson fled back to England, but was pursued by the Mimic, which saw in Pearson's plagiarisms a kindred spirit. (PROSE: Managra)
 * 1613: On 29 June, Francis Pearson set fire to the Globe Theatre on opening night for William Shakespeare's last play, Henry VIII. Pearson was later attacked and consumed by the Mimic, becoming the being later known as Persona. (PROSE: Managra)
 * 1621:
 * Lady Peinforte poisoned Dorothea Remington. (TV: Silver Nemesis)
 * Rebecca Nurse, one of the women hanged during the witch trials at Salem Village in 1692, was born in Yarmouth, England. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1624: In France, Cardinal Richelieu became King Louis XIII's chief minister. (AUDIO: The Church and the Crown)
 * 1626:
 * Sir Francis Bacon died of pneumonia contracted after trying to stuff snow up a chicken. The Doctor claimed to have been present during the former event. (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS)
 * The Fifth Doctor, Peri Brown and Erimem visited Paris (AUDIO: The Church and the Crown)
 * 1630: The Doctor visited the Det-Sen Monastery in Tibet when it was attacked by bandits. To prevent it from falling into the bandits' hands, the Doctor was entrusted with the monastery's holy Ghanta. He would return it in 1935. (TV: The Abominable Snowmen)
 * 1632: John Proctor, one of the accused and hanged, during the witch trials at Salem Village in 1692, was born. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1638:
 * 23 November - The Doctor (possibly in his seventh incarnation) launched the Nemesis statue into orbit after battling Lady Peinforte with the help of Roundheads at a meadow in Windsor. The Doctor calculated that the statue would pass Earth every 25 years before returning in 1988, and set his watch. (TV: Silver Nemesis)
 * Some time after her initial defeat by the Doctor, Lady Peinforte hired a mathematician to calculate when the Nemesis would return to Earth. Once a date of 23 November 1988 was calculated, the Lady and her henchman Richard Maynarde killed the mathematician and used his blood in a black magic ritual to transport themselves to 1988 with the help of a time storm created by Fenric. (TV: Silver Nemesis, The Curse of Fenric)
 * 1642:
 * The English Civil War began on Earth. The War Lords kidnapped soldiers from this conflict for their war games. (TV: The War Games) The Master used his TOMTIT device to bring a troop of Roundheads to the late 20th century, where they fired upon Captain Yates' troops (TV: The Time Monster)
 * 8 January - Galileo Galilei died under house arrest at Arceti, Italy.
 * 4 December - Cardinal Richelieu died in France. (known history)
 * 25 December - Isaac Newton was born.
 * 1643: On 13 July, In the village of Little Hodcombe, during church services, parishioners began fighting amongst themselves, urged on by the Malus, which was feeding upon the psychic energy generated by their negative emotions. Roundheads and Royalists converged on the village, annihilating each other and the village. Once the violence subsided, the Malus went dormant again. Taking refuge from the violence in a priest hole, young Will Chandler was transported to the year 1984. After defeating the Malus in that year, the Fifth Doctor returned Will to this time. (TV: The Awakening)
 * 1644:
 * A "strange fire" destroyed the castle at Crook Marsham. (PROSE: Nightshade)
 * Matthew Hopkins began his career as the self-appointed "Witchfinder-General" of England. (TV:The Dæmons)
 * 1647: Matthew Hopkins, England's Witchfinder-General, died. Witches hid from Hopkins at Devil's End. (TV:The Dæmons)
 * 1648:
 * The Thirty Years' War ended on Earth. The War Lords had kidnapped soldiers from this conflict for their war games. (TV: The War Games)
 * George Jeffreys, later judge at the notorious "Bloody Assizes," was born near Wrexham, Wales.
 * In December, the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, Ben Jackson and Polly visited England. (PROSE: The Roundheads)
 * 1649:
 * On 30 January, King Charles I of England, Scotland, France and Ireland was executed for treason by the Rump Parliament. This was traditionally regarded as the end of the second English Civil War. (PROSE: The Roundheads)
 * John Aubrey published his study of the megalithic stones at Avebury and began developing his theories about the ancient Druids.
 * 1653:
 * Rev. Samuel Parris, one of the key figures in the witch trials at Salem Village in 1692, was born in London. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters)
 * Izaak Walton published The Compleat Angler. The Doctor fished with Walton on at least one occasion. (TV: The Androids of Tara)
 * 1655: Samuel Pepys married Elisabeth St Michel.
 * 1657: On 2 November, Richard Maynarde died and was buried at Windsor. (TV: Silver Nemesis)
 * 1658: On 3 September, Oliver Cromwell died. The Second Doctor had played a part in Cromwell's rise to power. (PROSE: The Roundheads)
 * 1660:
 * 29 May - Charles II accepted the throne of England after the dissolution of the Commonwealth Republic. During Charles' reign the Doctor met Dr. Pepys, prevented a group of Terileptils from exterminating humanity with an augmented plague, got blamed for causing the Great Fire of London, and was thrown into the Tower of London. (TV: Planet of the Spiders, Robot, The Visitation, PROSE: The Republican's Story, TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * 28 November - The Royal Society, to which John Wallace would give a paper on sympathetic vibration, was founded. (TV: The Happiness Patrol)
 * 1661: Erasmus Darkening was employed as a alchemist by Lord Marchwood. He made Marchwood and his children vanish. (TV: The Eternity Trap)
 * 1663: On 23 November, the Nemesis statue passed Earth. (TV: Silver Nemesis)
 * 1665:
 * The first cases of what would be known as the Great Plague of London appeared in the city's outskirts. The disease would become more widespread and fatal the following year, after the plague bacteria were genetically augmented by a group of escaped Terileptil criminals. As a precaution against spreading the plague, King Charles II ordered the theatres closed, an act which puts actor Richard Mace out of work, forcing him to become a highwayman. (TV: The Visitation)
 * Cambridge University closed as a precaution against plague, and one of its students, Isaac Newton, returned to his home at Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth. Some time after this he was sitting under an apple tree from which the Doctor began lobbing apples onto Isaac's head, hoping to help Isaac discover gravity. Isaac instead told the Doctor to clear off out of his tree, and the Doctor had to simply explain the whole thing to him over dinner. (TV: The Pirate Planet)
 * 1666:
 * Late August - The Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan arrived in London on the trail of a Terileptil invasion. (TV: The Visitation)
 * 2 September - The Doctor accidentally started the Great Fire of London, which burned until 5 September. (TV: The Visitation)
 * George Mortimer, Helen Mortimer, Ida Mortimer and Alan Mortimer were rescued from the Great Fire by the First Doctor. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space)
 * 1669:
 * The Doctor and Martha Jones visited England, where they encountered an outbreak of the Black Death connected to an alien invasion. (COMIC: Black Death White Life)
 * 10 November - Elisabeth Pepys died in London.
 * 1674: On 12 July, Abigail Williams was born in Hadley, Massachusetts. She would be a key witness in the witch trials in Salem Village in 1692. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1675: On 5 July, Mary Walcott was born in Salem Village, Massachusetts. She would be a key witness in the witch trials there in 1692. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1677: John Wallace presented a paper on sympathetic vibration to the Royal Society. (TV: The Happiness Patrol)
 * 1679:
 * Ann Putnam was born in Salem Village, Massachusetts. She would be a key witness in the witch trials there in 1692. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters)
 * Professor Chronotis took up residence at St. Cedd's College, Cambridge. (TV: Shada)
 * '1682: Betty Parris, one of the key witnesses in the witch trials at Salem Village, was born. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters'')
 * 1683: Izaak Walton died.
 * 1684: In Carbury, England, a building was constructed that would later house the Gore Crow Hotel. (TV: Battlefield)
 * 1685: On 6 February, King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland died.
 * 1689: On 18 April, Judge Jeffreys died in captivity in the Tower of London.
 * 1692: The First Doctor, Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright landed the TARDIS in Salem Village. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1697: John Aubrey died. The Fourth Doctor always thought Aubrey invented his theories on Druidism as a joke. (TV: The Stones of Blood)