17th century


 * 1601: William Shakespeare is believed to have written Hamlet between 1599 and 1601; at one point one of the first four incarnations of the Doctor helped him write the manuscript after he sprained his wrist. (DW: City of Death)
 * 1602: William Shakespeare writes the tragedy Troilus and Cressida. Unknown to Shakespeare, his tale is based on the later life of Vicki, a former companion of the First Doctor, who adopted the identity of Cressida after leaving the TARDIS. (DW: The Myth Makers)
 * 1603: John Dee realizes that the Doctor will pay no further visits to Elizabeth I. Soon afterwards, the queen dies, succeeded by her cousin, James VI of Scotland. When the king arrives to claim his throne as James I of England, he is accompanied by William Lethbridge-Stewart, an ancestor of the Brigadier. (NA: Birthright, The Dying Days)
 * Sir Walter Raleigh is imprisoned in the Tower of London for his involvement in a plot to remove James I from the throne. At some point during his thirteen year imprisonment, he shares a cell with the Doctor and annoys him by going on and on about "some new vegetable he'd discovered." (DW: The Mind of Evil)
 * Francis Pearson writes The Adventures of Macbeth's Head. (MA: Managra)
 * 1605: After the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, Robert Catesby and Sir Thomas Percy flee to Holbech House in Staffordshire, where they are shot and killed by the Sheriff of Worcester's men. (MA: The Plotters)
 * 1606: Robert Hay is executed under the name Guy Fawkes for his role in the Gunpowder Plot. (MA: The Plotters)
 * 1607: Richard Maynarde is born. (DW: Silver Nemesis)
 * 1608: Jared Khan, posing as Dr. John Dee, fakes his death. (NA: Birthright)
 * 1609: The Doctor, Steven Taylor and Vicki visit Venice. (MA: The Empire of Glass)
 * 1610: In March, a mob is so enraged at how exceptionally bad Francis Pearson's latest play is that they burn all extant copies of his works. In September, Francis Pearson and Edward Kelley meet in Prague, then visit the home of Elizabeth Bathory. (MA: Managra)
 * 1611: The King James Bible is first published. The Doctor met two of its translators, Haldann and Otley, in 1605. (MA: The Plotters)
 * Elizabeth Bathory is 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 haunts him for centuries. Not mentioned at Elisabeth's trial are the black magic rituals she conducted with Edward Kelley and Francis Pearson, which brought the Mimic to Earth. Horrified by the rituals, Pearson flees back to England, but is pursued by the Mimic, which sees in Pearson's plagiarisms a kindred spirit. (MA: Managra)
 * 1612: Robert Cecil dies.
 * 1613: On 29th June, Francis Pearson sets fire to the Globe Theatre on opening night for William Shakespeare's last play, Henry VIII. Pearson is later attacked and consumed by the Mimic, becoming the being later known as Persona. (MA: Managra)
 * 1621: Lady Peinforte poisons Dorothea Remington. (DW: Silver Nemesis)
 * Rebecca Nurse, one of the women hanged during the witch trials at Salem Village in 1692, is born at Yarmouth, England. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1624: In France, Cardinal Richelieu becomes King Louis XIII's chief minister. Earliest possible date for BFA: The Church and the Crown.
 * 1626: Sir Francis Bacon dies of pneumonia contracted after trying to stuff snow up a chicken. The Doctor claimed to have been present during the former event. (PDA: Heart of TARDIS)
 * The Fifth Doctor, Peri Brown and Erimem visit Paris (BFA: The Church and the Crown)
 * 1630: The Doctor is visiting the Det-Sen Monastery in Tibet when it is attacked by bandits. To prevent it from falling into the bandits' hands, the Doctor is entrusted with the monastery's holy Ghanta, and will return it in 1935. (DW: The Abominable Snowmen)
 * 1632: John Proctor, one of the accused, and hanged, during the witch trials at Salem Village in 1692, is born. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1633: On 23rd February, Samuel Pepys is born in London.
 * 1638: On 23rd November, the Doctor (possibly in his seventh incarnation) launches the Nemesis statue into orbit after battling Lady Peinforte with the help of Roundheads at a meadow in Windsor. The Doctor calculates that the statue will pass Earth every 25 years before returning in 1988, and sets his watch. (DW: Silver Nemesis)
 * Sometime after her initial defeat by the Doctor, Lady Peinforte hires a mathematician to calculate when the Nemesis will return to Earth. Once a date of 23rd November 1988 has been calculated, the Lady and her henchman Richard Maynarde kill the mathematician and use his blood in a black magic ritual to transport themselves to 1988 with the help of a time storm created by Fenric. (DW: Silver Nemesis, The Curse of Fenric)
 * 1640: Elisabeth St. Michel, future wife of Samuel Pepys, is born, possibly in Devon.
 * 1642: The English Civil War begins on Earth. The War Lords kidnap soldiers from this conflict for use in their war games. (DW: The War Games) the Master uses his TOMTIT device to bring a troop of Roundheads to the late 20th century, where they fire upon Captain Yates' troops (DW: The Time Monster)
 * On 8th January, Galileo Galilei dies under house arrest at Arceti, Italy.
 * On 4th December, Cardinal Richelieu dies in France. Latest possible date for BFA: The Church and the Crown.
 * On 25th December, Isaac Newton is born.
 * 1643: On 13th July, In the village of Little Hodcombe, during church services, parishioners begin fighting amongst themselves, urged on by the Malus, which is feeding upon the psychic energy generated by their negative emotions. Roundheads and Royalists converge on the village, annihilating each other and the village. Once the violence subsides, the Malus goes dormant once more. Taking refuge from the violence in a priest hole, young Will Chandler is transported to the year 1984. After defeating the Malus in that year, the Doctor returns Will to this time. (DW: The Awakening)
 * 1644: A "strange fire" destroys the castle at Crook Marsham. (NA: Nightshade)
 * Matthew Hopkins begins his career as the self-appointed "Witchfinder-General" of England. (DW:The Dæmons)
 * 1647: Matthew Hopkins, England's Witchfinder-General, dies. Witches hid from Hopkins at Devil's End. (DW:The Dæmons)
 * 1648: The Thirty Years' War ends on Earth. The War Lords had kidnapped soldiers from this conflict for use in their war games. (DW: The War Games)
 * George Jeffreys, later judge at the notorious "Bloody Assizes," is born near Wrexham, Wales.
 * In December, the Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, Ben Jackson and Polly visit England. (PDA: The Roundheads)
 * 1649: On 30th January, King Charles I of England, Scotland, France and Ireland is executed for treason by the Rump Parliament. This is traditionally regarded as the end of the second English Civil War. (PDA: The Roundheads)
 * John Aubrey publishes his study of the megalithic stones at Avebury and begins 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, is born in London. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * Izaak Walton publishes The Compleat Angler. The Doctor fishes with Walton on at least one occasion. (DW: The Androids of Tara)
 * 1655: Samuel Pepys marries Elisabeth St Michel.
 * 1657: On 2nd November, Richard Maynarde dies and is buried at Windsor. (DW: Silver Nemesis)
 * 1658: On 3rd September, Oliver Cromwell dies. The Second Doctor had played a part in Cromwell's rise to power. (PDA: The Roundheads)
 * 1660: On 29th May, Charles II accepts the throne of England after the dissolution of the Commonwealth Republic. During Charles' reign the Doctor meets Dr. Pepys, prevents a group of Terileptils from exterminating humanity with an augmented plague, and gets blamed for causing the Great Fire of London. (DW: Planet of the Spiders, Robot, The Visitation, ST: The Republican's Story)
 * On 28th November, The Royal Society, to which John Wallace will give a paper on sympathetic vibration, is founded. (DW: The Happiness Patrol)
 * 1661: A comet is discovered by the astronomer Clancy which returns to Earth every one hundred and fifty-seven years. ("The Ghosts of N-Space")
 * Erasmus Darkening is employed as a alchemist by Lord Marchwood. He makes Marchwood and his children vanish. (SJA: The Eternity Trap)
 * 1663: On 23rd November, the Nemesis statue passed Earth. (DW: Silver Nemesis)
 * 1665: The first cases of what will be known as the Great Plague of London appear in the city's outskirts. The disease will become more widespread and fatal the following year, after the plague bacteria are genetically augmented by a group of escaped Terileptil criminals. As a precaution against spreading the plague, King Charles II orders the theaters closed, an act which puts actor Richard Mace out of work, forcing him to become a highwayman. (DW: The Visitation)
 * Cambridge University closes as a precaution against plague, and one of its students, Isaac Newton, returns to his home at Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth. Sometime after this he is sitting under an apple tree from which the Doctor begins lobbing apples onto Isaac's head, hoping to help Isaac discover gravity. Isaac instead tells the Doctor to clear off out of his tree, and the Doctor must instead explain the whole thing to him over dinner. (DW: The Pirate Planet)
 * 1666: In late August, the Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan arrive in London on the trail of a Terileptil invasion. A few days later, on 2nd September, the Doctor accidentally starts the Great Fire of London, which burns until 5th September. (DW: The Visitation)
 * George Mortimer, Helen Mortimer, Ida Mortimer and Alan Mortimer are rescued from the Great Fire by the First Doctor. (DWA: Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space)
 * 1669: The Doctor and Martha Jones visit England, where they encounter an outbreak of the Black Death connected to an alien invasion. (IDW: Black Death White Life)
 * On 10th November, Elisabeth Pepys dies in London.
 * 1674: On 12th July, Abigail Williams is born in Hadley, Massachusetts. She will be a key witness in the witch trials which occur in Salem Village in 1692. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1675: On 5th July, Mary Walcott is born in Salem Village, Massachusetts. She will be a key witness in the witch trials which occur here in 1692. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1677: John Wallace presents a paper on sympathetic vibration to the Royal Society. (DW: The Happiness Patrol)
 * 1679: Ann Putnam is born in Salem Village, Massachusetts. She will be a key witness in the witch trials that occured there in 1692. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * Professor Chronotis takes up residence at St. Cedd's College, Cambridge. (DW: Shada)
 * 1682: Betty Parris, one of the key witnesses in the witch trials at Salem Village, is born. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1683: Izaak Walton dies.
 * 1684: In Carbury, England, a building is constructed that will later house the Gore Crow Hotel. (DW: Battlefield)
 * 1685: On 6th February, King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland dies.
 * 1688: On 23rd November, the Nemesis statue passes Earth. (DW: Silver Nemesis) Its approach possibly influences events leading to the Glorious Revolution and the Nine Years War. (REF: The Terrestrial Index)
 * 1689: On 18th April, Judge Jeffreys dies in captivity in the Tower of London.
 * 1691: Upon arriving at Salem Village in 1692, the Doctor and his companions initially believe they have arrived in this year, before the witch hysteria, until they are corrected by Rebecca Nurse. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1692: The Doctor, Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright land in the TARDIS in Salem Village. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
 * 1697: John Aubrey dies. The Doctor always thought Aubrey invented his theories on Druidism as a joke. (DW: The Stones of Blood)
 * 1697: The reign of terror of the notorius pirate captain, Jack Lawrence, comes to an end when his fleet is destroyed by flying metal warriors, shouting "exterminate" and firing blue flames from their personal cannons that killed in an instant. The survivors are found on an island weeks later, later suffering from exposure to the sun and starvation, rambling about the "metal demons". Refusing to change their story as the years go by, although they are never believed, they spend the rest of their lives in asylums, unable to ever forget the terrifying creatures. (DWBIT: #19)