17 July

On 17 July, 1888. the Elysium supposedly crashed a half-mile away from the extremities of the South Coast of England after an intense storm. (PROSE: Pride of Mayfield Star Lines Beached in Devastating Storm [+])

The day after Saturn V's launch in 1969, the Tenth Doctor told off the secret agents, Spencer and Milledge for hiding an alien species' transmission just so they could "pervert a pure and innocent gesture of faith into a weapon" with which to win the Cold War. The Doctor, after recording the signal at Mission Control with a dictaphone to use for later, surrendered himself to the agents. The agents knocked the Doctor out and locked in an office. (PROSE: Blue Moon)

In 1987, Simon Jenkins — known as "the Capper" because he kneecapped people — set himself on fire in a public courtyard. His charred body was evacuated to South Park Hospital where the staff attempted to save him. He briefly showed extraordinary, impossible signs of life, then appeared to conclusively die. Dr Polly Fielding formally filed his death certificate. Only he wasn't dead. (PROSE: Damaged Goods)

17 July, sometime in the 2000s, was the release date of both The Pink Panther and Date Movie, at least according to advertisements in a Cardiff supermarket. (TV: Out of Time)

In 6012, a rocket with humans and Hath arrived on the planet Messaline, and they used robot drones to build an underground city. Before long, though, the mission commander died. After his death, they could not decide on who to replace him as their leader, and so the humans and Hath split up into two separate factions, beginning the seven-day Human-Hath War, which finally ended on the 24th. (TV: The Doctor's Daughter, Time Traveller's Diary)

Parallel universe
In a parallel universe, the Trinity detonation of the Manhattan Project took place on Tuesday, 17 July 1945 at 5am after the Seventh Doctor delayed it by one day. N-Space Japanese-American cultists looking to hijack the detonation launched their ploy too early the previous day, as they were unaware of the change. (PROSE: Atom Bomb Blues)