i) births and deaths

26 February 1932: birth of Michael Goldie, who played Jack Craddock in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (First Doctor, 1964) and Elton Laleham in The Wheel in Space (Second Doctor, 1968)

26 February 1938: birth of Tony Selby, who played Sabalom Glitz in The Mysterious Planet (Sixth Doctor, 1986), The Ultimate Foe (also Sixth Doctor, 1986) and Dragonfire (Seventh Doctor, 1987).

26 February 2018: death of Peter Miles, who played Dr Lawrence, the obstructive director of the Wenley Moor nuclear research facility, in Doctor Who and the Silurians (Third Doctor, 1970); Professor Whittaker, the inventor of time travel, in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (Third Doctor, 1974); and most memorably Davros’s sidekick Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks (Fourth Doctor, 1975).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

26 February 1966: broadcast of “Bell of Doom”, fourth episode of the story we now call The Massacre; first appearance of Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet. The Doctor and Steven flee Paris as the massacre goes ahead, leaving Anne behind; but is Dodo, who stumbles into the Tardis in 1966, her descendant?

26 February 1972: broadcast of first episode of The Sea Devils, the one with the guest appearance by the Clangers. The Doctor and Jo visit the imprisoned Master, and investigate attacks on nearby sea forts.

26 February 1977: broadcast of first episode of The Talons of Weng Chiang. The Doctor and Leela land in Victorian London where they get mixed up in the investigation of a series of brutal murders.