i) births and deaths

7 May 1908: birth of Valentine Dyall, who played the Black Guardian in 1979 and 1983 and Slarn in Slipback (1985)

7 May 1964: birth of Craig Hinton, author of several Who novels and a Big Finish Who audio, and inventor of the work 'fanwank'.

7 May 1998: death of Seymour Green who played two villainous sidekicks, Hargreaves the butler in The Seeds of Doom (Fourth Doctor, 1976) and Mestor's chamerlain, Slarn, in The Twin Dilemma (Sixth Doctor, 1984).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

7 May 1966: broadcast of "Don't Shoot the Pianist", second episode of the story we now call The Gunfighters. The Doctor is mistaken for Doc Holliday, with potentially fatal consequences for Steven.

7 May 2005: broadcast of The Long Game. The Doctor, Rose and Adam visit the far-future broadcasting hub on Satellite Five.

7 May 2011: broadcast of The Curse of the Black Spot. The TARDIS is marooned onboard a 17th century pirate ship whose crew is being attacked by a mysterious and beautiful sea creature. Becalmed and beset by cabin fever, the pirates have numerous superstitious explanations for the Siren's appearance. The Doctor has other ideas, but as his theories are disproved and every plan of escape is thwarted, he must work to win the trust of the implacable Captain Henry Avery and uncover the truth behind the pirates' supernatural fears — and he must work quickly, for some of his friends have already fallen under the Siren's spell.

iii) dates specified in canon

7 May 1915: sinking of the Lusitania, as depicted in second episode of The Sirens of Time, the very first Big Finish audio in 1999.

7 May 2157: the Daleks destroy Pluto's satellite Charon, as described in Craig Hinton's 1997 novel GodEngine.