i) births and deaths

8 July 1978: birth of the very watchable Eve Myles, who plays Gwen Cooper in Torchwood (and also appeared in The Unquiet Dead with the Ninth Doctor in 2005). Mmmmmm.

8th July 2006: death of Peter Hawkins, who did the voices of the Daleks, the Cybermen, Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, Captain Pugwash, and Zippy in the first season of Rainbow.

ii) broadcast anniversary

also 8 July 2006: broadcast of Doomsday, the last episode of Season 2 of New Who, with Daleks vs Cybermen, and Rose Tyler swept off to a parallel universe; RTD's last really satisfactory finale, and even then the kids I was watching it with got a bit bored with Billie Piper's make-up smearing. It worked for me, though I was totally confused by the ending as I was not really aware of Catherine Tate.

8 July 2009: broadcast of the third episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth, as the 456 arrive in their gas-filled chamber and demand 10% of all of humanity's children; meanwhile Jack reveals that he handed over the children they took away in 1965.