Historical events you'd most like to have witnessed

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PeterJB

PeterJB

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Imagine you have a time machine, when and where would you most like to go back to? I'm doing this Christmas Carol style where you can go back in time but you can't interact with anyone or change the course of events in any way. If you want to do this Back to the Future style, go ahead, but it creates way too many variables for me. Anyway, here are some examples. Mostly fairly generic but these events are remembered for a reason!

Caesar's Assassination - 15 March 44 BC

The Battle of Hastings - 14 October 1066

The Battle of Bosworth Field - 22 August 1485

The First Fleet landing at Sydney Cove - 26 January 1788

The Executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette - 21 January and 16 October 1793

Premiere of Beethoven's 9th - 7 May 1824

Sinking of the Titanic - 15 April 1912

Premiere of The Rite of Spring - 29 May 1913

Assassination of the Romanovs - 17 July 1918

Normandy Landings - 6 June 1944

Liberation of Auschwitz - 27 January 1945

Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - 6 & 9 August 1945

September 11th
 
Premier of Tchaikovsy's 1812 would be quite something, he had the side taken out of a church so he could use real cannons. Mad as a goat.

I'd like to be at Runnymede for the signing of the Big Card, but that would only be impressive with the benefit of hindsight. I'd also like to be at the gates of Hull when Charles I is denied access to his arsenal by Governor Hotham. That was quite a big British History Moment.
 
Mine aren't really specific events, but recurring events that were parts of a movement of a time and place and probably not truly remarkable at the time.

Assorted concerts at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in the late 1960s, specifically "San Francisco Sound" bands like Jefferson Airplane

Assorted downhill bike races (Repack) in Marin County in the early 1970s

Underground Detroit Techno shows in the 1980s

Just like...hanging out for a week in Los Angeles in the 1960s

Same for New York City in the mid 1920s.

(I wouldn't mind also seeing LA in the 20s and NYC in the 60s either)

Seeing and exploring Oakland when it looked like this:

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Outside of California...

I would really love to spend a week in Ancient Rome, just to see what daily life was like. I actually don't want this experience to be influenced by any particular notable event. I just want to see how Romans existed. I first remember feeling this urge while walking through the ruined streets of Pompeii and seeing a storefront with a barely legible...but still legible painted sign. It was just so ordinary. People used to shop for stuff there. Beyond the myth and legend of Rome there were people having pretty routine lives...those are the people I want to meet and hang out with for a week or so.
 
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Due to a disagreement over royalties the American Musicians' Union had a strike from 1942 to 1944 which means their members didn't record or make radio broadcasts. I would've liked to have heard Earl 'Fatha' Hines's bebop orchestra featuring Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker since no known recording of the line up exists.

After that I'd probably go back in time and snap a few pics of the Colossus of Rhodes and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon with my mobile phone. Maybe check a few books out of the Library of Alexandria before it was burnt to the ground.

A time travel science fiction story I read as a kid (Up The Line by Robert Silverberg) mentions crowds of tourists journeying back in time to witness the crucifixion of Jesus but that sounds a bit on the macabre side to me.
 
UKMikey
A time travel science fiction story I read as a kid (Up The Line by Robert Silverberg) mentions crowds of tourists journeying back in time to witness the crucifixion of Jesus but that sounds a bit on the macabre side to me.
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I would much rather have had a beer with Jesus during his carpentry days. Just see what the dude was like.
 
TexRex
Would I be subject to environmental conditions? If not, I'd like to be present for the first lunar EVA.
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If it's being viewed as a flashback then no. When it comes to being involved and altering historical events that's when things get a bit more complicated.
 
The Construction Of The Great Pyramid In Egypt (2580-2560 B.C., possibly much earlier)
The Signing Of The Declaration Of Independence (August 2, 1776)
The Wright Brother's First Flight (December 17, 1903)
The Roswell UFO Crash (early July 1947)
The Moon Landing (July 20, 1969)
Woodstock (August 15-18, 1969)
The Fall Of The Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989)
Being at any NASCAR Winston Cup race from the 1950's-2001
 
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In no order:
  • Battle of Vienna (1683), so I can watch WHEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED.
  • Battle of Attu, just so I can say I watched the only land battle of World War II fought in North America.
  • Since @Eunos_Cosmo did time periods instead of particular moments, I will too: any point in pre-unified England, especially during the Heptarchy.
  • January 18th, 1971, Madison Square Garden, the night Bruno Sammartino's near-eight year reign as (then) WWWF Champion ended. Heard tales of how deathly quiet it was.
  • Late 40's/early 50's, Ohio-ish area literally just to watch one particularly specific type of steam locomotive run (Baltimore & Ohio EM-1)
  • 80's punk scene in California
 
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Sport
As an Englishman - the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final
2005 UEFA Champions League final
2003 Rugby World Cup Final

History
Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse - the first and last time Civil Engineers tried dynamics instead of statics.
The breaking of the Berlin Wall
Mount Vesuvius' Pompeii eruption
The testing of the Warwolf on Stirling Castle

Music
Somewhere to see peak Queen in concert
Daft Punk's Alive 2007 tour
Swedish House Mafia and Avicii's last DJ sets


I'm sure I'll think of more to add
 
England World Cup 1966.
Live Aid at Wembley 1985.
ACDC at River Plate 2009.
Moon landing 1969.
The Battle of Waterloo 1815.
Normandy Landings 1944.
V-E Day 1945.
Ali v Foreman 1974.
 
I wonder if these monumental events would still feel as important when travelling back in time when you know exactly how they will pan out?

Battles would especially be odd ones to attend (aside from being a dangerous event to visit, fullstop) as they have no abrupt ending, so to speak of, and the results on a historical footing are probably decided days or weeks later and elsewhere (parliament or equivalent).
 
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TheCracker
I wonder if these monumental events would still feel as important when travelling back in time when you know exactly how they will pan out?

Battles would especially be odd ones to attend (aside from being a dangerous event to visit, fullstop) as they have no abrupt ending, so to speak of, and the results on a historical footing are probably decided days or weeks later elsewhere (parliament or equivalent).
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For me, the most interesting historical events to revisit in person would be those which involved an unsolved question or mystery. The JFK assassination is one I'd like to see in person. Another would be the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.
 
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Daz555
Wouldn't that involve being in the plane that Hani Hanjour hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon?
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It could, but sensibly you'd stand a safe distance across the street. At least I would, only @Dotini knows how intense an experience he's going for :D

Another historical moment that I'd like to see, or moment in historic time, is early humans just going about their cudgelly business.
 
TenEightyOne
It could, but sensibly you'd stand a safe distance across the street. At least I would, only @Dotini knows how intense an experience he's going for :D

Another historical moment that I'd like to see, or moment in historic time, is early humans just going about their cudgelly business.
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Like any normal healthy male, I greatly enjoy loud noises and stinking smoke. I get off on this with racing cars and karts, and now with rocketry. But I draw the line well before plane wrecks and terrorist bombings.

There are numerous videos of 9/11, but are there any which show an airplane or anything crashing into the Pentagon? If so, I like to see it.

Another thing I'd like to see is the catastrophes which began and ended the Younger Dryas, and also the Laschamp magnetic pole reversal of about 42,000 years ago. We know these things are cyclic, so will happen again. A new magnetic pole reversal is now slowly occurring. It'd be nice to know more about these rare catastrophic phenomena which reshape affairs on Earth.
 
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TenEightyOne
It could, but sensibly you'd stand a safe distance across the street. At least I would, only @Dotini knows how intense an experience he's going for :D

Another historical moment that I'd like to see, or moment in historic time, is early humans just going about their cudgelly business.
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I'd also like to see some Neanderthal action, personally.
 
TenEightyOne
It could, but sensibly you'd stand a safe distance across the street. At least I would, only @Dotini knows how intense an experience he's going for :D
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Just close enough to catch the bloke with the shoulder mounted RPG hiding behind the grassy knoll?

TenEightyOne
Another historical moment that I'd like to see, or moment in historic time, is early humans just going about their cudgelly business.
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Imagine being on hand at the creation of all those great inventions like fire or the wheel.

 
I think I'd like to see the comet impact that took out the dinosaurs (all kinds of problems with this). Maybe also SN1006, 1006 A.D, which was a supernova bright enough to cast shadows and be seen during the day. I'd like to bring along a telescope for that. We've had some amazing auroras too, that would be a decent choice I'd think. A yellowstone erruption would be sweet... also it would be very cool to see some lunar impact craters formed.

Or the beginning of life on earth (that might be kinda boring though, would definitely be at or near the top of the list for scientific research purposes). Or maybe the impact that formed the moon in the first place, though... air is an issue (as with the dinosaurs... and yellowstone... and the formation of life). Big bang?
 
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Dotini
For me, the most interesting historical events to revisit in person would be those which involved an unsolved question or mystery. The JFK assassination is one I'd like to see in person. Another would be the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.
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This for me. If I could go back in time, I would visit all those mysterious events and see for myself (or with other experts) what actually happened. Bermuda triangle crashes, Mary Celeste, Roswell, Vela incident, Senna's crash, MH370, etc.

Alternatively I'd like to see how those old megastructures were built with my own eyes e.g. Pyramids, Stonehenge.
 
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LeGeNd-1
Bermuda triangle crashes
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That's an easy one, there is no greater statistical likelihood of failing to complete a flight through the Bermuda Triangle than anywhere else. Some studies have found it marginally safer, relatively speaking.
 
TenEightyOne
That's an easy one, there is no greater statistical likelihood of failing to complete a flight through the Bermuda Triangle than anywhere else. Some studies have found it marginally safer, relatively speaking.
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Yeah I'm aware of that. It would still be interesting to know what actually happened to those lost flights though. Same reason I wanna know what happened to MH370 for example, even tho it didn't happen in the triangle.

I guess, what I'm actually trying to do is disprove conspiracy theorists everywhere :lol:
 

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