If You Could Travel in Time, Which Historic Moments Would You Like to See?

I am stoked that you did this...

For the sake of time and productivity, I will limit myself. This is assuming we can watch, maybe interact with, but not change anything, right?

1. Lincoln's Speech at The Gettysburg Address
2. Babe Ruth calling his homerun shot (and I'm a Mets fan)
3. Opening Night of Othello at The Globe Theatre
4. JFK's "What you can do for America" Speech
5. MLK's "I have a Dream" Speech
6. The signing of the Declaration of Independence
   
7. The Second Defenestration of Prague (long story)
8. The burning of the library at Alexandria
9. The night of the Trojan Horse
   
10. My wife's big volleyball game when she was in high school - I've always wanted to know what she was like as kid

I expect you can all guess, but I'd like to see the first volley of arrows go up at Agincourt, I'd like to leave rapidly before the carnage started tho' .
I did try and go there in the KrisDel^TM time machine but it took me to Accrington instead. But by 'eck lass I 'ad reet gradely time .

Oooh, or Jesse Owens at the Berlin olympics.

Del

That's a hell of a question. There are no correct or incorrect responses.

How could we pick just one? I could think of several points in time that would be of interest.

Who wouldn't want to see the first dinosaur emerge? Or the last one lay down? Work with Edison on any project?

If I were given one chance though...I would have to go back to the Polo Grounds in NJ and watch my father when he was playing ( American ) football for the Newark Titans ( now known as the NY Jets ) as he literally carried six members of the opposing team more than 35 yards for a touchdown.

I'm going to put some serious thought into this one. I'll get back to you.

that play was amazing...!! the afl game of the week !!

says the nfl hof has that achived some place. iirc : abc was the afl station, 63 ? 65? cbs nfl .. but that was a lot of water under the bridge ago.

So, I'm curious...if you could travel in time....

That's too close to: If I won $10 mil lottery....

Mount Vesuvius eruption, 79 AD

Krakatau eruption, 1883

Would like to have seen the meteor strike that formed Meteor Crater, AZ

and would like to go back to Aug. 28, 2005 and alter the Gulf Coast weather patterns (well, if I can go back in time I can play with the weather).

the big bang

That one might sting a little...

I'd like to meet my Great Great Great Grandfather General Rochambeau just before he and General Washington took the battle for Yorktown.

I do still carry the Family name, Rochambeau quite proudly.

Oops!..... I left out a great... its supposed to read Great Great Great Great Grandfather....

Well, now I'm second thinking myself.... gonna have to pull the family tree back out and dust it off to make sure I know which generation I really am.

I have a very old print of the original here, also in color. It has some french writing below the picture indicating Rochambeau et Washington surrender at Yorktowne. No date, but very, very old. Does anyone know the history and or value of this work, including prints of it?

Thanks,

~mike

george_m_sweet@yahoo.com

According to this account, Corwallis had previously signed the document and the surrender itself was not made to Washington or Rochambeau.

______________________________________________________________________

Cornwallis was not present, but had remained at Yorktown claiming illness. He was represented by his second-in-command, Brig. Gen. Charles O'Hara. He first attempted to surrender to de Rochambeau, but he refused and pointed him to Washington. Washington's only reaction was to ask him to surrender to his own second-in-command, Lincoln.

______________________________________________________________________

History implies past events.

From what I can tell at 56, born in 1952, though things are going to hell now, I've pretty much been around for important events, though I can't remember all of them.

Privately to myself I admitted to myself that I could not remember all of the names of people I had been intimate with.

I do not want to have to live for any protracted period when there is no access to modern dentistry.

However, if I was to go back and be a part of the crew, or the Captain of a ship that first sailed into the wind...

ahoy Transcendian .......I just sailed into a realization of what it means to stare into nothingness and be content. I thought I was tougher than that. I was mistaken....see above.

Allow me to share with you a moment of 'nothingness'..........we may both go mad yet but the hell if it's anybodys' say so................and as far as I'm concerned dentistry is just another means to print immediate money. Men should really stay clear of that profession....women are so much better at it these days....honestly now!

Man, you have a time machine. Make an appointment before you leave, and pop back at the appropriate date in the future.

I'd travel back to the point at which I invented the infernal machine and tell myself not to screw up the universe by actually using it.

Ah - but if that were so, and I managed to convince myself not to use the time machine - would the event in which I travelled back to warn myself ever actually occur?

Just the fact of your traveling back in time and nothing else, would change everything, even if you stopped for only a few microseconds. How? Your very presence would change the initial conditions that otherwise would have led to the weather patterns which actually happened for good, neutral or ill. The echoes of your visit, say 10,000 years ago would still be felt today. February 11th's tornado in Hattiesburg, MS, would probably not have happened. It might be a very wet year for south Australia and none of the bush fires now raging. Historical events would have been affected. Battles might have been delayed, advanced or not occurred at all, thanks to your microsecond-long visit. Yup, Ye Olde Butterfly Effect.

I can scarcely imagine how thoroughly someone being present to watch the Big Bang unfold would alter Everything. The sky would look very, very different and maybe not a single living creature anywhere to ever observe it, or a Universe positively teeming with life as a result of your brief (yet permanent) visit.

Your presence would have ever-so-slightly altered the acoustics of the Primordial Fireball; sound waves traveling through the Fireball which ultimately led to today's distribution of matter and energy throughout the Universe. Matter which eventually coalesced into stars (no planets yet) and, later, into galaxies, many of whose stars eventually went supernova and blew more stardust into space from which planets would later form and so on and so forth until we have the Universe of today. Universe that would be completely different.

Prolly a good thing we can't actually travel into the Past, but it's fun to imagine even so!

Thanks, J. for posting this thread.

The Edward Lorenz's butterfly effect in all its glory meeting the grandfather paradox of time travel. Altering any single item in our past does alter the infinite field of possible outcomes and pathways but I suspect more often than not many things will stay the same. For an explanatory example let me take my proposed visit to Ludwig's debut of his Ninth Symphony.

My presence in the hall would certainly alter the acoustics of the hall in some minutia of detail. If the only way I could be there would be to replace somebody previously there, their life would certainly be significantly altered in ways nobody can predict. Yet the music would still have been familiar and still the debut of this work. My reactions in anticipation instead of complete surprise may have altered another patron's experience of the performance. My presence would certainly alter the past. My point though is that much of this change will not be significant.

Science fiction has plumbed this scenario with a few different techniques. First that the grandfather paradox event instantly alters the time traveler's remembered past so that only the reader outside of the author's universe is aware of the change in this universe.

Another technique is that the grandfather paradox can never happen. Despite the presence of the time traveller in an earlier time, circumstances will not permit a change significant enough to alter the traveller's past. Other paths may have to be taken to reach the same conditions that form the traveller from the future. Often in this technique distant time travel is possible due to the wide variety of alternate paths possible. The recent past though cannot be achieved.

Another plausible technique is the multi-verse resolution. In this technique the instant a a time traveller reaches the past a divergent multi-verse is created along with the multi-verse leading to the origin of the time traveller. In this technique the grandfather paradox does not exist.

The technique I believe is most plausible actually happens now to a lesser extent than science fiction uses. The time traveler can only observe the past but cannot interact in it in any way. In science fiction writing, efforts to record the event in the past for the future observation are not required. Right now I'm listening to the Deutsche Grammophon perormance of Ludwig's Ninth symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein in two halls on either side of the just opened Berlin wall. To a lesser extent you made us all time travel without a recording by making our minds wander back to our knowledge of the Big Bang.

The last mega-ball lottery drawing, winning numbers in hand.

The numbers are: 4, 7, 11, 22, 33, 44. Been there, done that. You better hurry, Ky.

Makes you wonder why all these psychics aren't winning the lottery.

HA!

peter08

And your numbers are 5, 8, 12, 23, 34, 45. Us physicians can at least pretend, to a point. We win a little bit of the time, once in a while, what ever is left of it some times. I refuse to have more than one clock in my house because I think that time would run faster or double the speed if I had two. The castrated time machine, the only way to go. Good luck, Ky.

Someone had been able to manufacture gold and was banned from selling it.

I can't wait, it's Saturday soon. Any winners please come forward and send me a dime. Good luck, Ky.

Well, I'm here to say that I'm writing you from February 11, 2013 and, well...

You didn't win.

Sorry, man.

OMG we found a real time traveler.

Would that be:

1. Real Time-Traveler? Well, yes, because no matter what I do I can't get Time to stop.

2. Real-Time Traveler? How would I know? My Aussie friends insist it's tomorrow already, whilst my Hawaiian friends insist it's yesterday. It's all very confusing!

I hear the Pope is loosing it too so I'm in good company

I don't know about traveling back to a historic event if at the time the event took place if it would be so significant.

Some events may have been quite boring and at the time not so significant, only with history passing have they became significant, and maybe dramatically enhanced.

At this country's birth, some significant people envolved may have been even second guessing if it was a good idea.

But there are things in my own life I rather have a do over but Imn sure not going to dwell on it.

phoenix911

Hi All, now I know you can never travel into the future cos it ain't happened yet, but if I could I would love to see Gordon Browns face when he finally realises that the British public have turfed him and his sleaze ball cronies out on their ear

Since there is so much in history that would be interesting to see (maybe even the boring stuff if that makes sense) I will limit my desires to specific relatively short events (i.e birth, etc.)

1. Birth of Jesus Christ
2. Crucifixion
3. Birth of myself (that may be too creepy to actually watch now that I think about it, so I'll sit in the waiting room with my father and try to convince to put a few $s into Microsoft stock when it goes public as an investment for his son's college graduation).
4. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
5. Signing of the Declaration of Independence

... Read all the posts here, *wondering* whether anyone else would be feeling ... "apologetic".

The birth and crucifixion (the historicity of both events being as axiomatic as the lives of ANY other famous figures-of-history) would certainly have been soul-moving events...

But, I'd give up both seats to have been present at the ascension ... (tho' I am certain that some events will just have to wait for eternity, to be witnessed...)

Best Regards ~

Are you aware of the universal and prophetic significance of his baptism? That would be my pick of events. Although according to the scriptures; Jesus "explained the scriptures more thoroughly" to his disciples before he ascended, which is why that event also has extra appeal for me too.

Regards,

TinTin

I'm with you on yours but would have to put some of His miracles in between the 1 and 2.

My wish would be when God appeared that I would appear ... and then have lots of time to ask questions WHY.

Long time reader, first post:

Great question, excellent responses. My top 3:

1. 1899, Colorado Springs, CO. Nikola Tesla's magnifying transmitter. A video camera would be a MUST !!

2. Feb 1930, San Diego, CA. Royal R. Rife presentation to The Electric Club of San Diego.

3. Nov 22, 1963 Dallas, TX. 6th floor of the Texas Book Depository Just to know for sure!

For #3:

Say hello to the FBI, the mob, Jack Ruby and Marilyn Monroe while you are there! I think Oswald will probaby be the only one you don't see!

3. Nov 22, 1963 Dallas, TX. 6th floor of the Texas Book Depository Just to know for sure!

I can just see how history played out.......as they cuff you,

"but officer, I didn't do it, I was just observing....you see....I'm from the future."

" Sure you are........."

dam time machine........

Good point phoenix. To clarify my comment on this thread, if I saw Moses part the Red Sea, I'd need to be on the side of the Isrealites, not on the side of Pharaoh and his doomed Egyptian army.

What about the observing attempts to kill Rasputin? That might be interesting.

Ooh...that's a good one, too.

Parting of the Red Sea by Moses (Jehovah).

Some biblical scholars believe that it was really the Reed Sea, a much smaller body of water that a human could ford, but the Egyptians, heavily armored, drown in a very little amount of water when their chariot wheels became stuck in the mud at the base of the Reed and overturned. It may have only been a few feet deep at that time.

In that regard, it would be an interesting to see if Moses's act was miracle or mythology.

I've come across that theory before, its interesting - I can see where those scholars get the idea, but the theory isn't very well thought out (not exactly scholarly!). The theory comes from the literal translation of the hebrew word used in the Exodus account to refer to the Red sea - 'yam-suph' which means 'Sea of Rushes (or reeds)'. Some scholars speculated that this phrase refered to a small swampy marsh found on the western arm of the Suez gulf, as opposed to the Red Sea. So thats where this school of thought came from. So why do we know that the Exodus account was refering to the Red Sea - and why is that Hebrew phrase rendered 'Red Sea' in every bible? First thing to consider is that people from varying cultures, speaking their own language, in different times will have different names for the same geographical location. Its unlikely that the ancient Israelites had the same name for the sea as we do today. However, (from the same book of the bible alone), we can clearly identify that the 'sea of reeds' actually refers to what we now know as the Red Sea, because that same hebrew word is used many times to describe the an entire territorial border dividing Israel's territory from that of nations (e.g. Ex 23:31 - also 1 Kings 9:26). Aside from the biblical descriptions of this region, other historical records and archeological evidence prove that these scriptures could only be refering to the Red Sea. Additionally, the event in which Moses parts this 'sea' is recalled in the Christian-Greek scriptures (Acts 7:36, Heb 11:29), in which the archaic greek (koine) words refering to the sea are "e-ry-thra tha-la-sa" or "Red Sea". It is this Greek name for the sea that has carried through into our modern vernacular. Also consider the actual scriptures detailing the river crossing (e.g. Ex 14:28,29). The waters completely covered the Egyptians, and "As for the sons of Israel, they walked on dry land in the midst of the seabed, and the waters were for them a wall on their right hand and on their left".

Bear in mind too that the Exodus was of well over 1 million people, carrying all of their possessions (including most of the Egyptian's stuff!) and livestock. 1 million people fording a swamp while carrying enough to start a new nation - who's going to get bogged down? Them or an army that knew the area? In Ex 14:27 it says that the Egyptians were fleeing in their chariots from the flood waters, but couldn't escape in time.

Well, I'm sure that was more info than you bargained for but whether you believe in the bible or not, its nice to have all the facts in order to come to a more informed understanding. According to my own beliefs, it was a miracle.

Best Regards,

TinTin

I appreciate the info and the detailed etymology of the account as we now know it. This was a theory that was posed in a Bible studies class I took in college by Professor Peter Heinegg, who has a Ph.D from Harvard in comparative literature.

Professor Heinegg was an interesting lecturer, and he obviously knew his material. It is also very difficult to discuss books of faith because of differences in interpretation and each person's own relationship with religion.

There were sometimes I thought what he was saying was so interesting that he had me on the edge of my seat, while other times I was so angry that I had the fight the urge to get up and leave.

Every class made me think, though, and I have always appreciated that in any learning situation.

I have just fallen over this, on an google search:

According to this passage 600,000 men descended from Yaacov left Egypt. If each man is married with the average of 5 children, this brings the entire population of Israel to 6,000,000. This is not including the mixed multitude that came out with them (Exodus 12:38) or the flocks and herds that they also brought out. This large number of people creates a few problems. The first is the size of this "army" (Exodus 12:41 - hosts meaning army. Also Exodus 12:37 where the men are called "gevoriym" or warriors) compared to the size of Pharaohs army of 600 chariots (Exodus 14:7) which brought fear to the Israelites. How could 600 chariots be considered a threat to 600,000 warriors of Israel? Equally puzzling is the fear the Israelites felt at entering the promised land where each city probably contained no more than 5,000 warriors compared to their 600,000.

Another problem is the simple logistics to supply, feed, water and move such a large number. According to the Quartermaster General in the army, it would take 1,500 tons of food, 4,000 tons of wood as fuel and 11,000,000 gallons of water each day to supply the basic needs of this group. Another problem is the location of the Latrine. RSV Deuteronomy 23:12,13 "You shall have a place outside the camp and you shall go out to it; and you shall have a stick with your weapons; and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it, and turn back and cover up your excrement.

Besides, the population on Earth was in 2000 BC of 27 million and in 1000 BC of 50 million. Would be good to know the real figures.

Fantastic review TinTin, those are many of my main reasons for chosing this event. Tie in the emotional journey of a generation escaping slavery, and the re-birth of what would become a new nation, physically witnessing the hand of God; it's the greatest epic event in my mind. I'm more inspired by the Exodus than any other science or history.

Over 1million people? Are you sure?..I'm not sure populations were so big waaaay back then.
I do applaud your trying to put the scriptures into context...I fear there are plenty of people who whould be dissapointed to see Jesus wasn't a white man and didn't speak English.
To put my nomination into context, the size of the armies involved at Agincourt would roughly correlate to a large football cowd and the range of the warfare would be roughly twice the length of the pitch.
Del

Most information I've read estimates over 1 million (not 6 million).

I'm with Del on this one... Most things that have been verbally passed on for many generations as a story, before being written down, only to be further past down, and re-written, tend to be a bit exaggerated, and embellished upon, so it keeps the interest of those listening/reading.

Wow.. I challenge you to create a better run-on sentence.

What started out as 250, turned to 2500, turned to 250,000, and eventually found its way to a million. (just my theory, derived from observations on human nature, and history)

Hi RVZ717, Del,

You're correct, many stories passed down from generation to generation get distorted and exaggerated - thats yet another reason why its important to do some thorough research and not necessarily believe everything you hear, or read on a google search! I'm at work at the moment, but will provide you with some additional information that you might find interesting when I get home tonight.

Regards,

TinTin

That is exactly how I feel about the bible.

ronseto

I trust my dreams more than the Bible or anything that has ever been written by some one for some one. A moment were I would like to have been present would have been the suicide of the greatest dictator of all. Adolf Hitler. If he could have left only a bit more coherent literature and not the state of affairs that still influence our lives I would be mourning. Ky.

Or..... the eruption of Stromboli which caused a tsunami that drowned Ramses army......especially in the context that the tsunami would have dissipated in the direction of where it would have spread out the most having left the Meditteranean to become a shallower body of water. The Reed Sea, therefore would be temporarily left as a dry bed.

Interseting theory, but don't confuse speculation with information.

"..the eruption of Stromboli which caused a tsunami that drowned Ramses army.."

I'd be interested to know who told you this. You might want to check your sources... I make a point of looking up the 'references' at the bottom of an article to make sure any inferences made actually lead to some hard facts.

Remember; if there is no corroborating evidence to support a theory, there is no reason to give it credence over any other.

Actually (thankyou for the lecture) I read it somewhere. Whether or not the evidence is in fact attributable to Stromboli I would venture to say that using your reasoning the entire event has yet to be archaeologically proven...unless one believes in the 'Parting of the Sea, Reed or other' as being a miracle of biblical/Hollywood proportion.

sooo......taking it from the perspective that the 'biblical' event actually did occur........what would your theory be? I'm sticking to land deformation and wave dissipation.........

fyi...Stromboli did in fact blow its top at about the time Moses mosy'd on.........

Be sure to take you waders...

I was thinking of that one, too.......

For the skeptics in this sub-thread...How about going and seeing the event of the big bang? Where did the singularity come from, why did it go bang? Where was the singularity? What is the nothingness that surrounds the singularity?...

whoa! I'm going metaphysical here!

Let's soup up our time machine and do a time-lapse of evolution...Perhaps then we would understand punctuated equilibrium...

Regardless, I think history would be different than any of us know... believer or skeptic...

That is a whole different question as to whether we can change history. Reminds me of that great 80's flick, The Final Countdown.

If we had the power to make changes, I don't know that I would. I mean, killing Hitler doesn't necessarily mean that someone even worse wouldn't come to the forefront.

Hitler himself is responsible for many of the military blunders.

The atrocities done by the Nazi's was a joint effort and Hitler did not act alone in that nor was he the leader in it. In fact there were over 300 companies in the United States that knowingly enabled Germany in their persecutions and some even profited from using jewish slaves. Ford being one prominent offender. General Motors was awarded $33 million in damages for damage done to their factory in Germany during WWII, while they were manufacturing German Military Vehicles.

In fact there were over 300 companies in the United States that knowingly enabled Germany in their persecutions and some even profited from using jewish slaves. Ford being one prominent offender.

Guess nothing changed........

Wherever there is money to be made...

Knowing what I know know, it would appear as a dutiful chance to take.

Say you knew someone was certain to murder 1, or 6 million. Would not it be ethical to poison them, or would the ethical thing really only be to tell everybody. "Hey, I'm from the future. This guy did some really unethical things.

But this always runs into variations of the grandfather paradox. Would the world you came from exist at all if pivotal villains of your past didn't manifest? Would a greater evil later appear because the errors of those ways were not revealed?

..... if the one of the signers of the declaration of Independence name next to John Hancock was Del the Cat.

That would explain the passion for crossbows...

I thought about that before making my post.

I thought about what would happen if I caused the judge to have a heart attack and I perform CPR and bring him back. What would happen to me then? But then I'd whip out a 9mm pistol and shoot my way out. After firing a couple shot in rapid succession, I think they'd think twice before they persue me with their muzzle loaders.

Then I'd tell them that "I"m from the Future."

I would like to see and be part of the introduction of the first U2 spy plane at the Skunk Works with Kelly Johnson.

GA: and the pyramids.