if you go back and be a spectator at one event w/o the ability to change history, which would it be?

[charlie and algernon]

If you could go back and witness one event in history, purely as a spectator, with no chance of altering history, which would it be?


For me: it would have to be the meetings in the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I want to see if they were really as frantic and intense as portrayed in popular culture and to see the Kennedy Brothers battle to save a nation, and the world.

[taterguy]

1. Earl Monroe's games in college at the Winston-Salem Coliseum

Instant integration with no riots or coercion.

Just because everyone in the area wanted to see his genius.

There are probably others but hoops are on my mind.

[HopeHoops]

2. The debauchery of Princess Diana - not for sexual reasons mind you (read on)

I would just like to find out if those ears on Prince Charles got red and wiggled like something in a cartoon. I know, it is silly, but I bet they did. You can cover the naughty bits with a sheet or something.

[Arugula Latte]

3. Oooh, good question.

Hmmm ... Maybe the ascension of Augustus Caesar; I'd like to see Rome at the height of its power.

I almost said the Battle of Hastings, 1066, but I really couldn't take witnessing all that bloodshed. Still, medieval times fascinate me.

[charlie and algernon]

5. seeing Rome under Ceasar is a good one

I think you would find the similarities to present day USA striking.

[ReliantJ]

4. The guy down the street tripped. I would LMFAO!

I'd probably say the big bang or JFK and Sinatra at a party.

[azmouse]

6. The writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence.

I like to hear what was really being said and done in what was a truely remarkable event.

[Richardo]

8. The Constitutional Convention, for the same reasons

What DID those framers intend?

[ReliantJ]

9. I wonder when the accents changed from British to current US accents

[azmouse]

12. That is a very good question.

I wish I had an answer.

[sammythecat]

7. I think maybe the Crucifixion of Jesus

If it's ok, I'd like to hang around for a few days and see if the Resurrection really happened.

[ReliantJ]

11. HANG AROUND?!?!

[sammythecat]

15. oooo! So glad you caught that

I don't want whoever is in charge here to misinterpret my instructions. NO participation in said event, please. Just make me one of the execution groupies.

[Xipe Totec]

24. The Tunguska Event

[Lucian]

26. Same here.

I'd like to see if Jesus really was who the Bible says he was.

[conscious evolution]

10. The Grateful Deads first Kool-Aid Test concert.

[abq e streeter]

13. Elvis, Bill and Scotty breaking into That's All Right Mama in a little studio

on Union Avenue in Memphis; summer of '55

[tekisui]

14. The Big Bang

[x-g.o.p.er]

16. Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms

One of the more overlooked moments in history. Changed the course of organized religion.

Also:

Gettysburg, specifically the 20th Maine defense of the Union left flank on day two, and Pickett's charge on day 3.

George Washington's first inauguration and farewell speech to the country.

Omaha Beach, Jubne 6, 1944.

The signing of the Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri.

I would LOVE to be immediately behind the stone wall in Dealy Plaza to debunk the conspiracy theories surrounding the JFK assassination.

USSR v USA, Lake Placid, 1980 Winter Olympics. Greatest single sporting event ever.

[x-g.o.p.er]

17. For personal reasons,

I'd like to meet my Mom and Dad and my grandparents at age 20, kind of like Michael J Fox in the Back to the Future movies.

I just think it would be cool to see what kind of upbringing my parents really had, and what they were like when they were starting out their adult life.

[LiberalEsto]

18. I'd like to find out WHY Stonehenge was built nt

[charlie and algernon]

20. i thought everyone knew?

it's the remaining foundation from a Roman public lavatory :P

[bluedigger]

19. The peopling of the Americas.

When did humans first arrive in the Western hemisphere? And how did they get here?

[Duer 157099]

21. Well, until you figure out how, here's a good book for you:

I listened to the audiobook version of this recently, and I now feel as though I was practically a witness. Try it.

Review

"Did we need another book on the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962? Anyone reading One Minute to Midnight will quickly realize that we did need another — and that this is it. This is unquestionably the most complete and accurate account of the crisis that we have, and will no doubt long remain so. Michael Dobbs has managed to combine the careful and thorough research of a scholar into the ability of an able journalist to bring his findings to life in a dramatic story that illuminates the historical events it examines with lively characterization of the people who made up the cast of the drama. It is first rate great history and a great read!"
--Ambassador Raymond Garthoff, former intelligence analyst and author of Reflections on the Cuban Missile Crisis

[charlie and algernon]

22. awsome, thanks!

i'll have to check it out

[AlCzervik]

23. The Nixon whitehouse as watergate was unfolding.

[dana_b]

25. Monterey Pop Festival

I'm an old hippie at heart.

[enigmatic]

27. When Tommy Douglas gave his "Mouseland" speech for the first time

http://recluseshow.blogspot.com/2007/03/mouseland-tommy-douglas.html

http://www.saskndp.com/history/mouseland.php3

[oshyposhy]

28. The moment Henry VIII fell in love with Anne Boleyn

or her execution.

[RagAss]

29. March 8, 1971 - ringside for Ali-Frazier I .....

[orion007]

30. Roswell..Roswell..Roswell

Didn't papa Joseph Kennedy play a huge behind the scene role in the Cuban Crisis, some mafia buddy of his with cuban connections?
could be wrong

[Hardrada]

31. The Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles 1871.

[LadyoftheRabbits]

32. Probably the defeat of the Spanish Armada

in the reign of Elizabeth I. Also, I'd like to have hung around Mary, Queen of Scots to see if she was indeed guilty of the death of Lord Darnley. And just how much she was invested in the Casket Letters.

Oh, and Henry VIII's decision to break with Rome. Pretty much everything in Britain from 1485-1603. :P