What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed or participated in?

That would be entertaining!
But definitely not historical.

lol thanks. it’s for a Stanford application, so I supposed it would be similar to Google’s how many marble can you put in a 747, where the answer matters less than the process you go through to find the answer. So I thought it being historically correct mattered less than what you thought was important about that event.

I’d go back to October 16th, 2006.

I think it would have been interesting to be in England when Diana, Princess of Wales died.

Woodstock.
Specifically I wish I was the girl dancing slowly in the rain you sometimes see as stock footage in commercials. She looks very much alive and at peace.

I’d love to see and meet whoever first developed a written language? That was like the internet bing invented back in the day.

Oh, and there’s a very old set of prints made by our monkey people parents in ash near a volcano that’s very famous indeed in anthropology circles. Can’t remember what they’re called off the top of my head but wouldn’t it be wonderful to watch them walk by? :)

Looking at my answers… it’s clear I’m an epic nerd.

@astroChuck: October 16th, 2006? What exactly happened that day that made a difference for you?

@asmonet you have good thoughts!

@johndole: thank you very much! I tend to drift off and ponder the world at large for hours at a time. its probably why I failed gym three times in high school. :P

You said to be creative…. I wish I had witnessed the murder of Hitler. Early in his career. The difference it would’ve made in the lives of so many.

I’d do Woodstock too. I’d love to hear Richie Havens sing Freedom and watch Jimi Hendrix play. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. Most of my “back in time” moments would definitely be concerts when artists were in their prime.

Are you asking because you’re curious about other people’s answers?
Or are you asking because you don’t know what to put down for your application?

I think they’re just trying to get a better idea of who you are.
Asking other people seems to defeat the purpose, no?

Unless the answer matters less than the process you go through to find the answer
and you want to write about social networks and asking Fluther on your application?

@chyna, unfortunately because our world works in crazy ways another Hitler would arise at some point because there would have been no mistake to learn from.

@JohnD: If you want to get accepted at and survive at Stanford, best to use your own creative energies and imagination and not ours. I am already creative and have a college degree.

The entire ancient Egypt civilization.

@Drastic; you’re talking 3000 years, give or take. That’s a lot of moments. And I imagine that your arthritis would be very annoying after the first 100 years.

The Crucifixion and The Resurrection..

@nimis & @gailcalled: I think your remarks make a lot of sense, but here is my take on it: I intend on applying to Stanford by pushing forward my entrepreneurial spirit and background. Now I have learned here in Silicon Valley that the best entrepreneurs have, amongst other great qualities of course, the ability to listen to other individuals’ feedback and ideas, collide them, and create another cycle of creativity (in the event you are Steve Job, you usually only listen to yourself).
So to alleviate your fears that I might just copy and paste what is contained within this thread of answers, I would say that I am merely looking for a spark of creativity somewhere in between people’s words. Plus I mean my application to be not only a way into a school, but also a process that helps me understand myself: as such that latest simply cannot be achieve by stealing someone’s idea. Thank you for the concern though :*) And I am really thrilled with some of the ideas I got out of this wisdom-of-the-crowd brainstorming session!

I would have liked to have met Eve, before she touched the forbidden tree, so I could say to her, “Babe, if you listen to that serpent, you are gonna screw things up for the entire human race, and get yourself kicked out of the best neighborhood there is, believe me. God told you NOT to touch that tree, and trust me on this, He is the last one ya wanna piss off!”

Then, when I returned to my present time period, I would find the entire human race wearing fig leaves and having naked fun.

By the way, what language did she speak? Anyone know?

I would have liked to have heard the Gettysburg Address live. It was, allegedly, a very powerful moment.

I’d have loved to be there during the creation of Stonehenge. That would be a great study in inspiration. Finding out what drove them to cut and haul those blocks and then figure out how to put them in place. I imagine they had a pretty great party when they finished that project.

Or hey, if you really want to get into Stanford, how about May 18, 1887 when the cornerstone was first laid at the university. : )

I think I would have liked to be there to witness Ray Charles’s first piano lesson. Knowing what I know now, I bet it would be a thing of pure beauty.

@JackAdams: I think Eve would’ve spoken Aramaic. That’s the language the bible was originally written in.

Just my luck. I don’t speak that language fluently, yet…

That is, if she even spoke at all. I mean, weren’t Adam and Eve supposed to be, well, kinda stupid and ignorant? Wouldn’t the knowledge of language have come after they ate of the Tree of Knowledge?

They would have had to have been able to understand what Gawd was saying to them, wouldn’t they? And the words of the serpent?

I always thought it was more of an inherent you-understand-what-god-wants-cuz-he-made-you type deal and with serpent, I thought he just lead Eve to the tree. there could be nonverbal encouragement.

@Johndole- The date I mentioned regards a kind of “birth” involving table seasonings.

Um probably talked to the conquistadors just before they went and did the whole conquering of South America thing and caused the death of possibly 90% of all people living on the continents.

And I feel that the ability to speak and communicate was inherent and not quite the kind of knowledge that God had an issue with Adam and Eve knowing.

well, I’ve never read the bible and I haven’t been to church since I was still in the single digits age-wise, so I will admit ignorance and bow to those with greater knowledge of the subject. (No pun intended)

From Genesis
2:19
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

2:23
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

I’d go with Hebrew because it is older than Aramaic, which Jesus spoke.

I wouldnt want to go to the past.. It might not be the right past but an alternate one.

This is deeply morbid, but I have answered this question the same way since I was about eight years old. If I could go back to witness any moment in history, I would be there for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

@Mac: Never thought of that. Badass.

Final Battle Of Good And Evil Between God and Satan.
...wait, that’s yet to come.

I would have loved to witness the Christmas Truce of WW I, when for a brief moment, in the heart of one of the darkest moments in our history, bitter enemies allowed themselves to see each others’ humanity.

@Harp, perhaps my favorite answer so far :))

After visiting 16 October 2006 I think I’ll head out to San Francisco on 29 August 1966, then off to New York on 3 October 1951.
Boy, I love my time machine!

@fireside: I never thought of that, good point. So, wait, why was the bible written in Aramaic and not hebrew?

The Torah was written in Hebrew.
When it was renamed “The Old Testament” and included with “The New Testament” accounts of Jesus in The Bible, it was rewritten in Aramaic.

My Bad…

The Christian New Testament was written in the first century C.E. in the common Greek of the Mediterranean area and parts of the Middle East at the time. This form of Greek is called Koine Greek. It developed from classical Greek spread by the conquests of Alexander the Great

Because of television we have all safely witnessed an unprecedented array of historical events. I wouldn’t like to go back in time myself (the past is a dangerous place) but I would like to send Keith Olberman and a cameraman back to interview a few people. Was Mary Magdeline given a bad name by misogynists? If Karl Marx saw the outcome of Communism, would he have changed his mind? And Cleopatra, “What WERE you thinking?”

If I could just meet some people from history on neutral ground, I wrote an essay in high school and I would still say Margaret Mead who pursued a goal of searching for knowledge without conforming to society’s norms, and St Francis of Assisi because I don’t get why he gave up wealth when it could have helped him achieve his goals.

As far as your fantasy, I want to be there when George Bush faces the founding fathers and tries to explain his way into heaven. Fat Chance!

Am I allowed to go forward in time and watch future history? I want to see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. at their war crimes tribunal.

If you take the bible to be true, there was no language in the time of Adam and Eve, God created the different languages of the world as a punishment when mankind built the towel of Babel to try to reach the heavens

@jballou
Um, no. God is supposed to have created other languages at Babel, but A & E did get a few good quotes on record, like Adam’s classic “This now is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh”. And Eve engaged in a none-too-scintillating repartee with the Serpent concerning the merits of apples.

I think I have just joined the AstroChuck Fan Club.

gailcalled: I know it’s a long time, but I’ve been obsessed with the ancient Egyptian civilization since I was five. I just can’t choose a particular moment… :D

declaration of independence being drafted and signed?

I hate this question on the Stanford ap!! It’s so hard. I think I’m going to go with either J.P. Morgan’s decision to bail out the U.S., something with George Rogers Clark, or a parable lesson by Jesus (and his death and resurrection).

I believe that the pre-Tower of Babel language is referred to as “the language of the birds” and was understood by all people.