What great historical event would you have liked to witness?

The Battle of Jutland, 1916. That would help me greatly with my thesis. My field is history of technology and the thesis is on the battleship construction race of 1890–1914. Jutland proved and disproved many hypotheses of warship and weapons designers.

The Battle of the Somme, TR’s charge up San Juan Hill, the signing of the Magna Carta, any early demonstration of the Puckle Gun, the celebrations after VJ Day, anything that Simo Haya did.

All of them!

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard You’ve got me beat for coolness, especially Finland’s “White Death”, 500+ sniper kills in about 90 days.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land, Simo was incredibly badass. I would have loved to witness any part of that 90 days, especially when the Soviets shot at him with artillery and still couldn’t get him!

I had never heard about the Battle of Jutland before, but now you’ve got me all intrigued and I’m consulting the wiki!

Woodstock.

The precise moment of discovery of so many inventions and medical cures we take for granted today.

The debate over the US Constitution. I’ve read much of the original documents, but I would love to have heard the speeches.

I would love to have witnessed the Roman Empire. I love reading about that time period and can just imagine living back them. It’s one of my favorite time periods to read about.

Great Caesar’s Ghost! How much time do I have to be a witness, hours, days, a week or more?

@Seaofclouds, not to be nitpicky, but which part of the Roman Empire interests you the most? The whole shebang lasted from before Jesus’ time all the way to the 15th century in one form or another.

Great question! I would have liked to witness the March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, the Nat Turner revolt, the entire 1960’s free love hippie era and the building of the Pyramids.

The Battle of Cannae.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Iron sights no less, most at 400+ meters. He didn’t like scopes.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land, yep, he wanted to keep a low profile. Must have worked!

The Battle of Britain, no question. “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Bless those kickass spitfires!!

@ucme, hell yeah!

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Good point. I really enjoy reading about all of it, but I would like to have witnessed some of the time BC and going into AD. The period that interests me the most is from the third servile war lead by Spartacus in 73BC to the Antonine plague in 164AD. It would have been great to see the Colosseum being built and it’s completion in 79AD while I was there!

@Seaofclouds, awesome. I’ve never actually studied the Roman Empire that much, aside from in my Western Civilization classes, but it has always interested me (being Italian and all).
Thanks alot.

The Battle of Marathon – 490BC

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I just imagine it must have been such an exhilarating time. After sacrificing so much for so long, the wave of patriotic pride must have come as a blessed relief. That & the fact it almost certainly changed the course of the war. Optimism coupled with patriotic fervour, two very powerful forces striking simultaneously. Wow, what an awesome rush that surely must have been.

Peace treaty signed by all Nations of the Middle East. In an alternate universe.

@Seaofclouds The year of transition, at that time would have merely been the 27th year of Augustus. The current system was created about 300 years later and back fitted to someones best guess of the year of Jesus of Nazareth’s birth (they were probably 3 or 4 years off).

@ucme, beautifully put!

@ucme Lucky thing that Fat Herman got impatient and started bombing civil targets instead of RAF.

I would have liked to have hung out with the Vikings who landed in Newfoundland in 1000 AD.

I’d also like to go back to the 1580s and see what exactly happened to the Lost Colony in present day North Carolina.

Maybe go back to the 5th or 6th century and find out who this King Arthur guy really was. Especially the Battle of Mynydd Baddon (Mount Badon).

Woodstock.. I have always been fascinated of what it was like.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Yeah well you see, there lies the fundamental flaw inherent within the Nazi hierachy.That in point of fact, they were crazier than shit house rats!! A consequence of that inept policy was that it prompted Churchill toward the retaliatory status quo. Hence launching catastrophic bombing raids on cities such as Dresden.

The birth of the universe.

@ucme Exactly right, thank heavens, else we’d all be goose-stepping and speaking German.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Zis also iz twoo yah? :¬)

@ucme Vee haf vays of making you tok… :^P

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Now for her i’d set my tongue wagging….if you catch my drift ;¬} http://youtu.be/cQU0_PHUB2E

@ucme ROFL. A classic!

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Well i’d be rolling on the floor too, but there’d be no laughing…well maybe at first. “Oh, a wed wose” XD

The Big Bang.

and the moments leading up to it.

^ yup same here

I would definitely have liked to see the March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I would also liked to have witnessed the life of Christ, the coronation of Elizabeth I and even see JFK being shot.

There are so many great moments in history to choose from that I don’t know where to start, but to each their own. Sometimes, I wish we could all live forever to witness so much awesome things happen.

OK, ok, if I had the chance I would want to either be at Tunguska so I can know the mystery of that or be at Roswell to see if the government is really lying to me.

I’d like to see the American or French Revolution. The beginning of the Greek and/or Egyptian societies, the Renaissance. The invention of the wheel, electricity, and the evolution of women’s rights.

I’d love to have seen the asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

I know people that love going to Cancun, so just imagine being on the beach back then, watching the dinosaurs (including T Rex) frolic in the surf, and then WHAMMO!

@Akua

“the entire 1960’s free love hippie era”

I lived in that era and I was a hippie in 1967.

@Brian1946 – so you were there? Was it like they portray it on TV? I was born in 1969, so I missed it. But I swear it’s in my soul and I feel as though I was born earlier. I would have wanted to be a hippie and travel to San Francisco, go to hippie commune up in the mountains of CA, hang out with the Black Panthers! Smoke pot with Janis Joplin and watch Jimmy Hendrix Jam. Oh gosh the times I would have had!

@Akua

Right on Akua, I was there! I went to the Summer Solstice Celebration that was held at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on June 21, 1967.

A week later I went up to SF and lived there for about 6 weeks.

When I was up in SF, I heard about the “Morningstar Commune”, north of SF, near Sebastopol, CA.
Unfortunately I didn’t go.

Although I agreed with the some of the objectives of the Black Panthers, I don’t think they were that eager to hang out with hippies.

I never got to smoke pot with Janis, but I did drop some mellow yellow acid (aka Sunshine I think) at the Summer Solstice party, and we did get to see Janis and her group, Big Brother & the Holding Company, play for free.

Jimi played at the Monterey Pop Festival a few days before I went up SF.
However, I did get to smoke pot and watch Jimi jam in March, 1968 and September, 1968 at Hollywood Bowl.
About half-way through the set at the Bowl he introduced his next tune by saying something like, “Somebody else has already done this next song. Let’s see if we can do it as good.” and then they played their cover of “Sunshine of Your Love”. :D

Yeah, you would have had some far-out times, man! :P

@Brian1946 your my new hero.