Not a massive event in world history but important for my little corner of it.
I’d go back and ensure King James won at the Battle of the Boyne instead of King Billy, more out of interest at what the effect would have on the last thirty years and the present situation in Northern Ireland. I wouldn’t hold out a big hope that things would be better, from what I’ve read James was a grade A tosser as well.
Not an exact date … but I would opt for going back and preventing the internal combustion
engine from becoming the dominate engine … or more exactly … and engine that runs on
Fossil fuels or nonrenewable fuel.
Make battery power or some other type of renewable fuel become the dominant means
for powering engines.
Then not only would we not be worrying about oil running out, but …
and the big one … our government officials would not have to be in bed with some
Mideast leaders.
Their people would not be taking our money for oil, then bombing us claiming
they don’t want us there, trying to make them more capitalistic. The relationship
would be quite different! They would be begging us for money and to come help them
out of their poverty!
PS. I’m sure after a 100 years of perfecting the battery, fuel cell or other type of
renewable fuel engine, it would be just as powerful as today’s internal oil burning combustion engine
I would prevent European stealing of America from the native people who already owned it.
312AD, the Battle of Milvian Bridge
Is that one event?
I think I’d have to say I’d go back a few years in time and stop myself from time traveling and killing the man who originally rose to power in Germany and started the Second World War. I didn’t realize then that it would open the door for the much worse Adolf Hitler to come to power once he was removed.
Who knew?
I’d go back even earlier, to prevent the Aztecs from overtaking the Maya. Then I’d go back even earlier, and keep those pesky Mayans from “stealing” from the Olmecs.
Or maybe, I’d travel back to ancient Rome again but this time I’d be a little less ambigious than saying to Caesar,
Sheeesh! What was I thinking?
I’m blanking–what happened then?
I am of the belief that it’s not individuals that make history, it’s society. If Hitler didn’t exist, there would have been someone else to fill his place; things had fomented in Germany in such a way that the Holocaust/WWII was inevitable. Same way with 9/11; even if we stopped that particular attack the time was just right for AN attack. I guess that I’d try to stop an accidental tragedy, like the Titanic or Hindenburg. What’s the greatest life-loss in a plane crash? I think those could be stopped since it’s not like it’s ever the “right time” for a plane crash.
I’d go back and give Thurgood Marshall a swift kick in the butt.
Reflecting on societal changes since then, I think had the NAACP used Brown vs. The Board of Education Topeka, Kansas to force a widespread federal overhaul of segregated school systems so that black schools would receive equal funding as whites to maintain separate and equal facilities (as NAACP legal plan originally called for), I suspect we as a society would be in many, many ways better off than we are now.
“You must be Adam, and I take it you’re Eve? We’re Chuck and Bill…we brought you an apple pie. Welcome to the neighborhood, it’s faaaabulous!”
There’s a relationship with a lady that I’d not have ended. Dumbass me.
I’ve always wondered what would’ve happened if the Constitutional Convention had just broken down completely…
I might go back to a maternity ward in Riyadh, March 10, 1957, and quietly hold a pillow down over the face of Mrs. Bin Laden’s new baby boy.
Of course, knowing my luck, I’d get back to the present and find that Iskandar Bin Laden, born in 1958, launched a massive nerve-gas attack on Israel in 2002 using old Scuds smuggled into Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, and that the Israeli retaliation had touched off World War III. :smack: Either that, or shortly after I died of old age in the mid-21st century, the now unchecked spread of islamic extremism would finally consume the middle east, like a melding of the Dark Ages, the Taliban, and the reign of Stalin. And, as it happens, also touching off World War III. :smack: :smack:
Oh, well. Still, it’s worth a try. But, failing that, maybe…Three Mile Island? Or a couple of events in 1986…
If I could undo one event in history, it would be to prevent the ability of others from undoing events in history. A lot of us wouldn’t even be here if any one thing was altered in history. And I like it that way.
This was a sneaky departure from the really serious events in my starter list. James Dean was killed in a car wreck that day. Surely you won’t need to ask “Who’s that?”
Personally, I’d let 9/11 happen but try to keep the loss of life to a minimum. Keep the firefighters & police away from the towers, for one.
I would like to either kill Timothy McVeigh on his way to Oklahoma City, and find a way to delay his execution for four months to show him that in the world of terrorism, he was chickenshit (yes, I know it’s weird, but it irks me no end that he was executed thinking he was this major terrorist).
And think of how hard it would be on us Catholics if you selected a different way of slaying Christ. For instance, if you had him stoned to death, rather than crucified, every time we wanted to bless ourselves we’d have to punch ourselves in the head.