# Top Ten Events in History To View **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126 "2015-02-08T15:48:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/41 "2015-02-12T22:26:46Z")
1. Be inside flight MH370 and find out what really happened 2. The creation of the universe 3. Subsequent days after Creation 4. The Nautilus going under the North Pole 5. The Flood in Noah’s day 6. See dinosaurs ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/42 "2015-02-12T23:27:49Z")
1. **Alexander cuts the Gordian Knot; Bucephalus tethered nearby**. Or if the knot episode is fiction Alexander riding Bucephalus on parade. 2. **The Battle of Cannae** Hannibal’s masterpiece battle of annihilation against the greatest military power of the ancient world; perhaps the greatest feat of generalship ever. Overhead view high enough to clearly see the battle unfold, but too far away for the gory details. 3. **Caesar watching Cleopatra take a bath.** I originally planned on Caesar crossing the Rubicon as a parallel with #7 below. Then I decided a parallel with #4 would be more interesting. 4. \*\*The Empress Wu taking a bath. \*\* A Chinese Emperor fell in love with new concubine recruit Wu, and soon made her the #1 concubine. The Crown Prince fell in love with her too. When the CP became Emperor he soon made Wu #1 concubune again, and eventually married her. Wu showed her gratitude by deposing him, and becoming the only titled, reining empress in China’s history. She must have possessed amazing charm to win the hearts of two men who literally had the pick of millions. 5. \*\*Queen Elisabeth I watching a private performance of Hamlet. \*\* Starring Richard Burbage in the title role, Shakespeare himself directing, for the enjoyment of the greatest monarch of all time. 6. **The Signing of the Declaration of Independence.** All my life I have been praying for more men like these. 7. **Washington crossing the Delaware.** All my life I have been praying for another man like this. 8. **The Gettysberg Address.** All my life I have been praying for another man like this. 9.\*\* Einstein writing the last fair copy lines of the theory of Special Relativity.\*\* All my life I have been praying for another man like this. 1. **Babe Ruth’s Called Shot.** There will never be another man like this. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/43 "2015-02-13T02:35:52Z")
See some of Christ’s miracles. But not the crucifixion, it would give me PTSD. Be a fly on the wall during the shootout at the OK Corral. Be on the grassy knoll on November 22, 1963. The New Madrid earthquake and formation of Reelfoot Lake. Dinosaurs gradually evolving into birds. The Chelsea Hotel on the night Sid and Nancy threw their final party. Roswell NM the day the “Spaceship” crashed. The black death, if I had a load of Cipro. Robespierre getting whacked. Pete Townshend knocking Abbie Hoffman off the stage at Woodstock. Goodbye revolution, we wanna rock. Charlemagne. Since he’s reputed to be the great grandaddy of a lot of us I could invite him to the family reunion. Bob Dylan playing at the battle of Gettysburg (well, one can always wish.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/44 "2015-02-13T03:21:21Z")
My maternal grandparent’s wedding\*\*\*\*\* The Resurrection of Jesus Seeing almost any play by Shakespeare, in the Globe Theater I’d like to see some large building of the old world being built, could be the Parthenon, the Pantheon, maybe one of those gorgeous buildings in the Imperial Chinese court. What were the methods used, the machinery, scaffolding like? Orville and Wilbur Wright’s flight at Kitty Hawk, 12/17/1903. The first Olympic games of the modern era. I’d like to meet and talk with Charles P. Steinmetz. Read about him in sixth grade, then went on to read a biography of him. One from the OP, Stonehenge when it was whole and in use. I’d like to be a fly on the wall when Elizabeth I got the news she was queen. How did she react? Lots of stories, but how close are they to reality? **Quartz** already mentioned this. The first performance of Handel’s oratorio _The Messiah_—“For Unto Us a Child is Born” is one of my top five favorite choral works. \*\*\*\*\* My maternal grandparents didn’t have a big wedding, they just stood up in front of the minister in the parsonage. The wedding was kept secret so my grandmother could keep on teaching the rest of the school year. I’d give everything I own, except my dog, to see my grandparents young and in love. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/45 "2015-02-13T16:38:46Z")
> [@UncleFred](#): > > - The Passion of Jesus > - Flooding of the Black Sea from the Mediterranean > - Chicxulub comet impact (candidate to have killed off the dinosaurs) > - Completion and ceremonial use of Stonehenge (what did they do with it???) > - Lao-tzu meets Confucius (interpreter needed.) Not sure you mean historical. Five of your ten are either mythological or prehistoric. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/46 "2015-02-14T01:07:33Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Didn’t they already solve this? It was ice cracking underneath the water IIRC You’re thinking of [The “Bloop”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop). The Charge of the Light Brigade would be quite a sight, I imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/47 "2015-02-14T13:07:41Z")
I wanna see the first episode of _Mike Tyson Mysteries._ ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/48 "2015-02-14T13:58:51Z")
The conquering of the Incas by Pizarro in 1532. How did 168 Spanish soldiers overcome an army of 80 thousand? ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/49 "2015-02-14T18:17:11Z")
I would be interested in the prehistoric items as well although they would be difficult to bracket. I would want to see when the shift from certain non-human to human things would occur, recognizing that I could be seeing them +/- a few thousand years. For example: try to see when cooking meat started and when it became common; the progression from defecating wherever to actually separating defecation from other activities; when vocalizations started to sound like human speech, albeit unintelligible to modern folks Other, much more recent things (though not necessarily significant): Black Sabbath’s first recording session; on the bridge of the Titanic prior to and during the collision; the Wannsee conference; the cockpit of the Enola Gay during the nuclear strike; a flight of the Avro Arrow; first flight at Kitty Hawk; the flight of the Silver Dart on Bras d’Or lake; maiden voyage of the first Typhoon SSBN; von Drais on his Draisienne Greg Lemond vs Laurent Fignon and many others… ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/50 "2015-02-14T19:12:11Z")
A lot of the things that would be most interesting would also be gruesome beyond belief. The D-Day invasion must have been spectacular, but the actual invading part presumably included enormous numbers of exploding human bodies. So I’d love to see dinosaurs, and some historical musical performances. But I’d also love just a camera wandering around the streets of Rome at its height, ancient Egypt at its height, and so forth. Plus maybe some of the really big asteroid impacts or volcanic explosions. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/51 "2015-02-14T22:05:59Z")
> [@UncleFred](#): > > - The Passion of Jesus People always mention this, personally I think it would be more interesting to see exactly what happened in the tomb afterwards. 🙂 But this is kind of along the lines of what Morbo suggests, I’d use a ‘time viewer’ to see exactly what happened during some historical mysteries, such as a famous UFO sighting. I doubt I’d find anything unexplainable but (a) what if and (b) just knowing the real events would be fascinating in itself. ---
**Author:** ![Last\_Glacial\_Maximum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Last\_Glacial\_Maximum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Last_Glacial_Maximum)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/52 "2015-02-18T19:15:39Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Interactions between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal humans and other species of humans (the Denisovans, Red Deer Cave folks, and more – perhaps homo floresiensis as well). > The first uses of spoken language and its progression. > The first written language. > The first settlement of the Americas, Australia, and Polynesia (by the original inhabitants, I mean). > The progenitors to all the major language groups (proto-Indo-European, proto-Uralic, etc.) in ‘action’ before all the splitting. > The origin of the Basque people and language (probably before the settlement of Europe by Indo-European speakers). > The domestication of dogs and other animals. > The first organized religion(s). > Dinosaur appearance and behavior, and other prehistoric animals (ground sloths, mammoths, whale evolution, etc.). > The first person to call himself/herself ‘King’ or ‘Queen’ or an equivalent. > The first contact between Viking explorers and native Americans. Been lurking on the SDMB for awhile, and though I was tempted to register many times when a particularly interesting subject was being discussed, I never bothered… Well, the post above could have been written by me word for word. 😃 Although I would have added hanging out in a Homo erectus society for a few weeks would be interesting as well. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/53 "2015-02-18T19:27:29Z")
I like to think of viewing all of these events the same way that I view replays in the Madden football video games. Pause button, fast forward, plus I can move the camera in and out and all around so that I can see every angle ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126/54 "2015-02-18T21:32:11Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Interactions between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal humans and other species of humans (the Denisovans, Red Deer Cave folks, and more – perhaps homo floresiensis as well). > The first uses of spoken language and its progression. > The first written language. > The first settlement of the Americas, Australia, and Polynesia (by the original inhabitants, I mean). > The progenitors to all the major language groups (proto-Indo-European, proto-Uralic, etc.) in ‘action’ before all the splitting. > The origin of the Basque people and language (probably before the settlement of Europe by Indo-European speakers). > The domestication of dogs and other animals. > The first organized religion(s). > Dinosaur appearance and behavior, and other prehistoric animals (ground sloths, mammoths, whale evolution, etc.). > The first person to call himself/herself ‘King’ or ‘Queen’ or an equivalent. > The first contact between Viking explorers and native Americans. This is true of many replies here, but particularly this one. How good a search routine is this time machine/viewer supposed to have? We can’t place the timing of many of these events to within a thousand years. The locations are often equally unknown. Many of the events you might not even be able to recognize if you saw them happening even if you had translators. But yeah they’d all be very interesting to know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-events-in-history-to-view/712126.md?page=2)