# What historical event would you change? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 24, 2023, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741 "2023-01-24T19:20:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/1 "2023-01-24T19:20:38Z")
I was tempted to resurrect [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-change-any-historcial-event-what-would-you-change/626748) but I decided not to as my scenario is different. No omnipotence so no just arbitrarily changing someone’s sex or moving an island or increasing someone’s life (unless following the rules below), etc. If you want two people to not meet, you must prevent it. If you want someone to die prematurely, you must pull the trigger and not just snap your fingers. In other words you do not have the Infinity Glove. Rule One: You are sent back in time as yourself so you do not merge into someone. You also have the full knowledge of history and specifically educated in the event. Rule Two: You have adequate currency or equivalent (like gold/silver/beaver pelts) that money is not an issue. You have time-accurate clothing and thanks to brain-implant technology developed by Bablefish you can speak/understand the local language. Rule Three: You have access to modern medicine and technology. So if you want to save Edward VI’s life from tuberculosis you could to the level modern medicine can (and remember you can travel to when he first gets it, not necessarily his deathbed). Rule Four: It must be a historical event. If you go back to Ancient Rome, it is to save Julius Caesar and not corner the silphium market. Rule Five: You will return to the changed world when you get back. Think about it before you go stomping on butterflies. This also means you are limited to **one and only one** event. It would be interesting to see how the world would look if the Normans lost at Hastings or if the CSA won the Civil War, but is this an intellectual exercise or actually trying to improve the world? And what about inevitable events? If Archduke Franz Ferdinand weren’t assassinated, something else would have triggered WWI. So I think the best I could do is capture John Wilkes Booth before he shot Abraham Lincoln and so the only person with the political ability could heal the wounds caused by the Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/2 "2023-01-24T19:39:25Z")
Reagan’s election. I think things would have gone quite differently (and for the better) had either Carter or Anderson (independent liberal Republican) been elected. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/3 "2023-01-24T19:43:39Z")
OK so I send you back to 1979. How do YOU Qadgop as an individual change the election? Assassinate Reagan a la RFK? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/4 "2023-01-24T19:47:01Z")
Distribute a video of him (faked by computer) getting kinky with his co-star from the movie “Bedtime for Bonzo”. That would do it, I think At least back then it would have. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/5 "2023-01-24T19:51:03Z")
No, send me back to 1976 and with enough money I think I can get Reagan the Republican nomination. I think Carter will still win the general, based on the keys to the presidency theory. After that, I think Reagan will be pretty much done, and he won’t be the Republican nominee in 1980. Whoever wins in 1980, it won’t be Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/6 "2023-01-25T00:51:07Z")
Go back to shortly before Newt Gingrich is conceived and run over one or both of his parents with a dump truck. Or Limbaugh. Or Rupert Murdoch. None of those folks’ parents were particularly prominent / noteworthy. Just another MVA; nothing to see here. Whackjob RWery would be stillborn. Or at least still 30 years in our future. Could be fun to do the same thing to e.g. Putin’s parents. There were lots of traffic accidents in 1950-1952 in Soviet Russia. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/7 "2023-01-25T01:45:50Z")
I’d go to Dealey Plaza just before noon local time on November 22, 1963, enter the book depository, take the stairs to the 6th floor, go hide behind some boxes in the corner, and wait about 30 minutes before I’d shoot a bullet into the back of Lee Oswald’s head while he was futzing with his rifle. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/8 "2023-01-25T13:30:20Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Go back to shortly before Newt Gingrich is conceived and run over one or both of his parents with a dump truck. Or Limbaugh. Or Rupert Murdoch. None of those folks’ parents were particularly prominent / noteworthy. So you would murder an innocent person to achieve your end? That’s brutal. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/9 "2023-01-25T13:40:40Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > So you would murder an innocent person to achieve your end? That’s brutal. Yes, and yes. We’ve been doing it throughout our entire existence, so why change now? LOL ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/10 "2023-01-25T14:32:30Z")
I intended this thread to be real scenarios so I wonder if LSLGuy is saying he would actually murder an innocent person to prevent someone from being born. Could YOU Jasmine? If it were a real situation? ---
**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:** [January 25, 2023, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/11 "2023-01-25T14:51:49Z")
1. Adam and Eve, DO NOT TOUCH THAT FRUIT!!! I’d be clinging to both their ankles, preventing them from lunging towards the stuff. 2. If non-Biblical, then I’d give Gore an extra six hundred votes in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/12 "2023-01-25T14:54:31Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > If non-Biblical, then I’d give Gore an extra six hundred votes in 2000. How would you do that as an individual? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/13 "2023-01-25T14:58:35Z")
Remember this thread is not assuming you can just snap your fingers and stop the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those other threads were like that. You can only act as an individual could. And if you want to murder someone, ask yourself. If this were a real situation, could you and your moral compass actually murder someone in cold blood? I think the only person that gets what the thread s going for is @Moriarty. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/14 "2023-01-25T14:58:56Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Adam and Eve, DO NOT TOUCH THAT FRUIT!!! I’d be clinging to both their ankles, preventing them from lunging towards the stuff. Re-read Rule 4 ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/15 "2023-01-25T15:12:46Z")
Call up the Palm Beach Democratic party in mid 2000, and ask them to make sure their voter guides are compatible with butterfly ballots. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/16 "2023-01-25T15:44:48Z")
Were I to try to kill someone before they caused evil, it would be Karl Marx. Preventing Booth from killing Lincoln sounds more congenial. Can I kidnap **Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan** , take him back to Ancient Egypt, and try to give real medicine a 5000-year head start? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/17 "2023-01-25T16:09:52Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Could YOU Jasmine? If it were a real situation? I could and would if I was absolutely sure that it would 100% avoid a really horrible situation that involved a lot of pain, suffering, and death over time. I wouldn’t, though, because I have serious doubts that killing innocent people in order to prevent a single birth would ensure avoiding all of the aforementioned. Example: I don’t believe killing Adolph Hitler’s parents would ensure that all of the subsequent events would be avoided because it was the post WWI climate that produced Hitler. Someone else could very easily seize the same opportunity and create a similar outcome. This is in line with my general feeling that I am not equipped to decide what should or should not be changed, and I do not have the foresight to know in advance what will happen if I did. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/18 "2023-01-25T17:04:07Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Call up the Palm Beach Democratic party in mid 2000, and ask them to make sure their voter guides are compatible with butterfly ballots. In addition to that, before my trip back I’d use publicly available data to compile lists of Florida likely Democrats who were eligible to vote but did not in 2000. Then once back then I’d recruit Democrats from deep red areas and take them all to Florida and start very targeted canvassing. Quietly, without coordinating with the local Democratic machine, because if the GOP machine gets wind of extra canvassers they might step up their own efforts. Given a few months lead time I think that would do it, maybe even clearing enough extra votes that no recount happens. And while back there I’d lay enough clues with the right people to stop 9/11 and put paid to the idea that Saddam has WMDs. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/19 "2023-01-25T17:12:46Z")
Just for fun: Sept 13, 1862: Pick up the cigars D.H. Hill dropped before Antietam August 28, 1776: Make a lot of noise to alert the British that Washington is sneaking away from Brooklyn Heights Sept 26, 1983: Swap the analysis papers to show Petrov Stanislav the missile attack was NOT an error ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741/20 "2023-01-25T17:14:18Z")
> [@Ponderoid](#): > > I’d lay enough clues with the right people to stop 9/11 That’s something I’ve wondered. Given the rules of this thread, how would you do this in such a way that you’d be taken seriously and/or not incarcerated yourself? It would have to be subtle. I was thinking if you could get armed Air Marshalls on the right flights, you could prevent 9/11, but what justification would you use? Would you be able to prove you’re from the future by giving away upcoming winning lottery numbers, the results of major sporting events, or yet-to-take place elections? It would suck to have Obama assassinated by bad actors before he even got elected to the senate because I let slip that he later becomes president. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-event-would-you-change/978741.md?page=2)