Right after prehistory.
Nevermind.
Yep. That’s why Zeus invented frame-by-frame on the Tivo.
heh heh, you said “extravagant package”…
I’d like footage of the construction of Stonehenge.
Construction of Stonehenge would be interesting, but I’d rather see video footage of an actual ceremony or two. Ditto with what the heck was going on at Nazca or Lascaux etc.
On second thought, I suppose you are right. Although I would give my left arm to just once stand on the gun deck of a ship-of-the-line during a battle and feeling the crash of the great guns, watching it on tape wouldn’t be quite the same.
That would be a looooooong video! I’d like to see the edited version of it, though – the special edition featuring interviews with the designers and construction foremen and footage of some ceremonies afterward.
Ditto for some of the other henges and standing stones.
The first 2 minutes of silence in England after the Great War.
Not truly historic, but the Wikipedia description of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows sounds interesting.
I think that this and the world’s major battles would be unbearably gruesome. Why not Water to Wine, or the Loaves and Fishes or Walking on Water? Something nice?
My request:
The Carving of David by Michelangelo, a documentary.
Im thinking your having a Horatio Nelson moment.
Declan
With regard to historic mysteries that could be settled by good video footage (as opposed to historic events that would be impressive on video), I’d like to see the death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Not a major historic event, but “Mad King Ludwig” is my pet historic topic and I’d like to know for sure how he really died. Was it suicide, accident, or perhaps even murder?
It would be neat to be able to review even grainy B&W CCTV footage of Roanoke’s last weeks or days, to answer the mystery of the colonists’ disappearance and maybe even that cryptic “CROATOAN” graffito.
Ditto on board the “Marie Celeste” – their disappearance has long been a mystery.
Anything related to a great historical figure would be priceless: Cicero’s rhetoric, a Lincoln-Douglas debate, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and so on.
But the greatest revelations might well be in the arts: a concert of symphonic or chamber works by a great composer as conducted by same (or featuring the composer playing piano, whatever); a performance of the Paris Opera Ballet during the reign of Louis XIV (when the rules of classical opera had just been established); a Globe performance of any of Shakespeare’s plays under his direction; the debut of a Puccini opera; or even the first time Chuck Berry performed “Johnny B. Goode” before an audience.
But since what ancient music really sounded like remains in the realm of educated guesswork, any music from Ancient Egypt/Minos/Babylon/Greece/Rome – from poetry sung to kings to brassy, percussive triumphal processions in the streets – would be my pick.
Nitpick: It’s the “Mary Celeste”
Minor hijack, but does anyone else remember a science-fiction short story with the premise that a device had been invented that would allow one to see into and record the past? I want to say the title was “A For Effort”, but that’s a common enough phrase that I’m not turning up anything relevant on Google. The inventors produced a couple of historic “dramas”, one about the life of Alexander the Great and one about the Revolutionary War (which was deemed somewhat controversial for differing from accepted history), and then stirred up a lot of trouble making a movie about WWII that showed what all the leaders involved really said and did.
Solved my own mystery – the story I was thinking of is called “E for Effort” (not “A”), and was by T. L. Sherred.
Globe Theater–Shakespeare’s company, with Himself playing a role. Ideally, in one of his “lost” plays.
It’s possible that I just won.
Anything that could be construed as the parting of the Red Sea. That has to be impressive.
The Assassination of Julius Caesar.
Pope Urban II’s “Deus Vult” speech before the Council of Clermont on November 27, 1095 which led to the First Crusade.
The signing of the Magna Carta.
Columbus landing in the New World.
The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan at the time of Cortez’s arrival.
Any Mayan city just before the civilization went into decline.
The building of the Great Wall of China.
The first two Super Bowls. (There’s plenty of film footage but the tapes of the original network broadcasts were erased. The same thing happened to most of the Tonight show broadcasts prior to 1970.)