# What single historical event would you most like to have witnessed? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 19, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582 "2003-01-19T03:27:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/41 "2003-01-20T03:53:54Z")
The sinking of the TITANIC. And as long as we’re dreaming here, I’d like omniscence so I can see where and how Captain Smith died, what the last action of Thomas Andrews was, if a guy did dress as a woman to escape, the last words of the Strauses to each other, if there **really were no women** left around Collapsible C when J. Bruce Ismay stepped into it, what happened to the Goodwin family, if Murdoch shot himself (I don’t think he did, for the record)… Then I’d fly over to the CALFORNIAN to see what the hell was up with them. And finally to the CARPATHIA’s bridge to watch them navigate the old girl through the growlers and bergs and watch Captain Rostron in action, and the courageous yet tragic rescue on the morning of April 15th. Second choice? Gettysburg Address or Washington’s Farewell in Fraunces Tavern. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/42 "2003-01-20T03:58:14Z")
One more thing: when I started writing that post, Guinastasia’s post was not there, I swear!!:o Other ship mysteries I’d like to help clear up: the ARCTIC, the MARY CELESTE. ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/43 "2003-01-20T05:39:17Z")
[/quote] \*originally posed by John T[i/] October 31st, 1517, 12:00 noon: Martin Luther nails the Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. [/quote] An interesting little historical tidbit that my AP European History teacher told me was that at the time Luther posted this, it wasn’t really a major deal. The church was near the university or wherever, and people would frequently nail debateable topics to the door for discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/44 "2003-01-20T07:31:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cart \* > \*\*As far as I know this one isn’t a mystery. Wat Tyler was killed on the spot by the Mayor of London. Richard II then agreed to the peasants’ demands, but once the danger was over went back on his word and had about 1500 of them executed. So whatever was promised, they didn’t get it. \*\* I guess I should have been more specific. What exactly did the peasants demand? What was Richard’s response to each demand? That is, did he just say “Yeah, sure, whatever,” or was there a sort of point-by-point negotiation? ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/45 "2003-01-20T09:05:14Z")
New York City, August 22nd, 1922: Willy Blaffenwich trips over the curb and spills his ice cream cone, much to the cruel amusement of seventeen onlookers. I wish I could witness that particular historic event, firsthand. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/46 "2003-01-20T13:40:34Z")
Two of you would really want to witness the sinking of the Titanic? Dear God, what a horrible scene. I get depressed just _imagining_ it now. All those people knowing they’re about to die. Those women in lifeboats knowing that before dawn their husbands would be dead. The eerie darkness and cold. The mother from Sweden who turned down a chance to get on a lifeboat because it wouldn’t hold all 5 of her children. Egads, that’s stuff from nightmares! ---
**Author:** ![Harli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c0e974/32.png) [@Harli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harli)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/47 "2003-01-20T13:55:27Z")
Oh wow, everyone has posted such wonderful responses and as I’m reading through I’m checking them off my own personal list as things I’d love to have seen. The original theatrical performances, yes, definitely. The ancient Greek/Roman stuff, without a doubt. However, I think on the top of my list would have to be the events surrounding Elizabeth Bathory’s trials. I mean, I don’t know if I would have wanted to see the torturing and killing and such, but just her day-to-day life, and all that. It would give me a lot more to go on than just the books I’ve read as reference material for directing a play about her. And it would help me a lot to write the play that I’ve been concocting in my brain. Damn, I’m sick _shrug_ ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/48 "2003-01-20T14:01:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by monica \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > _originally posed by John T_ > > October 31st, 1517, 12:00 noon: Martin Luther nails the Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. > > An interesting little historical tidbit that my AP European History teacher told me was that at the time Luther posted this, it wasn’t really a major deal. The church was near the university or wherever, and people would frequently nail debateable topics to the door for discussion. \*\* The difference was the printing press, and the fact that Luther also had the theses printed _in German_ as well as Latin. He didn’t mean to start the Reformation, but he was glad that he did. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/49 "2003-01-20T14:21:41Z")
I’d like to watch the establishment of the first permanent extraterran human colony. Extra points if it’s extrasolar. I’d also like it to happen within my lifetime so I wouldn’t have to go anywhere… What? It’s historical. Or it would be when it happens. ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/50 "2003-01-20T14:24:45Z")
Well heck, I would love to have seen the moon landings. I was alive and old enough at the time, but in Cuba it was not shown, and as far as I remember not even reported. I was left listening to the Voice of America and, some months later, looking through the glorious pictures on a contraband Paris Match magazine, and trying to puzzle out the french captions. ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/51 "2003-01-20T19:50:40Z")
Christ’s ressurection… because then I’d really know if all of this was worth it 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/52 "2003-01-20T20:10:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ITR champion \* > \*\*I’d probably choose the signing of the Declaration of Independence, since I’ve always wondered exactly what the mood was like at the moment when those guys actually signed the thing. \*\* Well, witnessing the signing would probably be boring. I think after it was drafted and voted on, they signed it in one’s and two’s over several days. I might choose an early performance of _Hamlet_, if only to see if the line originally was ‘To be or not to be, ay, there’s the point,’ or if somebody somehow forgot the line when they were dictating it to a printer. Or I might just choose some time in the Cretaceous period, around Utah. Dinosaurs are cool. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/53 "2003-01-20T20:18:10Z")
I’d like to be present at the _drafting_ of the Constitution, so I could suggest a slight change… … all _people_ are created equal… ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/54 "2003-01-20T20:20:15Z")
Declaration of Independence. I knew that :smack: I think the real reason they put a 60-second limit on how often we could post is so that somebody could come in and needle us if we screw up… ---
**Author:** ![Semp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Semp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Semp)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/55 "2003-01-21T02:06:09Z")
Just out of curiosity I’d like to see (safely, that is) the _whatever_ happen at Tunguska in 1905-ish. Comet? Meteor? Aliens? The nastiest burrito ever made? I’ve always wanted to be able to experience a Hitler speech, just to taste the power of a single human being leading his people into hell, and them letting him take them there. Of course, I’d have to learn German, but hell, if I’m travelling through time… And I think it would be a kick to see Teddy Roosevelt get shot, have the bullet be stopped by the speech in his pocket, then give the speech. Man, ain’t nobody these days who’d do that… ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/56 "2003-01-21T03:17:49Z")
There are so many choices it’s almost impossible to decide. For something in my own lifetime I would like to go back to the moon landing. I was fourteen so I watched it on TV, but I was so keyed up that my brain could not make sense of the images my eyes were sending it. I never looked away but couldn’t really SEE it. For before my lifetime, I’d like to see my grandparents in their youth. My maternal grandmother told me about a school play in which my grandfather(her eventual husband) was the romantic lead, and wore a pair of genuine English riding boots, “he was SO dashing!” ---
**Author:** ![Azael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@Azael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azael)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/57 "2003-01-21T03:27:15Z")
The creation of life on the earth from the “primordial soup.” The birth of the first _homo sapiens_. The creation of the first complex tool. The Trojan War. The life of Jesus. (I’m not even a Christian) I know it was supposed to be a _single_ historical event but I was having trouble making up my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/58 "2003-01-21T03:28:13Z")
Oh, I forgot to say something pursuant to an earlier post in this thread. \*\*Murcielago, \*\* you mentioned the performance of The Wall in Berlin. My parents were in Germany at that time, their first trip there. The wall was coming down but the reunification was not complete. They were on their way to Berlin on a Friday afternoon to cash travelers checks, or they wouldn’t have much money for the weekend(still couldn’t cash them in the eastern sector yet) They never made it. There was a traffic jam miles long on the autobahn, no movement at all. Everyone was getting out and walking around, and my folks took a lot of video of it. Many younger people asked my parents “Are you going to the concert?” “What concert?” “Oh wow, they’re doing The Wall in Berlin” “Umm, no, we’re not going to the concert.” I doubt they had ever heard of The Wall. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/59 "2003-01-21T11:20:17Z")
Buried treasure fascinates me, so… 1. The construction of the Ch’in Emperor’s tomb (the one with all the terracotta warriors lined up in front). Lots of old texts describe what was built inside, but nobody’s seen it for over 2000 years. 2. The construction of the [Oak Island Money Pit](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_441.html), just to see who did it, and **how?** ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582/60 "2003-01-21T11:21:39Z")
Damn. [Oak Island Money Pit.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_441.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-single-historical-event-would-you-most-like-to-have-witnessed/149582.md?page=4)