I’d simply go back to 1978 when Andrew Lloyd Webber was begging people to invest in CATS. I’d offer to put up the total amount in exchange for 10% of all the money the show and everything connected with it makes, along with 10% of all his future shows.
I would travel through time, and hate on people. 
My choice would be based on what I’ll be able to convince people of when I get back. Are people going to know that I have the time machine? Will they accept my videotape of the crucifixion or the books I bring back from Alexandria? If so, I’ll pick something historically significant like that, but if not I’ll just go hang out with Einstein or Marilyn Monroe or something.
Great reference.
“Happy goldfish bowl to you all. Case dismissed.”
I love Sampiro’s idea of getting a Bible signed by the authors.
Cervaise once suggested it would be interesting to show Thomas Jefferson an Uzi or a Glock and then discuss the Second Amendment with him. I’d also like to tell him how successful the Founding Fathers’ ideas about governments and free society have been. I’ve always thought they must have spent their lives wondering if it would really catch on.
I’d love to show a high school science book to some of the greats, just so they’d know that their ideas will indeed change the world. People like Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Franklin, and a hundred others.
Discussing something with a guy on the train, I decided that I would definitely use a time machine to go back and see Pink Floyd perform The Wall.
I’d like to visit Pleistocene Europe, film the Neanderthals, and find out just how different they were from Homo sapiens sapiens, what sort of languages they spoke, etc. (Then send my notes and videos to Jane Auel.)
Visit North America at various periods to nail down just when the first humans first appeared on this continent – and to study what it was like just before that.
It would take a lot of work, but I’d like to track down “Eve,” ancestor of all living humans – best guess is she lived in what is now Sudan, not more than 200,000 years ago – and get some pix of her.
I’d also like to range all over the Pleistocene world – hell, every era and epoch of the planet’s history – collecting now-extinct plants and animals! And put them in a huge Zoological and Botanical Park of Archaic Life-Forms! It would be like Jurassic Park was nothin’!
Oh? Explain for I do not understand.
Obvious ones: Talk to Jesus, Einstein, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, etc. I’d have to learn the languages first. Or maybe it would be a Hollywood style time machine that automatically makes everyone speak English but with an accent.
Lost civilizations: The building of the pyramids, stonehenge, Easter Island, ancient Rome…I’d actually like to see what a day was like for the average joe in ancient Egypt or something, just from the time they woke up to when they went to bed.
Lost information: The library of Alexandria, the Kennedy assassination, Amelia Erhart…
Historical moments: Shakespeare plays, Beethoven/Mozart concerts, the Wright Brothers’ first flight…
Morbid curiosity: The death of Princess Di (find out what really happened), the city of Pompei, the bombing of Hiroshima, a gladiator fight
Other eras: The creation of the earth, the age of dinosaurs, the birth of the human species and civilization
I think I’d also go back to when I was a kid and revisit some of the little special moments I remember from my childhood.
Of course, I’d bring a video camera along for all of these things.
What if I traveled back in time to a week ago, ran into my former self (assuming that there are no crazy paradoxes and that this doesn’t affect the present) and had sex with myself? Would that make me gay? Would it be incest? Hypothetically…
Damn…I can’t alter the timeline? Crap. Well, I guess I’ll have to settle for…
Theft. Stealing lots of treasure from places it’d never be missed. (Sinking Galleons, probably.)
Be the first person to buy an Apple I; an Apple “Lisa”; and the first model Macintosh.
Find out what really happened to the Mary Celeste.
Sneak a hidden camera into Hitler’s bunker, so I can get video of him killing himself. Actually, I’ll probably steal his jawbone, right before the Russians grind it up.
Find out who Jack the Ripper was.
Watch the Apollo 11 launch.
Watch a nuclear test. (Or a nuclear attack.)
Go to the first run of a silent movie. Go to one of the showings of Frankenstein where they’d paid a woman to scream and run out of the theater.
Blackmail video (or film), on any number of celebrities, politicians, etc. (Well, either for blackmail, or to discredit or provide criminal evidence against people I don’t like. It depends on how much treasure I get from the Galleons.)
You could find a copy of the 1890 U.S. Census report at any library that has a government documents section. It’s probably the same with any country that conducted a census in 1890 – even if it’s been through several wars since then that devastated the archives in the capital, there should still be copies of its census report somewhere.
Heck with finding a sixth- what you should do is find the one that disappeared in the 1950’s!
I’ll go along with ancient Rome & Athens, Egypt for the construction of the pyramids, same for Aztec & Inca civilization. Ditto for the Druids & Stonehenge. Can’t leave out Ancient China either.
Visit with Thomas Edison, Geroge Washington Carver & Henry Ford. Pilot a riverboat with Mark Twain. Learn to play ragtime piano from the masters of the trade in the brothels. Play with Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington & Count Basie. See the Rat Pack perform in Vegas and hang with them afterwards. Take a wagon train from St. Louis to San Francisco. Ride with Paul Revere.
and the list goes on…
Maybe I will/already did. 
(Nah, if I get a time machine in the future, I already would have been visited by my future self. Drat!)
BrainGlutton, unfortunately the majority of the 1890 US Census was lost in a fire in the Commerce Building in D.C. Thus, for avid genealogists, it would be a nice thing to get a copy of before the fire.
Oh.
1888 - I’d travel back to Braunau am Inn, Austria the latter part of 1888 and slip Klara Hitler an abortifacent.
1912 - I’d ensure the crew of the Californian knew the difference between a firework and a distress signal.
October, 1963 - I’d send multiple anonymous letters to the FBI threatening to assassinate President Kennedy in a Dallas motorcade.
I’d join the Lewis and Clarke expedition.
I’d shake Abe Lincoln’s hand.
I’d sneak in on Elvis Presley’s first recording session at Sun Records.
The History of Western Civilization, now available on DVD!
Strangely, I’d like to study first and second century Christianity, including spending some time as a Gnostic (provided I could leave for the occasional dinner date… :rolleyes: )
I’d want to aspirate Jimi and get him into a rehab clinic. It’s a shame that it’s against the rules.