Then come home. So what will it be?
A mystery like being a sailor on the Mary Celeste or hear what Nixon said for 18.5 minutes?
A controversy like being hidden behind boxes in the Texas State Book Depository or hanging out in Whitechapel to unmask Jack the Ripper?
A historical event like sitting on a hill during the Battle of Thermopylae or being in the crowd during the Gettysburg Address?
Something artistic like watching Richard Burbage at the Globe Theater or Farinelli in concert?
You will completely blend in and have the top of the line holographic video recorder and 3-D audio recording of your trip. BUT you can only pick one event.
I think a more interesting way to ask this question is to assume that 10 such events are already covered by someone else. That covers almost everything the OP suggested and leaves… less obvious choices to kick around. How about:
[ol]
[li]The entire Passion and Crucifixion;[/li][li]Another event from the life of Jesus, your choice;[/li][li]The JFK assassination;[/li][li]The Mary Jane Kelly Ripper killing (most chance to catch the perp);[/li][li]The Tunguska Event;[/li][li]The K-T strike, with time to record a sampling of life at the time;[/li][li]A significant day in the life of Shakspeare - being an actor, director, manager, whatever;[/li][li]The murder of Julius Caesar;[/li][li]The death of Adolph Hitler;[/li][li]The attack on Pearl Harbor?[/li][/ol]
My personal and relatively small choice (besides a family-mystery one) would be any of the significant attacks by the East Area Rapist/The Original Night Stalker - an unsolved series of cases in which the same individual may have committed more than 100 rapes, murders and other assaults in several cities over a decade, but was never caught. (I lived in the middle of the EAR’s territory at the time.)
If I can get the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as a single event, then that’s my pick. I want an infrared scope on the camera, so that I can keep watch on the tomb over both Friday and Saturday nights.
Are you me? I was contemplating this very thread just the other day, with the twist that you would not be able to record it, but would have the opportunity to interview anyone you wished.
You even selected some of my possible poll answers, a Shakespeare play at the Globe, Gettysburg Address.
Anyway, you’ve stolen my idea, you knave, and now I must answer.
Adding in the ability to record the event changes my answer. I am going to be mercenary about this and think about what historical event will net me the most money in royalties, and I’m going with opening day of Hamlet at the Globe.
It’s from “E For Effort”, a classic short story about a device that can do the sort of thing being described in this thread. (The scene the line is from is on page 401.)
I would have liked to be present when Byzantine Empress Theodora rallied her husband, Emperor Justinian, and his court to stand up to would-be usupers of the throne during the Nica riots in 532. The emperor and his court were ready to pack up and escape under cover of darkness, leaving the palace …and the empire… to the rebels. She shamed them into staying and fighting by adjuring them it would be better to die wearing the purple than to live ignominiously in exile. Her decisiveness and courage literally saved the Byzantine Empire. Very seminal moment in history.
I’m not so ambitious as the rest of you. I’d like to have been there when my maternal grandparents married in 1926. They stood up in front of the minister in his house, with two witnesses, and that was that. I would like to have seen them moving, speaking, acting, in their youth.
Birth or conception of Jesus? Seriously, guys? So you’ll discover that he was conceived in the regular way, and subsequently born, in some hovel in Nazareth. Which should surprise exactly no one, and the entertainment value is about nil.
I might consider the trial of Jesus, though. I’m curious about what he *really *did that made the Romans want to nail him to a cross. There’s a pretty big part of the story there that we’re still completely missing, and what we’re getting from the gospels doesn’t explain it at all.
However, I don’t really care that much about Jesus, one way or another. History is chock full of more entertaining moments. I’d almost certainly go for a big ancient battle. Platea, Cannae, Alesia or Philippi. Maybe even Catalaunian Fields. I’m dying to see one of those. So many to choose from, though. Do I have to pick just one?
(Or dinosaurs. They *are *awfully tempting. Is there any way to get the trial of Jesus, an ancient battle and dinosaurs in the same room?)