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Original poster

If you could go back in time and witness any big event in history, which one would it be

235 replies

MyPithyCat · 19/11/2025 22:32

For me it'd be the first commercial radio broadcast on 2nd November 1920. That's the best type of radio (even though it'd adverts every 15-20 minutes) but I'd love to see how it all began

OP posts:
Glindaa · 20/11/2025 04:06

Bethlehem , Jerusalem Jesus times

garlictwist · 20/11/2025 03:49

Not that long ago but the fall of the Berlin Wall. I bet that was so exciting.

raspberryberet2020 · 20/11/2025 03:41

I'd like to meet Jesus, figure out for good and all if he was the Son of God, a prophet, or just a bit of a guru and an agitator.

Before anybody starts, there is just as much historical evidence and often more for Jesus as Socrates, Herod Agrippa, Spartacus or Bodicca. I don't want a debate, thanks. Just saying I'd like to meet him to see for myself whether he was divine.

AsanteSana · 20/11/2025 02:14

To have been present when the extraordinary Harriet Tubman first crossed the state line into Pennsylvania and realised that she was free.

To have been at Appomatox Courthouse to witness General Lee's surrender and the cessation of the American Civil War.

To have heard the first ever radio broadcast of Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milkwood'

alwayscrashinginthesamecar1 · 20/11/2025 01:43

NormasArse · 19/11/2025 23:22

Not as highbrow, but I would’ve loved to have seen David Bowie live in the 70s. I did see him in the 80s though.

Same! I would like to see him at Hammersmith Odeon in 73 when he retired Ziggy, although I was there when he did the thirtieth anniversary show in the same place in 2003.

Poodledoodley · 20/11/2025 01:38

Woodstock. I’d love to have been there.

OSTMusTisNT · 20/11/2025 01:27

Queen at Wembley (with front row tickets)

Moon landing from take off to landing back.

Fly on the wall style voyeur for building of Egyptian Temples and Pyramids etc.

The Great Exhibition.

Vikings/Saxons/Norman times.

tobee · 20/11/2025 00:59

Weimar Republic - night out
The Wall Street Crash
The General Strike
The summer before World War 1
The Home Front of World War 1

Just stuff I've been reading about recently.

NewJobProblem · 20/11/2025 00:28

Also, the announcements of the endings of WW1 and WW2.

NewJobProblem · 20/11/2025 00:26

The comet that killed the dinosaurs.

Ukefluke · 20/11/2025 00:22

Moon landings

CurlyhairedAssassin · 20/11/2025 00:14

The signing off of the designs for the Titanic. I’d somehow convince them to put lifeboats on for everyone at the very least.

or are we just bystanders in this hypothetical scenario and not allowed to try to influence?

CurlyhairedAssassin · 20/11/2025 00:09

GeorgeEdwardsMum · 19/11/2025 23:52

HRTFT but just before the big bang, to witness the very beginning.

Ooh good one, but it would also freak me out, being the only living thing in existence. And what if you discovered that it didn’t happen the way science thinks it did? You’d spend the rest of your life trying to convince the world of the real way it happened, and get branded a loony or conspiracy theorist.

and you could never enjoy a museum or science documentary or book ever again knowing it was all completely wrong. Brian Cox would have you arrested for stalking.

all most unsatisfying. 😆

AntiStratfordian · 20/11/2025 00:07

What a great thread, I'm really enjoying these responses.

It's not an event as such, but I'd like to go back in time and find out who wrote all of Shakespeare's works. The more I read about it, the more I'm sceptical about the man from Stratford, there's so much that just doesn't add up. I expect it would take a bit of detective work but I'm up for that.

HRTQueen · 20/11/2025 00:05

Assassination of JFK

I know that’s very morbid

the Great Exhibition is a really good choice I would look to go there too the numbers that attended is incredible

EmeraldRoulette · 20/11/2025 00:05

Interesting that others have said Great Fire of London - from a safe distance, obviously

I remember watching a few part documentary about that and my parents thought I was being incredibly morbid. I don't really know why I was so interested either.

The other thing I would like to have been present at is any "sighting" of Spring Heeled Jack, or The Mothman (again from a safe distance). But for obvious reasons, those events may not count 😂

Hohumdedum · 20/11/2025 00:03

The crucifixion and following week.

longtompot · 20/11/2025 00:02

When Stonehenge was built, just to see why, and how

Not religious, but when Jesus was about to see if people back then knew who he was or if he was a myth that developed over the years

Bonjovispyjamas · 19/11/2025 23:59

England winning the world Cup in 1966. My mum was pregnant with me at the time.

TheBaneOfLife · 19/11/2025 23:58

mumofoneAloneandwell · 19/11/2025 23:10

I'm showing my lack of culture here 😭

but oasis in their hey day

And the Watch the Throne tour with kanye and Jay z, before kanye... you know

I managed to get 5 free tickets for the Birmingham show the same night from our LG rep, we got there in record time and a certain song will always remind me of that night!

Jugendstiel · 19/11/2025 23:58

BlueEyedBogWitch · 19/11/2025 22:34

I’d like to go to the premiere performance of Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe.

I was just going to say - sitting in on the rehearsals for Shakespeare's Macbeth. Or Lear.

ElizaMulvil · 19/11/2025 23:58

Dontlletmedownbruce · 19/11/2025 23:10

It absolutely blows my mind that other humans existed and that we are all descended from just one type. When we say a certain behaviour is human nature we don't of course know if it's human nature of just homosapien nature. So I'd like to hang out with a different type of human, I think neanderthals were the closest to us. So its not witnessing an event as such, but I'd like to just be a fly on the wall in their daily lives.

Haven't we all got some Neanderthal genes?

UnctuousUnicorns · 19/11/2025 23:57

The Romanov Tercentenary celebrations, knowing how soon it was all going to be over.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 19/11/2025 23:56

I wonder what it was like in the London crowds on VE Day. Or anywhere in England when the surrender was announced. I can’t even fathom the feelings of relief and joy.

i also wonder if there was ever a time when an ordinary peasant felt any everyday joy in medieval times or if it was a 24 hour living hell the way I feel it must have been, especially for women.

menopausalfart · 19/11/2025 23:56

If we can include prehistory, I'd love to have seen Lucy, an early Australopithecine who was a very early ancestor of humans, going about her business.