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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:
thankgoditssaturday · 19/11/2025 23:54

15th C Venice during the carnival

GeorgeEdwardsMum · 19/11/2025 23:52

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

PandoraSocks · 19/11/2025 23:50

CosmicTea · 19/11/2025 23:32

I mean, the big bang. If that's allowed.

Failing that, the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace. I'd also like to see the Beatles play live and to see the dinosaurs!

Mine would also be the big bang.

peppermintpig74 · 19/11/2025 23:47

This is such a refreshing thread !
I would love to have seen one of the Thames frost fairs of the 1700/1800s when the river froze over.

JudgeJ · 19/11/2025 23:46

Purplecatshopaholic · 19/11/2025 23:05

Scotland winning the World Cup. Oh wait, that’s not going back that’s going forward…

That's going far too far into the future! According to my daughter's Edinburgh office the World Cup's over and they're planning the victory parade through the streets. Good goals though, pleased for them and their long suffering fans.

SwirlyGates · 19/11/2025 23:43

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:41

Oh definitely and I have thought of more now, when these were first created:

  • Nazca lines
  • Rapa Nui stone heads - I nearly went there but Covid got in the way
  • Skara Brae
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Excellent list! I've flown over the Nazca lines and they are astonishing.

Excelnotexcellent · 19/11/2025 23:42

There is no exact date but about 5.5 mil years ago. Sit on top of some Gibraltar mountain, bring a picnic, watch nature do a proper nature thing.
And for once find out if the flood was instant or it took many many years. So big picnic with me I guess.

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:42

SwirlyGates · 19/11/2025 23:39

Oof, too much violence in your list, you must have a strong stomach!

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Yeah I get the curiosity, but I couldn't stand the executions.

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:41

SwirlyGates · 19/11/2025 23:36

In similar vein, I'd like to see them making Sacsayhuaman or similar Inca sites, as no one has been able to come up with a convincing explanation for how they were done.

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Oh definitely and I have thought of more now, when these were first created:

  • Nazca lines
  • Rapa Nui stone heads - I nearly went there but Covid got in the way
  • Skara Brae
SixtySomething · 19/11/2025 23:41

ChaliceinWonderland · 19/11/2025 22:36

Greatfire of London or building of tower of London

I don't think the GreatFire of London would be very safe.

SixtySomething · 19/11/2025 23:40

Username2101 · 19/11/2025 22:34

Henry the 8ths court

I don't think that would be very safe! You might get put in the Tower of London and be unable to escape back to the future ....

SwirlyGates · 19/11/2025 23:39

Dappy777 · 19/11/2025 23:07

  • Some point between 450 and 480 AD when the Romans left and the English,i.e the various Germans tribes, Angles, Daxons, Jutes, Frisians, etc, moved in.
  • The death of Socrates
  • The first performance of Hamlet or King Lear at the Globe theatre.
  • The execution of Charles I.
  • Dickens giving a public reading of Nicholas Nickelby in my home town on a snowy day in 1862 (the pub is still there).
  • The moment Darwin first set foot on the Galapagos islands.
  • The execution of the French king during the Revolution, and also of Marie Antoinette.
  • The moment the Vikings attacked Lindisfarne in the 8th-century, which really began the Viking Age.
  • The first contact between Europeans and Native Indians.

Oof, too much violence in your list, you must have a strong stomach!

Splcam · 19/11/2025 23:38

If I could intervene: I'd go to 23 Fitzroy Road, North London at about 7.30 a.m. on 11 February 1963 and turn Sylvia Plath's oven off.

SwirlyGates · 19/11/2025 23:36

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 22:33

The construction of Stonehenge.

In similar vein, I'd like to see them making Sacsayhuaman or similar Inca sites, as no one has been able to come up with a convincing explanation for how they were done.

cannaecookrisotto · 19/11/2025 23:34

Krakatoa (but from safe distance with binoculars)

The magnitude of it fascinates me.

Goneback2school · 19/11/2025 23:33

The construction of Newgrange, Chichen Itza or the pyramids . When Europeans first arrived in the Americas.

CosmicTea · 19/11/2025 23:32

I mean, the big bang. If that's allowed.

Failing that, the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace. I'd also like to see the Beatles play live and to see the dinosaurs!

GivingUpFinally · 19/11/2025 23:31

For me it would be seeing Norte Dame being opened for the first time for Christmas Mass. To see what it would have been like without any artificial light. I'm not religious at all but seeing it in person the first time over 20 years ago made me almost had be believing.

Or

To see the signing of the Magna Carta.

Or

Seeing the first pages come off a printing press and the changes it brought.

Or

Paris on VE Day 1945.

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:25

Ihatetomatoes · 19/11/2025 23:22

Of course, we'll go back and watch them both.

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Perfect!

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.

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/11/2025 23:22

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:18

It sounds great, I will definitely put it on my list, thank you. If you haven't read it - Ghost Map is a really good account of the Cholera Epidemic in London.

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Thank you!

Ihatetomatoes · 19/11/2025 23:22

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:19

Can we share?!

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Of course, we'll go back and watch them both.

DaffodilValley · 19/11/2025 23:20

I want to see what the dinosaurs actually looked like, and what happened to Madeleine McCann.

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:19

Ihatetomatoes · 19/11/2025 23:14

I'll raise you the pyramids

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Can we share?!

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