Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:18

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/11/2025 23:15

Thoroughly recommend the book.

Show quote history

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.

XWKD · 19/11/2025 23:16

J.S. Bach playing the organ, or Beethoven playing the piano.

Enrichetta · 19/11/2025 23:15

The execution of Anne Boleyn - to witness her immense courage and fortitude, knowing that she was entirely innocent of the ‘crimes’ of which she had been convicted.

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/11/2025 23:15

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:14

Oh fair enough, I didn't know that. I knew of the book title but only that it was about the Black Death.

Show quote history

Thoroughly recommend the book.

Ihatetomatoes · 19/11/2025 23:14

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 22:33

The construction of Stonehenge.

I'll raise you the pyramids

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:14

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/11/2025 23:11

Edinburgh. Just finished a great book. It was very specifically called the great mortality in Scotland.

Show quote history

Oh fair enough, I didn't know that. I knew of the book title but only that it was about the Black Death.

Enrichetta · 19/11/2025 23:13

The execution of Anne Boleyn - to witness her immense courage and fortitude, knowing that she was entirely innocent of the ‘crimes’ of which she had been convicted.

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/11/2025 23:11

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:05

Where though - as it was across Europe? I think I would like to - from a birds eye view - go to Eyam.

Show quote history

Edinburgh. Just finished a great book. It was very specifically called the great mortality in Scotland.

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.

lilybit2025 · 19/11/2025 23:10

Really not sure. There's too many to choose from but I'd love to see Henry 8th in action at the Tudor court and meet the famous Anne Boleyn, or the Roman Empire at its peak. I'd also love to meet Jane Austen whilst she was writing Pride and Prejudice. I'd love to know exactly who it was loosely based on.

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

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:08

Oh I would like to know what happened to Owain Glyndwr please.

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.
Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:05

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/11/2025 23:02

The great mortality.

Where though - as it was across Europe? I think I would like to - from a birds eye view - go to Eyam.

Purplecatshopaholic · 19/11/2025 23:05

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

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:04

ChaliceinWonderland · 19/11/2025 22:36

Greatfire of London or building of tower of London

Yes to the former, but only from Pepys' house on Bankside.

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:03

BlueEyedBogWitch · 19/11/2025 22:34

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

I'd go the first one at Hampton Court... although that said, I'm not one for monarchy, so actually the Globe probably would be a better bet with the groundlings!

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:02

ProfRedLorryYellowLorry · 19/11/2025 22:35

Good one! To see how it was really built. Great idea.

The Battle of Bosworth.

Show quote history

Indeed and also why - because we are all guessing!

Yes agree with BoB too.

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/11/2025 23:02

The great mortality.

pIum · 19/11/2025 23:00

Not an event, but a day in the palaeolithic era. I can't get my head around that being 99% of human history and really just how people survived it at all!

Maddy70 · 19/11/2025 23:00

D day , or the queen's Coronation. A time when everyone was proud to be British , no painting of roundabouts or flag shagging. Just great genuine pride in fellow humanity

BetternutSquish · 19/11/2025 22:57

VE day.
Great Fire of London
Queen Elizabeth II coronation
Pompeii - but watching from Pliny's house.

Charel2girl5 · 19/11/2025 22:54

Username2101 · 19/11/2025 22:34

Henry the 8ths court

Absolutely. Interesting but nerve wracking at the same time.

InterestedDad37 · 19/11/2025 22:52

The construction of the Terracotta Army.
Putting the top stones on the Egyptian pyramids.
First studio recording for The Goodies 😁

Sinkingfeeling952 · 19/11/2025 22:40

To be in Berlin for the fall of the Berlin Wall

Swipe left for the next trending thread