If you could go back in time

[Chef Jim]

I'd go back to January 8, 2000 and tell the Bills kick coverage team to stay in their darn lanes!

 

You're a towel.

[BLZFAN4LIFE]

I would return to the early morning hours of 9/26/80 and roll John Bonham over on his stomach.

 

On 25 September 1980, Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King to attend rehearsals at Bray Studios for an upcoming tour of the U.S.; the band's first since 1977. During the journey Bonham had asked to stop for breakfast, where he downed four quadruple vodkas (roughly sixteen shots, amounting to about half of an imperial quart or 473 ml). He then continued to drink heavily when he arrived at the rehearsals. A halt was called to the rehearsals late in the evening and the band retired to Page's house, The Old Mill House in Clewer, Windsor. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. Benji LeFevre (who had replaced Richard Cole as Led Zeppelin's tour manager) and John Paul Jones found him dead the next afternoon. Bonham was 32 years old.

 

Weeks later at the coroner's inquest, it emerged that in the 24 hours before he died, John Bonham had consumed forty shots of vodka which resulted in pulmonary edema: waterlogging of the lungs caused by inhalation of vomit. A verdict of accidental death was returned at an inquest held on 27 October. An autopsy had found no other drugs in Bonham's body. John Bonham was cremated and on 12 October 1980 interred at Rushock Parish Church, Worcestershire. His headstone reads:

 

"Cherished memories of a loving husband and father, John Henry Bonham who died Sept. 25th 1980. aged 32 years. He will always be remembered in our hearts, Goodnight my Love, God Bless."

[Lt. Dan's Revenge]

A lot of them wouldn't make much of a difference, though...or knocking them off could actually be worse. Kill Hitler, for example, and you either end up with a Stalinist Germany and France (if you get him early), or accomplish not much of anything (if you get him late, when German nationalism and rearmament was already on the upswing).

 

 

 

But there's about a 10M overlap in death count between Stalin and Hitler, don't forget. That whole Eastern Front bloodbath thing.

 

And the problem with the thinking of "I'd go back and kill one guy, and save lots of lives" is that it doesn't necessarily work that way. Historical events are less the actions of individual, powerful men than they are the culmination of social and economic forces (even if Hitler doesn't exist, the Catholic Center and Social Democrats are progressively marginalized in Germany in favor of the extremist communists and nationalists. You kill Stalin, and you're too late - the Russian Revolution is already successful, and there's plenty of other brutal !@#$s waiting to take over when Lenin dies.) And in cases where history IS written by a single person, eliminating that person and history can have unintended long-term consequences (e.g., Kill Genghis Khan, and the Mongols never unite and build their empire...and trade routes between China and Europe are never opened, the Italian Renaissance never starts, and Europe remains a socio-economic backwater and the Islamic world the intellectual and economic center of the world for several hundred more years.)

 

 

If I had to choose, though...from recent history, I'd prevent Mahatma Ghandi's assassination. As the one person who could bridge the gap between Pakistan and India on their independene and creation, had he lived a few more years and been able to promote better relations between the two countries, we'd have a much different and probably better world.

 

+1

That is an excellent point, really good post. Still debating on my answer, so many different possibilities.

[Mark from Albany]

I'd tell myself: "Don't eat so many doughnuts."

[TheMadCap]

An interesting question to be sure. However, the ramifications of affecting history is too great. I would rather do the following:

 

1. Visit Giordano Bruno the night before his execution and tell him that, even though he will die in the morning, he was right about the stars.

 

2. have a chat with Galileo regarding what we know about planetary physics.

 

3. Give Leonardo a ride in an airplane.

 

4. Tell Kepler to give up the whole regular solids system for planetary motion.

[Pete]

I would go back and load up on Walmart stock at 11 cents a share in 1980

[Marv's Neighbor]

Hitler? Stalin? Jesus? Come on let's make the change that would most benefit the world through the ages:

 

Scott Norwood makes the field against the Giants that leads us to four Superbowl rings!!!

 

Ohhhhh....could the universe get better than that?

Of course you're right about Norwood but you could also consider "NO GOAL" and Forward Lateral.

 

If the Forward Lateral did'nt happen, maybe Wade would still be here and we would have been spared: Gregggg, Meathead, Dick etc. etc...

[The Plastic Cup]

You're a towel.

 

You're a towel.

[The Poojer]

If I could turn back time

If I could find the way

I'd take back those words that hurt you

And you'd stay

If I could reach the stars

I'd give them all to you

Then you'd love me,

 

[Lt. Dan's Revenge]

If I could turn back time

If I could find the way

I'd take back those words that hurt you

And you'd stay

If I could reach the stars

I'd give them all to you

Then you'd love me,

 

 

I'm surprised that took 28 posts to happen.

[The Poojer]

me too...i had to check before putting it in here

 

I'm surprised that took 28 posts to happen.

[Curse Of Rusty Jones]

I would like to go back to the very very beginning of the world's existence, the very first moments, just to see what it looked like and what was going on

[Mark Vader]

I'd kill Mohammed and Jesus. Then we wouldn't have warring religions.

Yes there would be: Buddhism Vs. Hinduism

[Mark Vader]

I'd go back to January 8, 2000 and tell the Bills kick coverage team to stay in their darn lanes!

Or, make the officials come back and say: "After further review, the call on the field stands, it was a forward lateral."

[LeviF]

WWI and WWII are what likely established the USA as a world power, both militarily and financially, so i wouldnt change those.

 

i might however do away with vietnam and all US conflicts in the middle east

 

i'd also prevent slavery in the USA

See, changing one major event in history affects way too many things. The USA developed a lot of technology during the world wars and the cold war, but it came at the cost of hundreds of millions of lives. Who knows what might have happened if WWI didn't happen? Everything that happens after our changed event is pure speculation.

[Delete This Account]

wouldn't have read this thread. ...

 

jw

[Fan in San Diego]

Mohammed would have been treated as a martyr and the religion would still have flourished. And sombody already beat you to Jesus, so that wouldn't make a difference.

 

If there was no WWII, the U.S. would never had become, or would have delayed in becoming, the economic and military superpower we became. An alternative would have been to go along with Patton and integrate the regular German army into pushing back the Russians out of Eastern Europe, which could have prevented the Cold War and proxy wars we were involved in after. But would the cost of more soldier's lives been worth it? Or at the very least have a healthy and strong FDR who could have forced a better deal with Stalin.

 

How about protecting John Kennedy so he was never assassinated. I would have liked to have seen how events turned out if he had continued as president.

 

Not if you kill the mother before he is born.

[tennesseeboy]

An interesting question to be sure. However, the ramifications of affecting history is too great. I would rather do the following:

 

1. Visit Giordano Bruno the night before his execution and tell him that, even though he will die in the morning, he was right about the stars.

 

2. have a chat with Galileo regarding what we know about planetary physics.

 

3. Give Leonardo a ride in an airplane.

 

4. Tell Kepler to give up the whole regular solids system for planetary motion.

Didn't Leonardo star in "The Aviator"? If so he had a ride in an airplane.

[Chef Jim]

I would like to go back to the very very beginning of the world's existence, the very first moments, just to see what it looked like and what was going on

 

So would I but while I was there I'd tell God to put Buffalo in a warmer area. I might still be living near my family.

[Chef Jim]

You're a towel.

 

Towelie, you're the worst character ever.