History buffs already know this, so maybe it should go without saying…but there’s a whole lot of history behind us.
When we’re looking at these historical events, some might feel a little weird…almost like they’re foreshadowing the future.
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We’re not saying this stuff is proof of time travelers, but the r/AskReddit thread, “What historical event reads like a time traveler went back in time to alter history?” provides some interesting grist for the mill.
Everything Leonardo Da Vinci did.
“He designed the [tank’s] gearbox backwards to make any real version’s wheels lock up and fail. He also designed a 12-barrel gun carriage, which is basically the machine gun on steroids, the early parachute, the double hull, the use of concentrated solar power, and a calculator.
“The man was several centuries ahead of his time.”
Barbarossa trips and falls.
“Emperor Barbarossa amassing a colossal Crusader army of HRE troops for the crusades and beginning to march towards the holy land, then slipping off his horse and drowning, at which point the entire 100,000 strong force turned around and went home.”
Einstein’s theories.
“Albert Einstein for sure. Man fleshed out theory’s that provided several pillars of physics that can’t be disproven today, despite many tries. As we learn more, we just see how right he was. How did he understand and predict things 120+ years later?”
Steam power goes way back.
“Sometime between 200BC – 100 AD. the Ancient Greeks had invented a [ sic ] early prototype steam engine (Aeolipile). But they really didn’t give it much further thought.
“The Ancient Greeks were clever, but somehow, no one seemed to realize the potential of this invention. It never developed beyond being more than just a curiosity.”
The fateful binoculars.
“Not many people know this, but one of the lookouts on the Titanic accidentally left his binoculars behind before the voyage, and some theorize that could be the reason he couldn’t have seen the iceberg in time. A time traveller 100% could’ve sabotaged the binoculars somehow.”
Who was Diadotus?
“When the Athenians voted to execute a large group of war prisoners during the Peloponnesian wars, many of those prisoners women and children, an entire city, a man whom nobody knew or heard of took the stage.
“His name was Diadotus, literally ‘gift of god’. He persuaded the Athenian people to reverse their decision, which they did. Before the messenger reached the soldiers to order them to kill the prisoners, another messenger had reached them in time to inform the commander that the Athenians had changed their mind and let them live.”
– u/LDM123
The battle that changed the course of WWII.
“I’d say the Battle of Midway. The major turning point in the naval war in the Pacific. The battle destroyed the single most powerful naval strike force in history and shifted the balance of power to the US.
“The actual course of events during the Battle of Midway was a series of near misses for the US until, conveniently, two separate air strike forces arrived at the same time to decimate 3 out of 4 Japanese aircraft carriers. Absolutely amazing providence.”
The lieutenant who saved the world.
“Stanislav Petrov was a Soviet lieutenant known as ‘the man who saved the world.’ Tensions were riding between the Soviet Union and the United States, so on the 26th of September in 1983, he was on duty for a nuclear early-warning system.
“The system detected multiple missiles launched by the United States, but Petrov broke protocol, following his instincts by choosing not to report the danger to his higher-ups.
“The missiles turned out to be a false alarm, as he had thought, and, as Petrov’s title suggests, he very well may have saved the world that day.”
A foundational dream.
“Mendeleev, who created the periodic table, was struggling to order the elements in a specific order/pattern. He then was able to order them like we see today after having a ‘dream’ where all the elements fell into place, even leaving gaps for elements that hadn’t yet been discovered.”
Can’t dodge the Civil War.
“The American Civil Wars first real battle was at Bull Run on land belonging to a Mr. McLean. After that he said ‘Screw this, Ima move to the country and avoid this war.’ He moved to Appomattox Courthouse, VA where Lee surrendered to Grant…in the McLean’s living room.”
– u/rgrtom
Dostoyevsky escapes the firing squad.
“The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky was sentenced to death by firing squad and just as they were preparing the groups to be shot, a messenger came with a letter from the Tsar ‘forgiving’ them and the sentence was changed to prison labor. He later went on to write some of the most influential novels of all time.”
Tesla bringing power generation into the 21st Century.
“Tesla’s AC Polyphase System. One minute, we’re in the stone age of electrical distribution, and the next, Buffalo, NY is being powered by the Alternating Current being generated at Niagara Falls by Telsa’s genius system.”
Andrew Jackson’s failed assassination.
“When Andrew Jackson’s assassin attempted to shoot him, both of his flint lock pistols misfired. Andrew Jackson had to be restrained after almost beating the assassin to death with his cane.
“The two flintlocks were examined after the incident and found to be in good condition.”
Eli Whitney’s arc.
“Eli Whitney, the guy who invented the cotton gin, helped cement cotton as a major cash-crop which drove even further demand for slaves. He, infamously, made no money off the development, as it was a simple and easily-copied machine, but cotton helped drive the economic growth of the South.
“Frustrated, he eventually abandoned efforts to profit off it and went into the industrial world, where he was a small contributor to the development of higher-precision machining and design (particularly for firearms).
“This in turn helped drive the growth of industry in the North, which was a major factor in giving the North the might and materiel to defeat the South.”
– u/SPOOFE
The tornado that pushed the British out of Washington.
“During the war of 1812, seems like a time traveler with weather control capabilities started a freak tornado that effectively ended the British occupation of Washington.
“More British soldiers were killed by the tornado’s flying debris than by the guns of the American resistance.”
How minesweepers came to be.
“The Germans spent a lot of time and money developing a magnetic sea mine that probably would have significantly reduced England’s ability to stay in the war, except they dropped a single one of the mines accidentally on an English beach, and also failed to arm it so none of the booby traps were active and the British basically found out straight away how it worked and we’re able to cheaply build magnetic mine sweepers.”
Fidel Castro escaping assassination.
“Every single assassination attempt failed, sometimes because of wildly miscellaneous circumstances, including a sabotaged diving suit that somehow got ‘miraculously switched’ with someone else, who ended up drowning in his place.
“Dude holds the world record for over 600 attempts, I believe.”
Tokyo subway cyanide gas attack.
“20,000 people could have died but a worker found a burning gas bag in a toilet just before it mixed with another poisonous another gas bag – just in time – and put them out.
“That was in Shinjuku station. I was in that station that day, and that person might have saved my life.”
Edgar Allen Poe’s story.
“Basically, Poe writes about four people who are starving at sea, draw straws, and kill and eat the loser, cabin boy Richard Parker. 40 odd years later four people are adrift at sea in a lifeboat, one drinks seawater and goes into a coma.
“When they draw straws for who will be eaten, the coma guy gets the short straw in a development that surprises no one. And so the three other men kill and eat [him]. Richard Parker. Seriously.”
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
“Somebody throws a grenade at his car, and it blows up behind him. That’s the first incident of time travel, stopping the assassination.
“Later, as he goes back, the driver realizes that he’s on the same route where the grenade was thrown, and they try to turn around.
“The whole procession of cars stalls, and a guy who just happened to be sitting there, goes over and shoots him. That’s a second time traveler, fixing what the first had done.”
