Solve History Mystery thru Time Travel
 

If you had the opportunity to travel in time for the singular reason to solve one of history's mysteries, which one would you want to solve? The only condition is that you cannot influence the past in any way. In other words you can do nothing but observe as if watching a movie, but you could return to the present with any new information. You could even take a recording device.

To get your mind simmering on the question, here are some possibilities:
[LIST][*]What happened to Agatha Christie when she disappeared for 11 days in 1926?[*]Did Lee Harvey Oswald work alone to assassinate JFK?[*]Who was Jack the Ripper?[*]Which came first, the chicken or the egg? :smile:[/LIST]
Knowing people on this forum, I'm certain that there are many other mysteries that they would like to solve. Unfortunately you only get to choose to solve one.

What happened in the first second?

[QUOTE=Nick;565463]What happened in the first second?[/QUOTE]
What happened 19 seconds before that?

[QUOTE=rogue;565447]Which came first, the chicken or the egg? :smile:[/QUOTE]That one is already known, with one serious answer and one not so serious. In reverse order:

The rooster.

The egg. It was laid by something which carried one or more mutations from non-chicken parents.

[QUOTE=rogue;565447]If you had the opportunity to travel in time for the singular reason to solve one of history's mysteries, which one would you want to solve? The only condition is that you cannot influence the past in any way. In other words you can do nothing but observe as if watching a movie, but you could return to the present with any new information. You could even take a recording device.

To get your mind simmering on the question, here are some possibilities:
<snip, snip>[LIST][*]Did Lee Harvey Oswald work alone to assassinate JFK?[*]Who was Jack the Ripper?[/LIST]<snip>[/quote]
There's no mystery (at least to me) about whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The real mystery is, "Why do people believe conspiratorialist hogwash?" But that's not a historical mystery.

I like "Who was Jack the Ripper?"

Other favorites:[list][*]Whatever became of the Ark of the Covenant?[*]What were the true circumstances of the arrest, trial, crucifixion, and interment of Jesus of Nazareth?[*]Where was Genghis Khan buried?[*]Whatever became of Edward V and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury after they went into the Tower of London in 1483?[*]Whatever became of Ambrose Bierce?[*]Whatever became of Jimmy Hoffa?[/list]

[QUOTE=a1call;565465]What happened 19 seconds before that?[/QUOTE]
I would like to change my question to:
What happened 20 seconds before that?

Why did ship X sink?
Did person Y actually do Z?
What happened to person W?
What caused event V?

A modern history issue:
Who / where exactly was case Zero of COVID-19?

I vote with Retina about the fate of the Ark of the Covenant but I also want to know what it was & how it worked

[QUOTE=rogue;565447]The only condition is that you cannot influence the past in any way.[/QUOTE]
The best part is that you cannot make new enemies in this case.

"Lost Lands: Mistakes of the Past" -> a puzzle solving mystery game includes the story with the "Time Hexagon" machine which allows the adventurers to travel back to the past, then find out what has happened that indeed caused the disaster during the present time, but if the adventurer boldly tried to alter the past, it could result in a brand new alternative present time making the hero unable to reach his/her friends nearly forever.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;565471]Why did ship X sink?
Who / where exactly was case Zero of COVID-19?[/QUOTE]
The original correct answer which is unknown now will likely be written in Chinese, thus the mystery solver has to learn Chinese to be exactly accurate. I prefer to know the answer in its original form. Any time when the language translations occurred, personal opinions can be added into it, the pronunciations may have altered a bit in the new language.

Rounding errors can occur for the fractions when convert numbers into or from other math bases. Original form(base) must be known to solve the mystery.

@Lost-Land it world be similar to playing chess with a computer like Deep-Blue where you are allowed to take back as many moves you'd like and change your move. Chances are you're still gonna lose.:smile:
The difference being universe is slightly more complex than a chess game.
Butterfly-Effect is a concept where the slightest initial conditions' alteration will result in a completely different outcome in a simulation program.

[url]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect[/url]

Some other possibilities:
[LIST][*]What really happened at the Dyatlov Pass Incident?[*]What is buried on Oak Island?[*]What happened to the Templar treasure?[*]What happened to the French crown jewels?[*]Who is DB Cooper?[*]Where is the Amber Room?[*]What killed Alexander the Great?[/LIST]
Given that the condition is that you can only choose one makes it much harder.