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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Churchill tops time travel list

From the BBC

Sunday, 2 April 2006

Winston Churchill is the historical figure people would most like to travel back in time to meet, a poll suggests. Elvis Presley is second behind Britain's World War II leader. Physicist Albert Einstein is the third favourite, the poll for the magazine Doctor Who Adventures found. Screen legend Marilyn Monroe is fourth. The poll of 1,000 people also finds the Swinging Sixties, the era of The Beatles and the sexual revolution, is the period people most want to visit.

MOST POPULAR FIGURES

1 Winston Churchill 2 Elvis Presley 3 Albert Einstein 4 Marilyn Monroe 5 Martin Luther King

Source: Doctor Who Adventures magazine.

Indian independence leader Mahatma Ghandi came sixth in the list, followed by the late Princess Diana. Former South African president and human rights activist Nelson Mandela takes eighth place - despite still being alive. Isaac Newton, the British scientist who first formulated the laws of gravity, is joint ninth with Elizabeth I and Beatle John Lennon. The year 2006 was the second-most popular period people wanted to experience, with the Victorian era third and 1966, the year of England's victory at the World Cup, fourth.

[So, who would you like to meet or when would you like to visit? I always regret not seeing The Beatles play in their hometown despite living there at the time. I think being in Paris in 1968 would be ‘interesting’ too! As to people I’d like to meet… I guess that Darwin is far too obvious! I’d like to spend a few hours with Socrates, the Buddha, Che Guevara, and Napoleon…. To name but a few.]

4 comments:

Karlo said...

What's with all these people?! Nobody would like to go back to meet the Buddha or Zhuangzi?

CyberKitten said...

I'd certainly like to meet the Buddha..... But Princess Diana..... Please.........! [makes gagging sound]

Do you know she was in the Top 5 Best Britains of all Time... Right up there with Darwin for gosh sake.... [shakes head]

dbackdad said...

There are actually a few still living people that I'd like to meet ... most notably Stephen Hawking and Nelson Mandela. Historically, probably Nietzsche, though I'm well aware that would be an odd exchange.

Times that I'd like to visit: Europe during the Age of Reason and Enlightenment.

Karlo said...

Princess Diana! Pleeeeze don't get me started. From what I know, I would classify her as one of the most ordinary people on the planet--an ordinary person put into the limelight for a while. People's love for "the princess" shows just how much people yearn for the days of the monarchy when they didn't have to think for themselves.