The Nov 12-13 Leonids meteor shower of 1833, which was said to have been measured in excess of 100,000 meteors viewed per hour (about 27+ per second). This obviously was profound to basically everyone alive at the time who could see it (it wasn’t visible in Europe), and honestly it just sounds cool. I wanna see the insane space fireworks!

Oh that's easy - the Zanclean flood.

What is now the Mediterranean sea used to be a land mass full of grass fields. A few million years ago, the Strait of Gibraltar gave way and hundreds of millions of cubic feet of water poured in. It's debated how long it took to fill up the Mediterranean. Could've been weeks, could've been decades. But for whatever period it was, it'd be nuts to sit there and watch it all unfold.

I just want to walk around the city of Ur, go to the market, eat some food, maybe buy some low quality copper

Mitch McConnell's death. Just to settle this once and for all.

Watching Hitler killing Hitler.

I just want to see dinosaurs

OG Woodstock easily

If I could do it from a safe spot in space - the Theia impact that formed the Moon.

After watching a video about this last week I would pick man first arriving in Australia. the animals that existed there way back then make the stuff that's in Australia today look tame. I just want to see the faces on these early humans when they realize how fucked they are. Giant Komodo Dragons, Giant Koalas, Giant Snakes, a damn Crocodile that could run on land. It's amazing any of them survived.

Not really historical event but, I'd be really curious to travel back to see my distant relatives, and what they were like, their personalities and quirks, likes and dislikes, their styles of humour. See their faces in 3d. Start with my great great grandparents and skip down the line as far as I can go. Actually, I'd love to see my nan again one more time, can I start there?

Blackbeard burying his treasure.

I'm good, I got plenty of historical events at home.

EDIT nevermind I thought of a good one. I want to go to right before the Permian extinction and check out all the wildlife.

The grand opening of the Roman Colosseum.

The Tunguska Event

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg?wprov=sfti1

In 1561 a space battle happened in broad daylight (edit: dawn actually) over Nuremberg, so I think I'd like to see that, assuming I could come back just after, 1561 would be a shit time to live

Edit- link, other linked wiki articles in the link are worth reading as well.

is it just viewing? am I safe from harm? is there automatic translation?

The first “human” artwork. We will never know what it was or what medium it was in (cave painting? sculpture of some kind?¿?) but my personal belief is that moment is when we started being the humans we would eventually become and it would be so interesting to see what the first person came up with to express their thoughts.

It was likely a handprint in a cave but still.

This is monstrous, but the first Europeans going to Western Africa to enslave people. It must have been clumsy, awkward, brutal, violent, and coercive. In short, one of humanity's most callous, idiotic moves.

If I could interact (using modern tech), I'd sink every one of those ships with mines and drones. I'd monitor boats from space. I'd send a few of the slavers back knowing — and telling — only that enslavement will destroy them and Africa is not theirs to exploit.

The rest who survive would be taken care of, taught the strengths of diversity, other cultures, and West African ways of living. They would be the welcome wagon for any Europeans to return. Their tasks: stave off invasion, disrupt slaving activity, open negotiations with Europe. Undo the scourge of that institution and the attendant supremacy that followed.

Then, I'd set the same protections for the Americas. Unfortunately, Asia is accessible over land and contact predates my selected moment.

IDGAF if — as consequence — it sets human development back by 400 years of labour, resource exploitation, and "progress". It's worth it.

I'd stop the supreme Court from giving the presidency to W Bush. I try not to think about what a timeline where we actually do something about climate change would look like, it's just too depressing.

Al Gore is an asshole and a neoliberal but I think he actually would've done something about climate change. I also don't think Osama Bin Laden would've gone through with 9/11 without a Republican in the White House.

Edit: upon further inspection, the title says OBSERVE a historical event. Oops.

I'd go back to 5 years before the sacking of the Library of Alexandria so I could check out what's in there before it all goes up in flames. My time travel would also give me the automatic ability to read and understand all of the languages and dialects that were used.

No restrictions? Big bang starting from, say, an hour before.

The Continental Army taking over the airports from the British during the American Revolutionary War in the 1770s.

/s

Boston Molasses Incident.

BMW 1992, to prevent the invention of Xenon HID Headlights. 😈

It would depend on the kind of time travel machine it is. Am I physically there, like most fiction or is it just a "time telescope" like the film Payday?

If it was just remotely viewing, I'd check out a lot more stuff like the meteor that killed the dinosaurs and other stuff I wouldn't wanna see if it meant putting myself in danger.

Can I choose the moon landing, but from the moon?

The day of my birth. I'd like to know what my family was like before I was there. What my brother and sisters said about me. How my dad reacted, etc.

Dinosaur's and theirbextinction. Was it a meteorite? Did volcanoes erupt? Etc. from the theory confirmed :)

Something smaller. I would like to go with my mom to see Elvis in a high school basketball gym.

I'd hang out with Leonardo Da Vinci in his studio.

Not a historical moment, but I would visit my favourite Author and thank him for the books he wrote.

I'd like to see the earth as it was before the Great Oxidation Event, especially if there were any cool pre-oxygen lifeforms.

The actual, living person that was Jesus Christ, performing one of his reported miracles. I'm leaning towards him walking on water or multiplying the bread and fish.

Literally any White Stripes concert.

I'd love to spend some time visiting the world of my youth, just to experience again the world before the internet. ThenI'd go back a hundred years to see what the house I live in looked like back then, as well as the neighborhood and town around it, and other places I'm familiar with. And maybe continue stepping back in 50 year increments...

I'd also love to go back and visit favorite clubs and restaurants that don't exist anymore.

jfk behind the fence on the embankment

Do I have to actually know what it is? I'd want to see the peak of the first human civilization.

I wanna help tear down the Berlin wall

I'd like to see how the pyramids were actually built, and by whom. Shit, I'd help for a while if they'd feed me.

probably to see that supernova or something was easily visible from earth and there were like tapestries of it & stuff, sounds cool to see & I'm sad I wasn't alive to see it. I'm not even sure if it was real or not now.

I assume view means I can't interfere and no one knows I'm there.

The Practical: Pro Sports locker room strategy talks. Might improve my odds.

The Philosophical: Follow around Siddhartha just before he became enlightened.

The Whimsical: The Mayor of Rotenburg, Germany out-drinking the leader of the army that had them under siege, thus sending them home as losers, sparing bloodshed on both sides, while himself dying of alcohol poisoning shortly after.

the inception of our universe.

with any luck the portal will trigger a causality loop that will rip our entire existence apart so quickly that we won't even have an opportunity to understand that we no longer exist.

quick and painless way to make all the stupid go away.

Depends it is to view without the problem of being seen and interacted? Basically as an invisible ghost?
And not counting the language barrier?

It would be interesting to see many magical moments from every mythology.
To see the actual rulers in Egypt and how they built the pyramids.
Or visit any other wonder's of ancient world. The library of Alexandria!
There is also that tomb in China that supposedly floats on quicksilver.

But if I want to be more realistic with useful info I would try to see some CIA / KGB briefings - or even the outcome of the Manhattan project, how it went down. How did they realize what they did. (Tho Teller Ede was seemingly totally fine with his work based on how he interacted in early 2000s).
We could visit some NorthKorean bigwig powwows also, or even Lenin first ideology part.

Himiko's Japan would be neat. I wonder how much I could understand due to both dialect and how old japanese was structured compared to today.

Rapa Nui at it's peak

If I choose the Moon landing, do I get to watch it from the Moon? Because that sounds pretty fun.

This is harder than picking a favourite movie or song! I think I'd like to listen to the Sermon on the Mount IRL, or be present (with binoculars and from a safe distance) for the Battle of Badr or the conquest of Mecca. ✌️

The first wolf being tamed.

Maybe a before and after of pompeii.

Woodstock

Dinosaurs

Probably to the moment the first land creature came to be. Just so I could kill it.

The day the music died.

The Kool Aid event

Children's crusade

The dancing plague

Anything that involves mass psychosis

The very moment it was decided tu put skulls on nazis' caps, making them the baddies.

Watching the whole Artimis mission this year made me think back and imagine how following the Apollo 13 rescue would have been like

Anything the government wiped from our memory

some good options already posted:

the pyramids being built

the big bang

to that i'll add:

watching a t-rex and seeing what that thing actually looked like and how it hunted (this one is kind of stretching the rules a bit)

Jesus Christ when he was alive in his prime years. I want to see him turn water into wine. This would answer if he was actually real and if he really did that. (spoiler I believe he did but it would be interesting to see).

I would love to see the building of Machu Picchu

This is all assuming that I am able to view without affecting history in any way shape or form and am able to survive the experience (with my sanity intact)