What historical figures would you like to meet?

[Cyndi]

I thought I'd ask this for fun. If you could meet any historical figures, living or dead, who would you choose?

Mine are:

Jesus Christ
Mary(the Virgin Mother)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Stephen Hawking
Albert Einstein
Isaac Newton
Galileo
Mother Theresa
Princess Diana
Helen Keller
Pope John Paul II
Leonardo Da Vinci
Edgar Allen Poe
Michelangelo

[NEDESAPIO]

My top two are

1.  Joseph Merrick (a.k.a. The Elephant Man), 1862-1890
2.  Anne Frank, 1929-1945

[IndianInlaw]

Hopefully, we'll all get to meet Jesus some day.

In the meantime, I'd like to meet:

Princess Diana

Captain Kangaroo (to thank him for reading to me as a child)

Earl Proulx (Of Yankee Magazine fame)

Jim Crockett (Crockett's Victory Garden)

Audrey Hepburn

Harriet Tubman (She was illiterate and brilliant)

Samantha Brown (Of the Travel Channel)




I'll think of more later.

[Cyndi]

Hey, IndianinLaw! Did you know there's speculation that Mozart may have been an Aspie? Some say Tourette's, but when I look at how his music is set up(he repeats patterns a LOT), I lean towards him being autistic.

[StaciNadia]

Socrates (but he might not let me philosophize with him because I'm a woman  )

Princess Diana

Can't really think of more...

[Lisbeth]

Right now, there are two:
1) Queen Elizabeth I
2) Jane Austen

[Pixie]

Mary, Queen of Scots

Thomas Jefferson

Sitting Bull

and I would love to slap the snot out of Hitler.

[HogwartsAlum]

...and I would love to slap the snot out of Hitler.

ROTFLMAO!!! Oh that was too funny! 
You can slap him after I'm done kicking him with my skates on!

I think I would like to meet: (not in order)
LIVING
1. Ennio Morricone
2. Ray Bradbury
3. JK Rowling
4. Stephen King
5. Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs" (he's my future husband, don't ya know)
I can't think of anyone from politics or anything like that that I care about.

DEAD
1. Pope John Paul II
2. Vincent Price
3. Abraham Lincoln
4. Anne Frank
5. Ludwig van Beethoven
6. Elvis Presley
7. William Shakespeare

I can't think of any more right now, but I'm sure I will.
GREAT topic, Cyndi! 

[Sharnita]

Shakespeare
Truman
Churchill
Lincoln
Twain
John Adams
Abigail Adams
Theodore Roosevelt
Jesus' disciples

[Lunadiana75]

Bodaecia (many spellings)
Eleanor Roosevelt
Margaret Sanger
Oscar Wilde
Maya Angelou
Harriet Tubman (as well)
Edgar Allen Poe (as well)
Katherine Hepburn
Any Woman who worked in the factories or served in the WAC(S), WASP, or Army Corps of nurses during WWII, they are all historical figures to me (gave a lecture on it here in Romania to HS students)
Ed Wood (just for his sheer unfailing optimism)
Bruce Lee
Margaret Atwood
Joni Mitchell
Betty Friedan
Joan Baez

Wow, I could really keep going...

[DottyG]

My top two are

1.  Joseph Merrick (a.k.a. The Elephant Man), 1862-1890

I caught the tailend of the movie about him last night.  I'd been wanting to see it for a while now.

I've read a lot about him over the years.  And, I even saw a documentary on him by a surgeon who showed what they might have been able to do had he lived today - he would have been a fairly handsome man.  Merrick was a gentle, sweet person who did not deserve the treatment he got from people.   And, he was very intelligent.

[Rose2Bear]

What a great question!

1. Stuart Sutcliffe (original member of the Beatles)
2. John Lennon
3. George Harrison (can you tell I like the Beatles?
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (maybe we can arrange a dual meeting, Cyndi! Do you like the movie?)
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. F. Scott Fitzgerald

[NEDESAPIO]

Dottyg:  I'm very glad to meet another admirer of J.C. Merrick, and I'm glad you got to see the ending of The Elephant Man (very moving, wasn't it?) and would definitely recommend you watch the whole movie when you get a chance.

I've known about Mr. Merrick's life since I was 17 years old and have always wished I could meet him.  By all accounts he was a very kind, gentle, and refined person (I always think that with his good manners he'd make everyone on this site proud!) and as you say he was extremely well-read (his afffliction was not mental but physical); he was literate when most people of his social class were not.  In short, he was a real English gentleman in spite of his rather grotesque appearance (which, by the way, has never horrified me as much as it seems to horrify some people). 

I'd recommend the website devoted to his memory, which serves mainly as a virtual gravesite and is very educational too.  The best way to reach it is to link to it from the Wikipedia entry on Joseph Merrick.     

[Clara Bow]

Queen Elizabeth the First
William Wallace
Rob Roy
The Little Princes (I want to know who did it!)
Richard the Third (ditto)
Gloria Steinem
Susan Faludi
Susan B. Anthony
Queen Victoria
Joan Baez
Bob Dylan
Janis Joplin
Phil Ochs
John B Sebastian (Rainbows All Over Your Blues is one of my all time favorites)
Lizzie Borden (I want to know who did it!)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Clara Barton
Marilyn Monroe (I want to know if she committed suicide)
There are a million others....

[Shoo]

Jesus.  I've got lots and lots of questions for that man.