Time travel dreams have haunted humanity since ancient times. The opportunity to see with our own eyes the events that changed history or correct a fatal mistake committed many years ago haunted the best minds of different eras. Science still does not know whether it is possible to move to the past or the future, but despite this, there are always people who claim that they succeeded.
It is difficult even to imagine how the “wheel of history” would work if a person could rotate it at his own discretion. Help young Adolf Hitler to enter an art school? You are welcome! Turn the helm of the Titanic a few minutes before the disaster? Easy! To see if the politician keeps his long-term promises … No, this is too much.
Scientists have long felt at home in the space-time continuum, but everyone knows very well that their travels in different eras are just a dream. We will introduce you to several characters who insisted that they were able to make a time transition, while they all used different methods of movement.
1. Father Pelligrino Ernetti
As a Benedictine monk, Ernetti could not boast of a vibrant, busy life. Living in a monastery on the island of San Giorgio, he whiled away the time doing exorcism and reading esoteric books. But the holy father also had an unusual hobby - in his free time from services and psalms, in his cramped cell, he constructed a not entirely godly device, which he gave the name chronovisor.
The goal pursued by the monk was rather mercantile - he was eager to attend the premiere of the play "Trieste", for which he was late for a good 2 millennia. The performance was staged in ancient Rome in 169 BC, and it was a stunning success with contemporaries.
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The work took almost 40 years and, according to Pelligrino, was a success. A friend of the monk-inventor, the priest François Brune, was introduced to the triumph. The Holy Father vividly described in his book how he was present at the crucifixion of Jesus with the help of the chronovisor and applauded the speeches of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Brune's book is titled "The Chrono Projector - The New Secret of the Vatican," and it can be considered a classic example of Catholic fiction or the notes of a time traveler - as you please. The most interesting thing is that the clergy presented in 1972 proof of their travels into the past - strange low quality photographs, which allegedly showed Jesus in the last moments of his life.
2. Billy Meyer
Smiling, Santa-like Swiss Billy Meyer himself did not travel in time, but, as they say, he knew one guy who did it more than once. The man assures that from early childhood he communicates with alien guests arriving to Earth from the Pleiades constellation, who treated him like his own son.
Guests from outer space willingly told Billy about their travels to the future and the past, and also willingly warned about wars and disasters, however, they did not quite accurately name the date. According to the Swiss, the Third World War should have started in 2006, then in 2008 and finally in 2010.
In addition to valuable information for humanity, Meyer more than once presented photographs of his friends from another Galaxy, interesting but not very convincing.
3. Eleanor Jourdain and Charlotte Anne Moberly
Two teachers from Paris did without complicated equipment and alien races - they just went for a walk to Versailles, got lost in its dense squares and came out of the bushes not in 1901, but in 1792.
According to the ladies, they saw with their own eyes Marie Antoinette, having fun drawing in front of her palace. Events took place on the eve of the revolution, the residence was restless, and Eleanor and Ann decided to return to their 20th century.
Upon arriving home, the teachers engaged in literary activity and soon published an autobiographical story with an unpretentious title "Adventure". The critics did not particularly like the opus, and they made the women laugh. As it turned out, the descriptions of Versailles of the 18th century in the book were not at all convincing, and the fact that two centuries ago the palace gardens looked different, Anne and Eleanor obviously did not know.
4. John Tythor
A person with an extremely confusing, almost detective biography and, again, no real proof of his words. John showed up on English-language Internet forums in 2000 and entertained their visitors with stories of his arrival from the distant year 2036. Tytor claimed that he was heading to 1975 to get hold of a rare in the future personal computer IBM 5100, capable of saving humanity from a devastating computer virus.
When the young man was asked what made him stop in 2000, he replied that he had come to visit his relatives, whom he had warned about the impending nuclear war between the United States and Russia. In general, John Titor's behavior was very peculiar, but since no one saw the hero live, many suspected him of an Internet troll.
5. Bob White
Another virtual character who has shown himself only on the net. In 2003, strange spam began to appear in the e-mails of users around the world. Someone Bob White asked for help in creating an incomprehensible device, which he characterized as a dimensional deformation module with an induction motor and a generator set.
In his long messages, Bob described a very unusual theory of time travel and the benefits that humanity will receive from the introduction of his machine. The story ended with the genius announcing a meeting of like-minded people in one of the small towns of Massachusetts on July 9, 2003. As expected, except for a few curious people, no one showed up for the meeting, and users did not receive more letters from White.
6. Victor Goddard
Air Force Marshal Sir Victor Goddard was haunted by temporary anomalies. He first encountered time travel in 1935 during a biplane training flight. Goddard's plane got into a zone of turbulence and, trying to level the aircraft, the marshal saw an airfield below, which had been abandoned for many years.
To the officer's surprise, planes were parked in the parking lots and at the hangars, and people in strange blue uniforms scurried around them. Who else but the Air Marshal should know that the airfield is not working, and the color of the uniform of the entire flight personnel of the Kingdom is brown? Four years later, Victor was surprised once again when exactly blue was adopted for the new pilot's uniform.
In 1975, while retiring, Goddard discovered in a group photograph of 1919 from the funeral of one of the pilots, the hero of the occasion himself, who, as if nothing had happened, wandered around among his colleagues in the air regiment and looked cheerful and rested. According to the old soldier, the picture could not be a fake, as it is the official photo chronicle of those years.
7. J. Bernard Hutton and Joachim Brandt
Journalists of one of the popular German newspapers, sent to cover an event in the Hamburg shipyards, returned from their trip extremely excited. According to them, as soon as they started work, the sky over the port city was filled with ominously roaring bombers and hundreds of bombs fell on the ground. With a camera with them, reporters even filmed the attack and its aftermath on film.
Alas, after the development of the photographic material, it turned out that all the frames were empty, as if they were listening with a camera with a closed lens cover. The journalists were strongly persuaded and advised to be careful with alcohol on work trips.
After only 11 years, a strange incident was recalled when the Allies dropped more than 600 bombs on Hamburg, from which 40 thousand people died.
There are several dozen stories similar to those described. Unfortunately, not a single traveler in time has yet presented plausible evidence for his story, and the question of their veracity, as well as the author's adequacy, remains open.