It was on this day in 1875 that Captain Matthew Webb became the first person recorded to successfully swim the English Channel unaided.

Webb's feat was a carefully crafted bit of public showmanship. That the crossing had never been done and was thought impossible fueled the public's interest. The accomplishment made Webb famous and rich.

Hmm. Bold athletic achievements motivated by gambling? Instant and eternal fame? It sounds like this is just the sort of event that would inspire a certain time-traveling tourist we know.

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In the summer of 1984, Hollywood box offices were doing boffo business with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins drawing wide audiences. Those wide audiences happened to include many, many children under the age of 13 whose parents worried these films were too violent for their precious darlings. The Motion Picture Association of America responded swiftly. Thus, on this day in 1984, the PG-13 rating was born.

Since 1984, the PG-13 rating has become a necessity for summer movies seeking to draw in the most affluent and impressionable movie-goers (read: teenagers). Consequently, it has also become the go-to rating for super hero movies. If Booster Gold: The Movie had ever gotten off the ground in the 1980s, it would certainly have been rated PG-13.

Obviously, the emergence of the PG-13 rating was no accident. Steven Spielberg claims he originally suggested it. But which is really more likely: that a major media mogul who made millions on PG movies would want to shake things up, or that a self-centered time-traveler out to make his own big-budget bio-pic would be willing to manipulate the MPAA to introduce himself to the biggest audience?

(Say, doesn't that sound like it would make a great movie?)

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When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president, the United States was in a shambles. The Great Depression had hit the country hard, and something drastic had to be done to restore the economy before things got worse.

As part of his "New Deal," Roosevelt rushed to restore American's faith in their currency and ease the suffering. Among other measures, the new president encouraged Congress to inject more currency into circulation. To do this, he first had to uncouple the United States dollar from the value of gold.

The key event in this process took place on this day in 1933, when Congress passed the Gold Repeal Joint Resolution, legally substituting United States currency for all debts public and private. In other words, it suddenly became impossible to make payments in gold.

An unintended side effect of this measure was that it made it very difficult for certain time-traveling superheroes to barter their services for appropriate compensation.

Thankfully, Gerald Ford corrected this problem forty years later, paving the way for Booster Gold to return and reap the benefits of Ronald Reagan's "trickle-down" system in the 1980s.

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In 1962, the Chairman of the Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade was inspired to dye the Chicago River green after watching plumbers who used color-changing dye to detect leaks flowing into the river. At least, that's the official story.

Who's to say that the real story doesn't have anything to do with a time-displaced super villain obsessed with color? Certainly not the Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of.

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Overnight on February 24-25, 1942, the Axis powers attacked Los Angeles, California. Or at least the locals thought they did.

A Japanese submarine had attacked the United States mainland near Santa Barbara, California, the day before. Nervous that they might be next, Los Angeles civil defense forces panicked when inconclusive reports indicated that there might be enemy aircraft headed towards the city. L.A. was blacked out, and anti-aircraft flak filed the sky until dawn.

In the light of the following day, no one was sure what they had been shooting at during the "Battle of Los Angeles." There was no clear evidence of any aircraft, and not a single bomb had been dropped on the city. The Secretary of the Navy declared the entire event a false alarm.

Naturally, this has led to conspiracy theories about cover-ups and aliens. But no one has ever said anything about time travelers caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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