Major Historical Events.

[William51]

At work i had a book nearby i had been reading, about the battle of Trafalgar. A young man in the office asked if Trafalgar is in America and i was shocked. Am i expecting too much to expect the young to know the major stories of our history?.

[JimF]

I'm afraid you are, yes.

[Mamyalynne]

Perhaps, with the best will in the World, a very crowded National Curriculum cannot hope to touch on every historic happening in detail.

[Mamyalynne]

Could have been worse and he'd answered - London.

[royfromaus]

Lol..I thought everyone knew it was in London.

[naomi24]

It’s not just history. I was convinced one team on University Challenge recently has never even heard the word ‘geography’.

[mushroom25]

// London //

of course this was Battle of Trafalgar, innit?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/31/poll-tax-riots-25-years-ago-political-awakening-carnage-trafalgar-square

[Tilly2]

No major sea battles mentioned in this. No lists of Kings and Queens.
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/history/gcse/history-8145/specification-at-a-glance

Times have changed since you were at school.

[Buenchico]

People's lack of basic knowledge (historical or otherwise) can sometimes astound me.

For example, I was in a pub in Horsham and heard a young woman bemoaning to her male companion that people had laughed at her at work earlier that day. Someone had asked her if she knew France, to which she'd replied "Yes. I know that there's a place called Dover-Calais because I've seen ferries to it advertised on the sides of buses". So, despite living less than 100 miles from Dover, she was unaware that it's a British port and thought that she 'knew' France because she's heard of a (non-existent) town there!

However I have to admit that my knowledge of history isn't that great. I certainly couldn't place all English monarchs in order and I've no real idea (or inclination to find out) which were Tudors, Plantagenets or whatever.

Trafalgar? Isn't that where King Henry the Fifth offered his kingdom for a horse in a battle against Napoleon (who'd crossed the Alps with elephants), while wearing a balaclava and a cardigan, before getting an arrow in his eye?

[Buenchico]

PS: This thread has reminded me of one I posted, 8 years ago, where I asked how many people here are qualified to (the proposed, but then abandoned) English Baccalaureate level:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterBank/Question1214661.html

Only a minority could say that they met the required standard (and I wasn't one of them!).

[ichkeria]

Trafalgar: central London, as others have pointed out :-)

In fairness how many I wonder know where it is.
I was surprised no one on a University Challenge team last week knew where Senlac Ridge was

[Barsel]

It's not that you are expecting too much from the young, you are probably expecting too much from everyone.
Just because you know about Trafalgar doesn't mean to say everybody does.
We didn't all go to a good school and get a good education or even teach ourselves things if we weren't interested in them.
I didn't know the battle of Peterloo happened in Manchester and I was born and bred there.
(Not at the time of the battle I hasten to add.)
It wasn't until I saw a film on the TV that I found out about it.

[eleanor2]

I suppose not many young people are interested in history William, they're too busy living in the present.

[jno]

indeed, give many people my (old) age a map and a pin and I wouldn't expect more than 1% to stick it in the right place, so no need to grumble about the young.

[Buenchico]

>>> I didn't know the battle of Peterloo happened in Manchester and I was born and bred there

A few years ago, I was supervising a team of staff working on a travel survey in central London. They were all British-Asian Londoners, who'd all been brought up in our capital city. We were based immediately alongside The Monument and one of them asked me if I knew what it was, as he had no idea. It turned out that not one of them had heard of the Great Fire of London!

[Buenchico]

A perfectly correct answer to "Where is Trafalgar?" would, of course, be "immediately south of FitzRoy" but I wonder how many people know who FitzRoy was?

[jno]

see if you can find anyone in Barnet who's ever heard of the Battle of Barnet, let alone where it happened.

[david small]

Fitzroy, Charlie Darwin’s mate.

[DTCwordfan]

Fitztightly was his nickname, the same as Private Eye use for the Duke of Cornwall's valet.

[webbo3]

mamyalynne @18:51

\\Perhaps, with the best will in the World, a very crowded National Curriculum cannot hope to touch on every historic happening in detail///

Maybe not, the important British ones.

[Buenchico]

You're relegated FitzRoy in the naval ranks, David! (He was most definitely a captain, not a mate).
;-)

I got my journalism qualification from Barnet College, Jno, but I have to admit to never having heard of (or possibly simply forgetting about) the Battle of Barnet. If you'd have asked me about the importance of Hadley Green in British history, I'd probably have guessed that he appeared on stage as a supporting actor to Henry Irving ;-)