30 Historical Memory Pegs

Building a Framework for Historical Knowledge

One of the goals of the classical Christian educator is to develop in the mind of his or her students a sense of the depth of history. Many students struggle with the idea of how old the world is and when a given event happened in relation to their own place in time and space. This shouldn’t really surprise us when we stop and reflect upon the fact that our students have been in this world for less than two decades (perhaps less than one if you are a grammar school teacher!). If you aren’t careful you might teach a unit on the American Civil War and leave your students wondering whether you fought for the North or the South!

One of the most effective ways to begin building historical depth in student’s minds is to have them memorize a timeline with specific events and their dates. Once you have done that then you can simply ask students to think about how many years they have been alive and then multiply that by however many times it would take to get back to a given event. If you are considering, for instance, World War II and you are teaching a group of 13 year olds then you might tell them something like the following:

“World War II ended in 1945. The year is currently 2022. Subtract 1945 from 2022 and you get 77. World War II ended 77 years ago. You are 13 years old. How many times would you have to live your life over again to reach WWII? The answer is, rounding to the nearest, 6 times. It would be 7 times if you want to be old enough to really remember WWII was going on in your lifetime. You would need to be in your mid 90’s to really remember living through WWII.”

Of course, in the grand scheme of history WWII is fairly recent. You can also take some other examples such as The Protestant Reformation (1517 A.D.), or The Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.), or you can go way back to something like the Call of Abraham (2091 B.C.). Now if you do the math with your student they will see that it takes a lot of 13 year old lives to reach back to those dates! That realization can help your students begin to gain a sense of historical depth.

I have developed a timeline with 30 Historical Memory Pegs along with the dates of each event. These 30 events span across time from the Creation Event to World War II. These events serve as an anchor point in time which creates a historical framework into which all other historical knowledge can be placed in reference. That is to say, we teach many more things of historic importance than just these 30 but by memorizing these 30 students can automatically understand where any given historical information fits into the world’s story.

Here are the 30 Historical Memory Pegs divided into three historical periods. The link will take you to a Google Slides presentation with just a little bit of information on each event:

Creation to Incarnation

1. The Creation Event (In the Beginning)

2. The Call of Abraham (2091 B.C.)

3. The Exodus (1446 B.C.)

4. The Trojan War (c. 1190 B.C.)

5. The Founding of the Davidic Kingdom (1011 B.C.)

6. The Founding of Rome (753 B.C.)

7. Nebuchadnezzar Conquers Judah (586 B.C.)

8. The Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.)

9. The Death of Socrates (399 B.C.)

10. The Punic Wars Begin (264 B.C.)

11. The Fall of Greece (146 B.C.)

12. The Assassination of Julius Caesar (44 B.C.)

    Incarnation to Reformation

13. The Life and Ministry of Christ (4 B.C. - 30 A.D.)

14. The Siege of Jerusalem (70 A.D.)

15. The Death of Marcus Aurelius (180 A.D.)

16. The Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.)

17. The Fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 A.D.)

18. The Formation of the Benedictine Order (529 A.D.)

19. Muhammad Seizes Control of Mecca (630 A.D.)

20. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass (778 A.D.)

21. The Great Schism of the Church (1054 A.D.)

22. The Magna Carta (1215 A.D.)

23. The Invention of the Printing Press (1440 A.D.)

    Reformation to Present Day

24. The Protestant Reformation Begins (Oct. 31, 1517 A.D.)

25. The 30 Years War (1618-1648 A.D.)

26. The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776 A.D.)

27. The French Revolution (1789 A.D.)

28. The American Civil War (1861-1865 A.D.)

29. World War I (1914-1918 A.D.)

30. World War II (1941-1945 A.D.)

Once students have memorized these events and their dates they can place all newly gained historical knowledge in between any two events on the timeline. For instance we might look at the great architecture of the world and see that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built c. 2700 B.C. which means that it was constructed before the Call of Abraham but (obviously) after the Creation event. If we are studying the biblical book of Judges and learning about how Israel was struggling to be faithful to YHWH and going through a cycle of disobedience, repentance, and deliverance, over the course of about 300 years, we may come to the sudden realization that the Greeks also fought the famous Trojan War during that same time span. Whether it is art, music, architecture, political or military events, or matters of religious significance, all of it fits somewhere in the timeline and students will make many discoveries and correlations as they go.

Learning history in this way allows students to marvel at the depth of history, to gain insight as to what events and historical artifacts are in close proximity to one another (and which are not), and to find their own place in God’s continued work in the world. Ideally, with some practice, learning a timeline like this one and being able to make causal or correlating connections between the memorized events will allow students to be able to tell others “the story of the world.” This isn’t something most people can do today, but educators once provided this gift to young people and we can do it once again.