What i want you all to get out of this class isn't the dates, it's the people and their stories. 

You should read : a history of magic by bathilda bagshot 

history is important to us as we are living it, because we are in it, and because we are going to make it.

Consider a timeline; there is not one moment in tim where we stand still for two seconds.

History is also important to us because without it we cannot possibly hope to survive. 

If we didn't study history, we wouldn't know that there was a statute set forth to separate us from muggles.

we wouldn't know that those underage cannot use magic outside of school. There would be laws broken everyday and wars breaking out every second.