[MRM]

The actual dates are less important than the sequence of events and understanding the context of the event. For instance, it doesn't matter whether you think the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 3rd or 4th 1776 or 1777, but it is very important to know that the Revolutionary War predated the Civil War by just under a hundred years, and to understand why it took just under a hundred years to get to the Civil War when those issues had been simmering since before the counrty was founded. Whose signature is the largest on the Declaration of Independence is interesting, and the story behind it is fun, but it is irrelevant by historical standards. It means nothing to memorize the date the Constitution was ratified but it means everything to know that the Constitution didn't come into effect until it was ratified by the states some ten years after the Revolutionary war was won, and that the Articles of Confederation were in place until then.