The most important thing to know in history is how to look at the past and make use of that knowledge to deal with contemporary situations. It is not important for everybody to know when George Washington was born or who won the Battle of Chattanooga. You can find out information like that when you need it, if you know how to do the search and how to evaluate your sources. But it is important to realize that history is not a separate subject of study. It is an aspect of every subject. No matter what field you are operating in, it has a historical context. There is political history, social history, cultural history, the history of art, law, or of fashion. One may even wish to study the history of medicine to correlate the medical practices of the past which may have a great deal of relevance with the medicines of today.