I think one of the reasons my children always liked history is that I taught it in our homeschool as more than dates and events and things to memorize for a test. (I actually cared little about that because I found if they were interested remembering came easily). I showed them it was about people --who had lives and had to make choices---and that hooked them along with visiting museums and historic places where I would wonder aloud to spark a conversation something like "Wonder what they were thinking as they walked along here?"
I understand your point, but I think dates and events are important to be able to place the panorama of historical people in context.
As for dates, to me, some dates ARE important. Of course, historians argue over which ones, but I'll throw out some of mine:
1) 480 BC, the Battle of Thermopylae, keeping the Persian Empire out of Greece, allowing for the birth of Western 'democracy';
2) 44 BC, the assassination of Julius Caesar, formally putting an end to the Republic of Rome and ushering in the Roman Empire;
3) 312 AD, the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity;
4) 732 AD, the Battle of Tours, stopping the muslim jihad outside Paris;
5) 1215 AD, Magna Carta signed at Runnymede, outlining the rights of governed subjects with relation to a king;
6) 1415 AD, the Battle of Agincourt, the English longbow signalling the end of armored knights;
7) 1588 AD, the Spanish Armada defeated, keeping the protestant Elizabeth secure on the throne of England;
8) 1607 AD, the first permanent European settlers arrive in the New World;
9) 1683 AD, the Battle at the Gates of Vienna, stopping the second major muslim jihad;
10) 1776 AD (a little Amerocentricism), the US Declaration of Independence signed, showing how a revolution may be born in blood, but does not have to degenerate into a bloodbath;
11) 1789 AD, The Bastille in Paris is stormed, unleashing the bloodbath of the French Revolution and giving rise to Napoleon;
12) 1815 AD, Napoleon defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, stopping the exportation of French revolutionary ideas;
13) 1917 AD, the Bolsheviks take over Russia by revolutionary force, and overthrow the tsar, setting the stage for the major ideological (hot and cold) conflict of the 20th Century;
14) 1945 AD, the first atomic bomb detonated, changing the world forever;
15) 1969 AD, a US astronaut is the first man to walk on the moon;
16) 2001 AD, muslims attack and destroy the World Trade Center, permanently changing the world once again;
17) 2012 AD, the defeat of Barack Obama in his reelection bid /////// (sort of).
Now this list is by no means exhaustive, and is debatable. I make no mention of Alexander the Great, of China or Japan, of Africa or India, which have had major events which changed the world. the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC), the discovery of gunpowder and paper, the rise of ancient man ('Lucy'), the origin of the mathematical concept of zero, and many more. But understand just those dates and events on my list and you will have a very good grasp of the depth and breadth of recorded history.
I also find dates are important so one can understand the War of 1812 came before The American Civil War came before Custer's Last Stand came before The Spanish-American War. While dates may be boring, historical context is lost without knowing them.
/A degree in History