Have The Best Memory In History!
Winning ways to learn important dates, from our memory expert Jonathan Hancock
I’m popular on pub quiz teams. I don’t get everything right, but I’m interested in lots of things, and I’ve built up a pretty good bank of general knowledge over the years. However, what often gives me the edge is my ability to remember dates.
Here’s how I do it. If I want to work out when a modern-day event happened, I use my autobiographical memory. I think about where I went on holiday when a particular song was Number One, or what job I was doing when a big story hit the news. Memories get stored within webs of connections, and one detail often reveals a range of evidence—all pointing to the missing year.
When I need to learn dates, on the other hand, I spot connections and clues in the numbers themselves.
For example, when I saw that the Hindenburg Disaster happened in 1937, I noticed my house number in there too and imagined the tragedy playing out in my front garden.
But my best trick is something called the word-length system. All
I do is find words with the “right” number of letters for each digit, then put them together to make a memorable phrase.
For instance, Marie Curie was born in 1867. She was A FEARLESS POLISH CHEMIST. A has one letter, FEARLESS has eight, POLISH six, and CHEMIST seven. Together they make… 1867!
Here are some more useful dates to know, along with suggestions for memory-jogging phrases. For each example, try to create a mental picture to imprint the words on your mind.
• The first moon walk was in 1969: N ARMSTRONG: HEROIC ASTRONAUT • Shakespeare was born in 1564: A GREAT WRITER: “WILL”!
• Victoria and Albert married in 1840: A MARRIAGE, TRUE LOVE (I used “love” for zero, like in tennis!) • Pacemakers were invented in 1958: A PACEMAKER PUMPS STEADILY • Colour TV first demonstrated in 1926: A BROADCAST IN COLOUR • The first silicon chip, 1959: A COMPUTER’S INNER CIRCUITRY • The Great Plague was at its worst in 1665: A PLAGUE CAUSED HAVOC
When you’ve learned some or all of these dates, wait a little while and then test yourself—because testing also helps new learning to stick.
And then, why not use this clever trick to master a few dates of your own? You’ll be keeping your brain in great shape as you file away key facts and figures—ready to take your quiz team to a truly historic win! ■