Are dates in History important?

I often hear from parents, colleagues and friends how they struggled in Social Studies due to having to remember dates.  One of the things I try to focus on in class is not so much specific dates, but the events that occurred during a specific time period.  It is important to know when things happened in our past, but specifically remembering all dates is not something I teach.  The 8th Grade just completed a unit on "The Gilded Age".  This has a specific set of years, roughly after Reconstruction from about 1865-1885/90 depending on the historian and leads into the Progressive Era.  The dates that lie in the middle of this era are important to understand the events that occurred, not so much on they day occurred.  We can summarize this series of events and group them in specific years for a broader understanding of U.S. History.

In the above picture, 7th grade students artistically complete a timeline leading up to American Independence.

Hopefully this somewhat clears up why History or Social Studies teachers stress dates.  Things have changed over the years and this is something many teachers probably do not focus on as much as they did in the past.  While I feel we should know some dates, I generally believe understanding specific years of an era of history is more beneficial.