I can believe that he couldn't find out the date of the Battle of Trafalgar back in 1995. I was curious to see how hard (or how easy) it is today.
First I went to Wolfram Alpha and entered "when was the battle of trafalgar?" The response was "21-10-1805" (plus some other information about that date).
Then I went to Wikipedia and entered "Battle of Trafalgar" to find the eponymous article, which begins: "The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a sea battle fought between..."
When I Google "When was the Battle of Trafalgar?" the Wikipedia article is the top result.
So answering that particular question is indeed much easier today, if you know where to look.
This is really another on the list of technological fixes that the author didn't forsee - search technology has improved massively since 1995. The data was likely out there - it's just it was hard to find.
First I went to Wolfram Alpha and entered "when was the battle of trafalgar?" The response was "21-10-1805" (plus some other information about that date).
Then I went to Wikipedia and entered "Battle of Trafalgar" to find the eponymous article, which begins: "The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a sea battle fought between..."
When I Google "When was the Battle of Trafalgar?" the Wikipedia article is the top result.
So answering that particular question is indeed much easier today, if you know where to look.