Anniversaries are probably the one aspect of history that can register with a wider public — witness the coverage of the centenary of the first world war.

But marking historical events without understanding their significance for the current day undermines the value of the effort.

Looking back 50 years, 1965 is not yet distant enough to be beyond living memory, but is well beyond the 30-year rule, when official papers from a period are released to public view.

Memoirs, diaries and personal papers may yet tell us more about 1965 than we currently know — but probably not, in most cases, all that much more.

The year 1965 saw the Beatles became the first pop stars to get OBEs (which John Lennon later handed back). Tony Benn, then a Cabinet minister, thought it a bad idea. The Beatles also released the film Help.

I mention these events not because they were the most important of the year, but because when the media remembers it these events will undoubtedly feature.

Tony Benn’s diary suggests a more serious focus. Made postmaster general in the Labour government elected in 1964, Benn was attempting to persuade the Queen to accept postage stamps without her head on them. As we know from present-day reality, his plan did not work.

Benn was also concerned about the impact of the increased US presence in Vietnam and the pressure on Britain to support it. He records an anti-Vietnam war teach-in at the London School of Economics and the mentions the unpopularity of Harold Wilson among opponents of the war.

Raising the matter with the prime minister, Benn records that Wilson explained his approach but doesn’t say what it was. The whole thing provides interesting echoes of the Blair government’s backing for the Iraq war in 2003.

Probably the most important development of 1965 however was something that Benn doesn’t mention, though his partner Caroline was heavily involved in it.

Circular 10/65 was a document produced by the Department of Education for local education authorities (LEAs), requesting the conversion of secondary modern, technical and grammar schools — themselves created in 1944 — into modern comprehensives.

It was a significant achievement for educational progressives and is still something that rankles with the right 50 years on. In some areas they are still trying to “bring back” grammar schools or maintain surviving ones.

Circular 10/65 was a statement of intent — a signal to local authorities about which way the wind was blowing in Whitehall.

It had to be followed in 1966 by another circular, 10/66, which made it clear that no government funding would be forthcoming for new schools unless they were based on the comprehensive model.

This, in essence, is what then education secretary Michael Gove did after 2010 with his plans to promote academies and free schools, and there is no question that in the 1960s it achieved some change.

When the Tories were returned to office in 1970 the new education secretary Margaret Thatcher issued a further circular (10/70) which made it clear that LEAs could decide whether to develop comprehensive or grammar schools, but she was not able to reverse the shift made by the 1964 Labour government.

Now that we are 50 years on and entering an election year, that change in the education system really is worth pondering.