Returning to King lists and date lists will make History dry and dusty again. The current system needs changing. As eGJ there should be some sort of sensible chronology. Children need to be engaged and it's impossible for the younger ones to grasp the abstract. They need something to relate to and social history fits this because they can see what their life might have been like.
KS1 should be about recognising now and the past. Just getting a sense of change over time. Toy, clothes, homes, schools, hospitals fit into this. Children need something they can relate to. Florence could be taught in in KS1 as someone who helped to change hospitals from the dirty, chaotic places they were to the clean, calm places they are today. These sort of topics give children the chance to use a lot of hands on resources and learn through play etc.
Chronological history should start in Y3. The Egyptians is always a good topic as the children have reached an age where they can understand that people can be like us but different. Also it's visual....pyramids, gods, hieroglyphics.....lots to grab their interest and imagination.
Over Y4-6 they can move through time but still keep it exciting. There are so many topics to choose from. Greeks, Romans (esp in Britain), Vikings, 1066, Henry VIII (but please don't say he married Anne Boleyn just because of lust. I admit that was part of it but he needed a son and Catherine was beyond child bearing age), the Plague and Fire of London, Victorian Britain (might be development of the railway, factories, lives of children), WWII, Sixties and a good dollop of local history. The list of topics is endless but they need to be child friendly and grab the child. The amount of time to teach a topic is limited. You know you've grabbed a child when they research in their own time and after the topic has finished.