Twittard generation desn't know who was Rodney King, Donna Summer, Paul McCartney and thinks that Titanic was just a movie...

On Sunday, a few hours after he was found dead in his California swimming pool at age 47, Rodney King—a central figure in the 1992 Los Angeles riots—began trending on Twitter.

News of King's death was quickly followed by a related, if disturbing, Twitter trend: "Who is Rodney King?"

"Who is Rodney King?" Briauna Mariee, identified on Twitter as "First Queen Standing," tweeted upon seeing King's name trending(...)

King's death was certainly not the first to baffle Twitter users. Television icon Dick Clark, author Ray Bradbury, Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, disco queen Donna Summer, CBS News interviewer Mike Wallace, "Where The Wild Things Are" author Maurice Sendak, Beastie Boy rapper Adam Yauch and hairdresser Vidal Sassoon—all of whom died this year—ended up cycling through the microblogging service in a similar manner(...)

In April, on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, the social news-sharing site Reddit pointed to a series of tweets from people who did not know that the sinking of the Titanic was real—and not just a 1997 Hollywood blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

"Wait!" user Sue D. wrote. "Titanic really happened? I thought it was just a movie."

"Guys, the Titanic was real!" BabyDoe22 wrote. "#mindblown."

(...)But you don't always have to die or sink a ship to blow young Twitter users minds: Sometimes, you just have to be a former Beatle who shows up at the Grammys.

"Who the f--- is Paul McCartney and why is he on this?" Kristen Dewe wrote on Feb. 13 during the Grammys broadcast(...)