[quote=@Dervish]
[@Spoopy Scary] Even if them lowly peasants didn't get the word, you can be certain that ship captains and carriage drivers close to Skyrim know about it. Plus, we do have the Tamrielic Gazette, which you can be certain people have been reading and would be gossiping.
[/quote]

True. I just looked through the OP, but all I could find that talked about the collapse of Winterhold was in World State and it didn't tell me the date of when it happened.