THE ULTIMATE
On this day, May 12th 1820, Florence Nightingale was born in, Italy in the city of her name.
Florence became a pioneer of nursing and healthcare statistics, and gained celebrity status in Victorian as the 'Lady with the Lamp'. Against her family's wishes she trained to be a nurse in Germany, comleting her training in 1851. On reading of the casualties in the Crimean War 1854-56, she responds to a government call for nurses, and is given the headship of British female nurses in the East. She travelled from England to Constantinople, now Istanbul, and joined the hospital at Scutari, with her team of female nurses. However, their presence is unwanted by the male nurses already there. The conditions in the hospital were so bad and rat-infested that she realises that the soldiers are dying from the conditions rather than their wounds. When the female nurses were eventually allowed to care for the soldiers, Florence directed her team to improve the hygiene of the hospital. It was at this point that the Times newspaper ran a report of her checking on the soldiers in the night with her lamp, leading to her fame throughout Victorian Britain as the 'Lady with the Lamp'. She insisted on visiting the field hospitals to see the conditions there, where at the Balaklava hospital she was struck down with 'Crimean Fever'. During her time at Scutari, she developed the use of statistics to study the impact of the hospital's care, and to work out the health issues the hospital faced. Her devlopment of such statistics, and use of statistical diagrams, gave her the evidence to campaign for resources and aid from the government, as well as earning her membership of the Royal Statistical Society, the first female member. Back in Britain she continued to campaignfor the improvement of conditions in hospitals, establishing her own training school at St. Thomas' Hospital in London. The nurses who graduated from her training, then took her ideals and evidence based approach to sanitation across the country. Queen Victoria sent her a jewelled brooch designed by her husband Prince Albert. And Florence was made the first woman member of the Order of Merit, a group of 24 individuals and the Monarch. Florence Nightingale made nursing a respectable career, that was professionalised by training and she also pioneered the use of statistics in healthcare.
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On this day, May 11th 330 AD/CE, the Roman Emperor Constantine made Byzantium the new capital of the Roman Empire - that city also known as Constantinople, is now Istanbul - Turkey's most populous city, and the only city in the world to straddle two continents!
Istanbul sits on both sides of the Bospurous Strait, so one half is in Europe and the other in Asia. At times it has been the most populous city in the world, and the Hagia Sophia, seen in our picture, has been a cathedral and a mosque, now a museum, was once the largest building in the world. Constantine's desion to make Byzantium the new capital of the Roman Empire, moved the centre of the Empire eastwards. Constantine viewed it as a 'New Rome', though the name didn't take off, whilst Constantinople basically means the 'City of Constantine', whilst the city's current name Istanbul, is an alteration over time of the Greek 'In to the city'. Constantine was the first Christian Roman Emperor, who did numerous acts linked to Christianity during his rein, for example using the Chi-Ro symbol for Christ on the shields of his soldiers, only converted on his death bed. He was also acclaimed Roman Emperor when he was fighting as a general in Britain, the Roman soldiers declaring him Emperor at the city of Eboracum, now York in Northern England. Whilst, football fans may recall Istanbul as the city where in 2005 one of the most dramatic Champions League Finals occurred, with Liverpool 3v0 down by half-time and in disarray, they pulled the three goals back and won the European Cup on penalties. Some may say that Steven Gerrard, Liverpool's inspirational captain, was the Emperor that night! |
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