A nightingale is a small brown bird. The male, which can be heard at night, sings beautifully. a small bird that sings very beautifully, especially at night. Any of several small Old World thrushes (family Turdidae) renowned for their song. The name refers in particular to the Eurasian nightingale (Erithacus megarhynchos), a brown bird, 6.5 in. (16 cm) long, with a rufous tail. It sings day and night from perches in shubbery. Its strong and varied song, with prominent crescendo effects, has been regarded for centuries throughout Europe and Asia as the most beautiful of all birdsongs. The thrush nightingale, or sprosser (E. luscinia), is a closely related, more northerly species with slightly darker plumage. The term is also applied to other birds with rich songs (e.g., the wood thrush)
a British nurse who set up a hospital for soldiers in Turkey during the Crimean War. She was called the 'Lady with the Lamp', because she walked around the hospital in the evenings with a lamp to check that everything was in order. She set up a school for nurses, making nursing (=the job of being a nurse) into a real profession (1820-1910). born May 12, 1820, Florence, Italy died Aug. 13, 1910, London, Eng. Italian-born British nurse, founder of trained nursing as a profession. As a volunteer nurse, she was put in charge of nursing the military in Turkey during the Crimean War. Her first concern was sanitation: patients' quarters were infested with rats and fleas, and the water allowance was one pint per head per day for all purposes. She used her own finances to purchase supplies. She also spent many hours in the wards; her night rounds giving personal care to the wounded established her image as the "Lady with the Lamp." Her efforts to improve soldiers' welfare led to the Army Medical School and a Sanitary Department in India. She started the first scientifically based nursing school, was instrumental in setting up training for midwives and nurses in workhouse infirmaries, and helped reform workhouses. She was the first woman awarded the Order of Merit (1907)
{i} birth name of Elizabeth Arden (1891-1966), Canadian-born woman who became famous for building a large cosmetics corporation in the United States and marketed her cosmetics products internationally