Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820. After the Crimean War broke out in 1854, Nightingale, stirred by reports of the primitive sanitation methods and grossly inadequate nursing facilities at the large British barracks-hospital at Üsküdar, volunteered her services. Through her efforts, the mortality rate of the sick and wounded was greatly reduced. She founded the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. This was the beginning of professional education in the field of nursing. Florence Nightingale died in London on August 13, 1910.