Florence Nightingale was born on May 12th, 1820 in Florence, Italy. She was born to a wealthy and well-educated English family. When she was young she became interested in (对......感兴趣) caring for(照顾) the sick and wanted to work in nursing, but her parents would not allow her to be a nurse. They expected her to get married and live a traditional woman's life. However, Nightingale had made up her mind(下定决心), so her parents had to give in(让步、屈服). When she traveled throughout Europe during her early years, she learned Greek, Latin, French and Italian. She also visited many of the hospitals in these cities and took many notes of the sanitary(卫生的) conditions in these hospitals. In 1849, she traveled to Europe to study the European hospital system. In 1854, she worked as a manager at the Hospital for In-valid Gentlewomen in London. The following year, the Crimean War(克里米亚战争) broke out(战争爆发). Florence led 38 nurses and traveled to Scutari to help the wounded soldiers. When they arrived there they found the hospital conditions were very poor. Many of the wounded did not have beds and were lying on the ground. Florence and her nurses managed to improve the conditions. Florence also cared about the social welfare(社会福利) of the soldiers and would visit them during the night after everyone else had gone to sleep. She was referred to as(被称为) "The Lady with the Lamp". In 1860 she founded the Nightingale School for nurses at St Thomas' Hospital in London. Once the nurses were trained, they were sent to hospitals all over Britain where they introduced what they had learnt. Nightingale's concerns for sanitation(疗养院), military(军队的) health and hospital planning practices are still in existence today. She died on the 13th August 1910.