Birth of Florence Nightingale (1820), and Napoleon's forces take Venice, ending the Venetian Republic (1797). Born on this day: Rishi Sunak, Florence Nightingale and Katharine Hepburn. Died: Nelly Sachs, Bedřich Smetana and Józef Piłsudski.
31 events, 78 births and 59 deaths on this date.
Florence Nightingale became an English statistician and social reformer who helped turn nursing into a professional career. Her 1860 school at St Thomas' Hospital in London, now part of King's College London, was the first to train nurses without religious ties.
Henry Hering (1814-1893) · Public domainFlorence Nightingale’s War for Clean HospitalsHear the story in ChunksNapoleon's army marched into Venice, bringing an end to the city's independence after more than a thousand years as a republic. The move was part of his campaign against Austria in the war against the First Coalition.
The Roman emperor dedicated a tall column in Rome, its spiralling carved reliefs recounting his wars against the Dacians. The monument still stands today and remains one of the best surviving records of Roman military campaigns.
During the Finnish War, Swedish-Finnish forces under Captain Karl Wilhelm Malmi retook the town of Kuopio from Russian control after a battle there. The win helped Sweden hold ground in eastern Finland during a conflict that ran until 1809.
Richard I wed Berengaria of Navarre at Limassol, and she was crowned queen of England the same day. Richard was then spending much of his reign away from England, mostly on crusade.
Girolamo Savonarola, the Florentine friar who had turned his sermons against the corruption of the Church, was cut off from it by Alexander VI. Alexander, a Borgia pope whose surname was synonymous with nepotism, was unlikely to tolerate such criticism.
Attributed to Pedro Berruguete · Public domain
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Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 2022, after serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer during the pandemic. Born in Southampton to Indian parents, he had earlier worked in finance before entering Parliament in 2015.
Prime Minister's Office · OGL 3
Florence Nightingale organised nursing care for wounded soldiers in the Crimean War, then opened a professional nursing school in London in 1860. She also used statistics and graphic charts to show that better hygiene and living conditions reduced death rates.
Henry Hering (1814-1893) · Public domain
Hepburn was a Hollywood star who played headstrong, sophisticated women across six decades, and won a record four Best Actress Oscars. She was also known for her long screen partnership with Spencer Tracy.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios ; Restored by Adam Cuerden · Public domain
Nelly Sachs was a German-born poet and playwright who wrote about the suffering of Jews under the Nazis, later settling in Sweden. She shared the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature with Shmuel Yosef Agnon.
Nobel Foundation · Public domain
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who became known as the father of Czech music. He is best remembered for the opera The Bartered Bride and the symphonic cycle Má vlast, which includes the famous piece Vltava.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Polish statesman who led the country after it regained independence in 1918 and commanded its forces at the Battle of Warsaw. He dominated Polish politics until his death, and is often called a father of the Second Polish Republic.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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