Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing.

She was born May 12, 1820 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany. She died August 13, 1910 at Mayfair, London, England. She was 96 years old. She is interred at St Margaret's Church, East Wellow, Hampshire.

Her forte was Hospital hygiene, Sanitation, and statistics. She is recognized for transforming sanitary practices in military hospitals during the Crimean War and for her pioneering work in statistics.

She was called "The Lady with the Lamp" and significantly reduced mortality rates by focusing on hygiene, nutrition, and patient care, and later established the first professional nursing school.

During the Crimean War in the 1850s, she and her volunteer nurses drastically reduced the death rate at a British base hospital by improving sanitation and hygiene.

She established the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in 1860, establishing nursing as a respectable profession for women.

Nightingale was a pioneer in data visualization, creating the "polar area diagram" aka or "Nightingale rose diagram" to illustrate causes of mortality in hospitals.

She authored "Notes on Nursing: What it is, and What it is Not" in 1859 which served as a cornerstone text for the profession.

She influenced sanitation reforms and helped establish the principles of the British Red Cross, the Royal Red Cross in 1883, The Lady of Grace of the Order of St John in 1904, as well as the Order of Merit in 1907.
 

When I was a child I went most place barefoot.

It was not so much an observation of some "day" as people may do.

It was more of a lifestyle choice, a personal matter of preference for me.

I thought it to be proper and I was never visiting other people in their homes and so it was simply the way I and it was.

Sometimes I would step on a honey bee and find myself with both a lot of pain and swelling.

I did not allow this to deter me as I continued the bare foot lifestyle during the summer months.

Today is No Socks Day.

It is celebrated annually each May 8th to encourage taking a break from wearing socks.

The ideas is to allow feet to breathe and feel free.

It's another made up holiday by Wellcat Holidays who obviously have nothing better to do.

The day promotes going barefoot or wearing sandals to enjoy comfort and reduce laundry.

It serves as a lighthearted, refreshing break during warmer spring weather.
 

When I was a kid in Aragona Village in Virginia Beach there was a television program I frequented called "Password" starring Allen Ludden and his wife Betty White where two teams would attempt to guess a mystery word using single word clues and receiving cash prizes.

I would sit and attempt to guess each clue before it was offered.

The game has undergone numerous iterations since those days and I can't remember when I stopped watching only it seems like eons ago.

Today is World Password Day.

It has nothing to do with the game of my childhood. That was just a memory the day has triggered for me personally. It is observed on the first Thursday in May which is May 7, 2026 this year to encourage people to create strong, secure passwords and adopt better cybersecurity habits.

It was established by Intel in 2013.

It serves as a reminder to update passwords, use multi-factor authentication (MFA), and protect digital identities against rising cyber threats.

I personally think that a secure password makes a lot of the other stuff a lot of hooey.

In 2026, this day focuses heavily on transitioning toward passwordless authentication like passkeys, to combat AI-driven skullduggery.