On This Day:
In 1772, English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Devon. He wrote many poems including ‘Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’ He suffered from anxiety all his life & it’s been suggested he had bipolar. He was treated with laudanum, causing a lifelong addiction.
In 1805, at the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson gave his famous signal ‘England expects every man to do his duty’ from HMS ‘Victory’ just before battle commenced. This naval engagement gave the U.K. control of the seas, removing the possibility of a French invasion.
In 1854, Florence Nightingale & 38 nurses she’d trained, went to the Crimea, where the British camp was based. Her 1st winter at Scutari saw 10x more soldiers die of typhus, cholera & dysentery than battle wounds, but 6 months after her arrival, deaths fell sharply.