Being a truly inspirational nurse she dedicated her life to her job and established nursing as a respectable profession for women. Nightingale’s theories on nursing were hugely influential and her concerns for sanitation, military health and hospital planning established practices which are still in existence today.

International Nurses Day is observed all around the world on every May 12 to celebrate the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. International Nurses Day provides a chance to celebrate nursing profession and their contribution to make improvements in the lives of people and their families. They play an important role to perk up the health and wellbeing of entire communities and the whole nation.

Iceland is famous for its hot springs, geysers and active volcanoes. Lava fields cover much of the land and hot water is pumped from under the ground to supply much of the country’s heating.

The settlement of Iceland began in AD 874 when the chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norse settler on the island. From 1262 to 1918 Iceland was part of the Norwegian and later the Danish monarchies. Until the 20th century, the Icelandic population relied largely on fisheries and agriculture, and the country was one of the poorest and least developed in the world. Industrialisation of the fisheries  brought prosperity in the years after World War II, and by the 1990s it was one of the world’s wealthiest countries.

On 21 March 2010, a volcano in Eyjafjallajökull in the south of Iceland erupted for the first time since 1821, forcing 600 people to flee their homes. Further eruptions on 14 April forced hundreds of people to abandon their homes. The resultant cloud of volcanic ash brought major disruption to air travel across Europe. If you’re interested how volcanoes work, you can find all information here.

• Let virtual Outdoors Explorer help motivate you  to get outdoors.
• Sign up to see an interactive list of the best 50 things to do before you’re 11 3/4.
• Children earn rewards to help them personalise their own virtual explorer by completing each of the 50 adventures.
• They’ll give you tips on how to get better at these adventures and there’s even a few games and a special explorer badge (and secret reward) for the best explorers.

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon.

• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 1977
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back 1980
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi 1983
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 1999
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 2002
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 2005
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars 2008

We are familiar with Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and the identity crisis of dwarf planet Pluto. But two other dwarfs to make the official tally are Ceres, sandwiched between Mars and Jupiter, and Eris, out there beyond Pluto.

DNA (which stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid) is like the computer programme, except it is found in all living things. DNA contains the instructions for a living thing to grow and to work. These instructions are like the code in a computer programme, and in living things are called genes.

Each cell in the human body contains about 25,000 to 35,000 genes, which carry information that go toward determining your traits. Traits are characteristics you inherit from your parents, this means your parents pass some of their characteristics on to you through genes. For example, if both of your parents have blue eyes, you might inherit the trait of blue eyes from them. Or if your mom has freckles, you might inherit that trait and wind up with a freckled face. And genes aren’t just in humans — all animals and plants have genes, too.

Genes hang out all lined up on thread-like things called chromosomes. Chromosomes come in pairs, and there are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of genes in one chromosome. The chromosomes and genes are made of DNA. In humans, a cell nucleus contains 46 individual chromosomes. Half of these chromosomes come from one parent and half come from the other parent. Twenty two of the pairs appear identical, the other two chromosomes are called sex chromosomes — X and Y. Females have 2 X chromosomes, males have one X and one Y. But not every living thing has 46 chromosomes inside of its cells. For instance, a fruit fly cell only has four chromosomes.

William Shakespeare Monument

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. He was born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Found out more about his life and work.

Four Matilda the Musical 'Best Actresses' (l-r) Sophia Kiely, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Kerry Ingram and Cleo Demetriou

Matilda, The Musical written by Dennis Kelly was the biggest winner of the 2012 Olivier Awards, picking up a massive seven awards.

The play, based on the Roald Dahl novel, won Best New Musical, Best Set Design, Best Theatre Choreographer, Best Sound Design and Best Director.

On Friday, a new Matilda, Jade Marner, ten, will play Matilda for the first time.

Interview with Jade.

Geoffrey Chaucer

615 years ago Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.

In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the Cathedral. Becket was swiftly declared a saint and pilgrims flocked to his shrine, to seek healing and other benefits and to give thanks. Strategically situated between the Channel ports and London, Canterbury attracted pilgrims, not only from all over the British Isles but from the Continent.

Canterbury Cathedral

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The tales (mostly written in verse although some are in prose) are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.

Geoffrey Chaucer is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Today, inside the historic building of St. Margaret’s Church you can step back over 500 years to join Geoffrey Chaucer and his colourful characters on their magical pilgrimage from London to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Along the way, their stories of love, romance, jealousy and trickery are vividly re-created with all the fun and excitement of Chaucer’s famous tales.

The war started on 2 April 1982, after Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands, which are a British Overseas Territory. In total 907 were killed during the 74 days of the conflict.

The Falkland Islands located in the South Atlantic approximately 300 miles off the coast of South American. The Falklands comprise of some 200 smaller islands and two large islands, East Falkland and West Falkland. The majority of the smaller Islands are uninhabited. The population is about 2,300 and almost 2000 of these live in Stanley  the only town and capital of the Islands. The remainder live in settlements and on the family farms around the islands. English is the language of Islands. It is a wonderful place to visit for relaxing holidays, stay in one of many self-catering accommodations on the Falklands.