Florence Nightingale was a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. She came to prominence while serving as a manager of nurses trained by her during the Crimean War, where she organized the tending to wounded soldiers. She gave nursing a highly favorable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
National Nurses' Week is celebrated May 6-12 each year.
Although a National Nurses' Day was first proposed in 1953, it wasn't until 1974 that the ball really got rolling, when the International Council of Nurses proclaimed May 12 International Nurse Day. (May 12 is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the English nurse who is considered the founder of modern nursing.)
Then in 1982 President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation that established a national day of observance for nurses on May 6, but this was later extended to a weeklong celebration to include May 12. In 1997 the American Nurses Association designated May 8 as National Student Nurses' Day.