Elizabeth Jane Cochrane was born in Pennsylvania in a Pittsburgh suburb. By the age of 16 she had already become a writer. She was a revolutionary as journalism at the time was still a man’s world. But she had the daring to challenge that convention. She gave herself the pen name Nelly Bly, which was misspelled but stuck as Nellie Bly.
On this day November 14th, in 1889, Nellie Bly set off on her challenge to travel around the world in under 80 days. It was the sheer curiosity of Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days which sparked Bly’s desire to attempt such a thing.
Her travels are most interesting, and she even met Jules Verne along the way. She traveled via steamboat and railroad for nearly 25,000 miles around the globe. She accomplished the feat in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds.