November 14

Elizabeth Jane ‘Pink’ Cochran was born on May 5, 1864, in Cochran Mills, Pennsylvania. As an adult, she would become a journalist. When she went to work for the Pittsburgh Dispatch the editor gave her the pen name Nelly Bly. In 1887, Feigning insanity, she allowed herself to be committed to the Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum in New York. The book she wrote when released, Ten Days in a Mad-House, made her famous. Stunts, similar to that one in their audacity, would mark her career. Therefore, it was not terribly surprising when on the 14th in 1889, Bly, having been inspired by Jules Verne’s book Around the World in 80 Days, left Hoboken, New Jersey and began a trip that she and her sponsors hoped would meet or beat Verne’s time. She arrived, to great fanfare, back in New York 72 days, 6 hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds later. Not that anyone was keeping an eye on the clock or anything like that.