November 14

On the 14th in 1889, journalist Nellie Bly[i], inspired by Jules Verne’s book Around the World in 80 Days, left Hoboken, New Jersey and began a trip that se and her sponsors hoped would either meet or beat Verne’s time. She arrived, to great fanfare, back in New York[ii] 72 days, 6 hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds later. Not that anyone was watching the clock or anything as silly as that.

[i] Bly’s name at birth was Elizabeth Jane Cochran.
[ii] In 1887, while working for the newspaper the New York World Bly had herself committed to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island to research a series of articles about conditions in the Asylum.