On this day, November the 14th, in the year of 1889, Nellie Bly (real name Elizabeth Jane Cochrane Seamen, Nellie Bly being a pen name she later used in life, but is most commonly referred to as), began what would be a seventy two day journey around the world (On This Day).

Her plan was to traverse across the world in less than eight days, inspired by a book entitled Around the World in Eighty Days, and document her travels for the newspaper she worked for, the New York World.

Starting in Hoboken, New Jersey, Bly’s journey would take her places such as France, where she would meet the author of Around the World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne, and Hong Kong, where she discovered that  she was in a “race” with another women, Elizabeth Bisland, sent from a rival magazine.

Bly returned seventy two days later, “beating” Bislands seventy six day expedition (Smithsonian Magazine) (Biography).

Among other doings (such as going undercover at a mental institution to expose poor conditions), Bly’s journey cemented her as one of the most well known and influential journalists of all time (PBS).