Today in History—November 14: Nellie Bly Begins Her Race Around the World

At 9:40 am on this day in 1889, American journalist Nellie Bly set off from New York Harbor aboard a luxury ocean liner bound for Europe. The goal was to beat a fictional character’s fictional record around the world. (I said what I said.)

Upon reaching England, Bly made a brief detour. She’d been invited by Jules Verne himself—the creator of that fictional character—to visit him in France. A very brief detour—after all, Bly had a schedule to keep if she was going to make it around the world in fewer than 80 days. (She was aiming for 75.)

All the while, Bly sent dispatches to the New York World so readers could follow her journey.

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Egypt, Sri Lanka, and the Malay Peninsula passed in a near-blur. In Singapore, Bly adopted a monkey.

Hong Kong brought shocking news: A competitor in the race Bly hadn’t known she was running had pulled ahead, diminishing Bly’s chances of setting a record. Undeterred, Bly made the best of her Christmas visit to Hong Kong and Guangzhou in China.

By January 21, the end was in sight. Well, San Francisco was, anyway. But mountain passes were blocked by snow, limiting options for the final leg. Her editor at the paper, none other than Joseph Pulitzer, solved the problem by chartering a train to whisk Bly back to New York.

Bly was already a star, but the trip around the world put her, well, on the map.

And she’d only had two days to pack. She started by writing her will, just in case. Then she bought a satchel and traveling dress.

She’d gained her post at the New York World two years earlier, when she waltzed into the paper’s offices and pitched an assignment to Pulitzer. His counteroffer? Investigate conditions at New York’s infamous asylum on Blackwell’s Island. Bly’s scathing dispatches, which she researched by faking amnesia to get herself committed, ushered in a new era of investigative, first-person journalism—with a woman finally at the center of the story.

And so, for her next adventure, Bly set off to race Phileas Fogg, hero of Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.

She completed her journey at 3:51 pm on January 25, 1890, in just over 72 days. Checkmate Nellie.