Nellie Bly, around the world in 72 days

In 1888, at the age of 26, Nellie suggested to the World that it send her as a reporter on a trip around the world, to emulate Julio Verne's book "Around the World in Eighty Days". At first, the newspaper officials were hesitant because, at that time, a woman could not travel alone and she would need too much luggage.

But, a year later, on November 14, 1889, the adventurous journalist set out on her 24,889-mile journey from New York. Her luggage consisted of the dress she was wearing, a sturdy coat, several changes of underwear, a small toilet bag, paper and pencil, slippers, and most of her money in a bag tied around her neck.

The New York newspaper Cosmopolitan sponsored its own reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, to beat the time of Phileas Fogg and Nellie Bly. Bisland would travel in the opposite direction, departing on the same day but would ultimately fail to beat Nellie Bly's record.

A reporter traveling alone around the world

Nellie Bly took six days to reach Southampton, where she took a train to London, and from there she went across the Channel to Calais, just in time to catch another train to Paris, stopping in Amiens, where she was able to visit Julius Verne who, skeptical, told her, "Miss, if you can do it in 79 days, I will publicly congratulate you."

From Paris she went to Brindisi, in southern Italy, and from there embarked on a steamer with which she crossed the Mediterranean, stopping at Port Said, before crossing the Suez Canal. She crossed the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea and stayed at the port of Aden in Yemen.

Nellie crossed the ocean and stayed in Colombo, the capital of the then Ceylon. From there she made her way to Malaysia, then to Singapore and Hong Kong, where she would stay at the Craigieburn Hotel, and then on to Yokohama. In Japan, she was surprised by the geishas and the silence of the Japanese, for example. At that time it was strange for a woman to travel alone so Nellie had no shortage of suitors during her solo adventure.

Unlike other Victorian women travelers of the time, Nellie never criticized either the appearance or the customs of the natives she encountered in the different countries she passed through. She was surprised, for example, that the Chinese smoked a lot of opium but merely compared it to the whiskey drunk by the British.

From there she set sail for San Francisco and, once in that city, crossed the country by train, arriving in New York after 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds, on January 25, 1890. 
When Nellie Bly arrived in New York, her competitor Elizabeth Bisland was still sailing across the Atlantic, arriving four days later. 

As a result of this adventure, Nellie Bly was writing chronicles of the different stopovers of her trip that would become the book "Around the world in 72 days" edition that would be accompanied by a goose game in which the protagonist was the intrepid journalist who, thanks to this feat, became one of the most famous women of her time in the United States.

Years later, in 1895, when she was thirty-one years old, she married Robert Seaman, a wealthy tycoon in his seventies. After a few years, Nellie was widowed and had to take over her husband's business, which ended in bankruptcy. She then returned to what she loved to do most: research, travel, and writing.