From ‘Around the world in 72 days’ by Nellie Bly…

‘(…) This idea came to me on Sunday. I had spent a greater part of the day and half of the night vainly trying to fasten on some idea for a newspaper article. It was my custom to think up ideas on Sunday and lay them before my editor for his approval or disapproval on Monday. But ideas did not come that day and three o’clock in the morning found me weary and with an aching head tossing about in my bed. At least tried and provoked at my slowness in finding a subject, something for the week’s work, I thought fretfully:

– I wish I was at the other end of earth!

– And why not? – the though came: I need a vacation; why not take a trip around the World?

It is easy to see how one thought followed another. The idea of a trip around the world pleased me and I added: If I could do it as quickly as Phileas Fogg did, I should go. (…)’

A year later, on November 14 1889, at 9:40am, Nellie Bly left New York. During her around the world trip she visited England, France – where she personally met Jules Verne, Egypt, Ceylon, Singapore, China and Japan. She travelled by steamers and rail. She returned to New York on January 25, 1890, at 3:51pm – after 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes, and became the first woman that travel around the world without a man.