Happy Birthday Trailblazing Journalist Nellie Bly!

Google is wishing a Happy Birthday to Nellie Bly. Count out 151 candles to put on her cake.

"Nellie Bly3" by Unknown - corbis. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons 

Nellie Bly, her pen name, was born Elizabeth Cochrane on May 5, 1864. She deserves the recognition from Google. Here are just a few things this feisty investigative journalist accomplished. Found on Wikipedia. 

• She uncovered the horrors in the mentally insane asylums of the 19th century  by posing as an insane woman When she was involuntarily committed, she endured the filth, the humiliation, the long days of just sitting on a bench with people who she discovered were not  insane either. She wrote that the abusive nurses and horrible conditions would cause any person to go insane after staying there.
• Nellie wrote an article in a popular New York newspaper exposing the conditions which prompted the state to set aside $850,000 to correct this inhumane treatment.
• She also took a trip around the world in 1889. Now remember in the 19th century there was no easy way to do this. She had to take steamships to cross the oceans and railroad trains to traverse the countries. She reported her experiences in her newspaper, the New York World and later compiled her articles into a book,. 
• How long do you think it would take her to circumnavigate the world? 72 days!! Nellie set a new record for circling the globe. In this modern day and age, her world record does not stand and has been improved many times.
• Nellie reported stories on the movement for gaining the right to vote for women which finally passed in 1920.

Here's Google's entertaining  video with highlights of her life.

Do you wish to break a world record? What would that be? Are you interested in becoming a journalist?
Please leave a comment below and let us know.

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