November 14, 1889

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Joel Byers

On This Date in TWISTED-HISTORY! in 1889, New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes. Her spirit fueled by turning Verne’s science fiction into science fact, she set her sights on journeying to the center of the earth. In December 1890, she traveled to Iceland and ascended the Sneffels Volcano and tried to retrace the clues left behind in Jules Verne’s first draft of the novel “Journey to the Interior of the Earth”. She hired a Danish guide named Hans Bjelke to help her ascend the Volcano, which he did and then robbed her and left her there. Two days later, when she found her way back to the town of Hellnar, she booked passage back to America and no further word was mentioned about her disastrous attempt to journey to the center of the earth.

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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