This Day in History: 1889-11-14

Journalist Nelly Bly starts off around the world in a stunt for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World newspaper on this day in 1889. The idea is to beat Jules Verne’s fictional character who went “Around the World in 80 Days.” Bly takes only 72 days. More importantly, Bly’s trip is the beginning of a global vision in which every region is accessible and potentially understood by every person. Similar explorations that provided a global view — including space exploration in the 1960s – 2000s — would instill similar visions of a “whole” earth, or a “spaceship” earth with limited resources. Starting around the turn of the 21st century, instant free global communication had become a reality, and a global vision of humanity would finally beginning to dawn.