Happy Birthday Nellie Bly!

Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, born on this day in 1864, was a feminist before the word existed. She was a disability rights advocate too. Her journalism career began at age 23 after her sharp reply to a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, newspaper article that criticized working women. Under the name "Nellie Bly" she became known as the "best reporter in America" at the end of the 19th century. She is known for her journalistic courage in committing herself to a mental asylum for ten days to uncover the practices there. Her reports -- available online in full text as Ten Days in a Mad-House -- led to a state investigation of New York City's Blackwell Island asylum and eventually to better funding and reforms in patient care.

She was a researcher, an investigative reporter, an industrialist and a reformer. In 1873, she set out to best French author Jules Verne's fictional character who traveled Around the World in 80 Days. She did it in less than 73. Later, she was the first female to cover the front lines in World War I.

(Via Penny Richards at Disability Studies, Temple U.)