History Alive is a program of first-person portrayals of historical figures by presenters who have conducted scholarly research on their character. Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochran who became one of the best-known investigative reporters in the country in the late-1800s and early 1900s. At age 25 she took a highly publicized and unaccompanied trip around the world in 1890 following the route of the fictional character Phineas Fogg in the book "Around the World in Eighty Days." She did it in 72 days.