Pennsylvania USA Today Network Editorial Board Armstrong County native Nellie Bly helped give rise to investigative journalism when, in 1887, she feigned mental illness to gain entry to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island in New York City's East River. The 23-year-old Bly spent 10 days in the asylum and emerged with a harrowing expose on brutality and neglect for the New York World newspaper. Reforms followed. Two years later, in another project for The World, Bly set what was then a record by circling the globe in 72 days. She traveled alone mostly via railroads and steamships. Her husband's death in 1903 left her in charge of a manufacturing company where she went on to patent a number of related innovations.