Celebrations Today – January 25
Holidays and observances
- Burns Night (Scotland and Scottish community)
- Christian feast day:
- Dydd Santes Dwynwen (Wales)
- Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, which concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity)
- Gregory the Theologian (Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic Church)
- The last day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Christian ecumenism)
- January 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Earliest day on which the first day of Carnival of Cádiz can fall, while February 28 is the latest; celebrated two Sundays before Ash Wednesday until Ash Wednesday (Cádiz)
- Earliest day on which the Liberation of Auschwitz Memorial can fall, while January 31 is the latest; observed on the last Sunday in January (Netherlands)
- National Nutrition Day (Indonesia)
- National Police Day (Egypt)
- National Voters’ Day (India)
- Revolution Day 2011 (Egypt)
- Tatiana Day or Russian Students Day (Russia, Eastern Orthodox)
Celebrations Today – USA: January 25
National Irish Coffee Day
National Opposite Day
National A Room of One’s Own Day
National Fluoride Day
National Macintosh Computer Day
Today in US History: January 25
Globe Trotting
In the early hours of a smoky morning as we sat reading in the cabin of a ferry, a sudden shriek from our whistle, followed by a succession of piercing toots brought us to our feet to see what disaster was pending, when behold, close at hand lay the Japan steamer, Oceanic, with a tug at her side receiving on board a small piece of woman-hood which then sped away for the Oakland mole, where a special train awaited the arrival of Nelly [sic] Bly.Susie Champney Clark,
The Round Trip from the Hub to the Golden Gate (1890),
Part 13, page 84.
California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849-1900
View from Harbor Approach,
Hong Kong,
William Henry Jackson, photographer,
1895.
Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World’s Transportation Commissions, 1894-1896
On January 25, 1890, police cleared a path through a cheering crowd for reporter Nellie Bly as she stepped off a train in New York just 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds after setting sail east to prove she could circle the globe in less than 80 days.
Bly, born Elizabeth Cochrane, challenged the fictional record of Phileas T. Fogg, hero of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, at the suggestion of her employer, the New York World. As Bly traveled via ship, train, jinricksha, sampan, horse, and burro, the World carried daily articles about her journey and offered a trip to Europe to the person who could come closest to guessing her finish time. The paper received nearly 1,000,000 entries and circulation boomed.
No stranger to fame, the daring Miss Bly had already made a name for herself by exposing the deplorable conditions of an insane asylum on New York’s Blackwell’s Island. Bly researched the story by feigning insanity and having herself committed for ten days. Her exposé on the asylum and later reports on slum life brought about needed reforms and helped pave the way for women in journalism.
Ladies Riding Elephant,
India,
William Henry Jackson, photographer,
1895.
Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World’s Transportation Commissions, 1894-1896
Four years after Nellie Bly’s sensational journey, railroad publicist Joseph Gladding Pangborn organized the World’s Transportation Commission to gather information about foreign transportation systems for the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago. In addition to Pangborn, the Commission included a railroad engineer, a graphic artist, and photographer William Henry Jackson. The American Memory collection Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World’s Transportation Commissions, 1894-1896 contains some 900 images from the Commission’s three-year odyssey.
Digitized images from the World’s Transportation Commission Photograph Collection were reproduced from 584 lantern slides and from 297 silver gelatin prints made by the Library of Congress from the original film negatives. Lantern slides, which are glass, positive transparencies, are the forerunner of today’s color slides. To make the lantern slides look more realistic, their creators colored them by hand with dyes and paints.
World Transportation Commission,
Inside Private Railway Car,
China,
William Henry Jackson, photographer,
1895.
Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World’s Transportation Commissions, 1894-1896
- Browse the Around the World Subject Index to see all manner of early transportation, including boats, carriages, wheelbarrows, and sleds. Or, select a country from the Trip Itinerary to retrace the commission’s journey.
- The Library of Congress Country Studies provide online information about 101 countries and regions, including many of those visited by Bly and the World’s Transportation Commission. Search the series on a country name, or browse the Table of Contents to learn more about a place of your choice.
- For more on pioneering female journalists, visit Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II, the Library’s online exhibition of eight women journalists, photographers, and broadcasters who documented the events of World War II at home and abroad.
- Search the following sheet music collections on the term travel for tunes such as “Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel,” and “A Word for the Traveling Man.” Search on the name of a nation or continent for tunes like “Poppy-Time in Old Japan,” “France, Dear France, Forever!,” and “Australia March.”
Today in History – January 25-External Links
Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia