On September 30, 1936, a young reporter began a race around the globe that captured headlines and showed a world in transition. "CBS Evening News" co-anchor John Dickerson explains.

Dorothy Kilgallen, a 23-year-old crime reporter for the New York Journal, set out in 1936 to race around the world using only commercially available transportation. Competing against male reporters from other major newspapers, Kilgallen had just 24 hours to arrange her journey, facing logistical challenges such as fully booked flights and the need for public appeals for seats.

Her trip, which lasted 24 days, was marked by both adventure and danger, including an emergency landing in Indochina and encounters with the political tensions of the time. Although Kilgallen did not win the race, she completed her journey, filed her stories, and became a renowned columnist. Her experience highlighted the increasing connectivity of the world, even as it remained divided by rivalries and ideologies.

The "Journal Girl" who raced to circle the globe in 1936

It's a girl against the world, and the girl needs help. That was the plea on the front page of the New York Journal 89 years ago. On September 30, 1936, Dorothy Kilgallen, a 23-year-old crime reporter for the paper, set off on a race to fly around the globe by any means commercially available. She competed against men from the New York Times and World Telegram. They'd planned their trip in advance—Kilgallen had only 24 hours to book her flights, and all commercial airlines between London and Hong Kong had been booked. So the paper printed an appeal across Europe to passengers on any airline to give up their seat to a lady. The Journal Girl, as the paper called her, heaved across the Atlantic on the Hindenburg, topped forests in one plane that flew just 64 miles an hour, and streaked across barren sands chronicling it all in chatty, seat-made prose. The desert wastes are full of wild tribesmen who take potshots at planes. That's all right, for the pilots fly out of range. But the Journal Girl didn't escape danger. A single-engine plane on one leg made an emergency landing in a field somewhere in Indochina. The point of the trip, beyond selling papers, was to show how connected the world had become. That connection didn't stop what came next. Of course, Kilgallen didn't know about future horrors when she wrote, They tell me that 250 Nazi storm troops will wait at the airport. Later, the streets of Florence were just a moving mass of parading young fascisti. The trip took 24 days. The record today is 44 and a half hours. What Kilgallen showed, and what the world keeps proving, is that speed shrinks distance but doesn't lighten the baggage. Rivalries, ideologies, pride. She did not win, by the way. But she filed her stories, proved the Girl could do it, and became a famous columnist. A year later, the Hindenburg, which carried her across the Atlantic, burst into flames over New Jersey. 36 people died in 32 seconds. And those storm troops waiting at the airport? They kept marching.

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