Due to the age of the book, it is now out of copyright, and may be downloaded from Project Gutenberg from http://promo.net/cgi-promo/pg/t9.cgi?entry=103 .
In 1889, Nellie Bly undertook to travel around the world in 80 days for her newspaper, the New York World. She managed to do the journey within 72 days.
In 1988, Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin took a similar challenge without using aircraft as a part of a television travelogue also called Around the World in Eighty Days . He too completed within the deadline.
The book was adapted to film in 1956, a Hollywood fun movie with a huge cast. Many famous performers play bit parts, and part of the pleasure in this movie is playing "spot the star"; the lead roles in the movie were played by David Niven and Cantinflas.
The movie earned five Oscars: