Annie Kopchovsky, 23, leaves Boston on an historic bicycle trip.

[24, 25] A Latvian immigrant, Spring Street resident, and mother of three, she begins a proposed 15-month, 15,000-mile journey in front of the Massachusetts State House. Calling herself Annie Londonderry, after her sponsor, the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company, she pedals part way to Chicago, goes back to New York, then sails to Europe and Asia, making occasional rides at ports along the way. Kopchovsky sails to San Francisco, then traveling mostly by train, ends her trip in Chicago (Boston-NYT) in September 1895. Kopchovsky is thought to have actually pedaled some 7,000 miles, which prompts the New York Times to write, “It’s most likely true that she circumnavigated the globe with a bicycle rather than entirely on one.” A book on the adventure is published in 2007.*