Space and the cosmos hold many wonders, and one of them are meteor showers. In almost all cases, the meteors, which are actually space rocks, disintegrate into pieces as soon as they enter the earth’s atmosphere. There are instances though, wherein pieces of the space rock, strike the earth’s surface. Did you know that there is a documented record of a meteorite hitting a human being on landing? The first documented case of a meteorite striking a human occurred on November 30, 1954, in Sylacauga, Alabama, USA. In the afternoon, a space rock crashed through the roof of a house, creating a hole. It then struck Ann Hodges, who was lying on the sofa below, on her left side. Ann’s survival of this incident was nothing short of miraculous.
The small, 8.5-pound, 4.5-billion-year-old black space rock is on display at the Alabama Museum of Natural History on the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Before the meteorite fell into Ann’s living room, people in Sylacauga and throughout eastern Alabama saw ‘a bright red light like a Roman candle’.
When the meteorite fell and hit Ann, the house was filled with dust, and initially it was thought that a chimney had collapsed or a space heater had exploded. But after seeing the stone on the floor and the large wound on her body, Ann’s mother summoned the police and the fire brigade.
The Sylacauga police chief confiscated the black rock and gave it to the Air Force, but Ann demanded that the rock be returned to her. But Ann lived in a rented house, and the landlord, Birdie Guy, also claimed the meteorite. After months of a legal battle, the case was settled out of court and Ann and her husband paid their landlady Rs 41,000 for the meteorite. Ann and Eugene Hodges might have anticipated earning a significant sum by auctioning the meteorite, but they were disheartened when no offers came in. For some time, the family used the stone as a doorstop before eventually donating it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History, where it still resides. Ann later died of kidney failure in a local nursing home at the age of 52.
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