Sylacauga, 1954: the woman hit by a meteorite
The best-documented case of a person struck by a meteorite.
On the afternoon of 30 November 1954, Ann Hodges was napping on her sofa in Sylacauga, Alabama, when a stone the size of a grapefruit crashed through the roof, bounced off a radio and hit her on the hip. She was left with a large bruise.
The meteorite, about 3.9 kg, became the subject of a legal fight between the Hodges family and their landlady, who claimed it as her property. The Hodges eventually kept it and later gave it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History.
Sylacauga is an H4 ordinary chondrite. It remains the most famous, and best-documented, case of a meteorite injuring a person.
In the catalogue
- Sylacauga H4, United States, 1954 · 5.56 kg