An Alabama girl made historical past 70 years in the past Saturday when she survived a detailed encounter with a chunk of falling area particles.
Ann Hodges, 34, was napping on her sofa in Oak Grove, close to Sylacauga, on Nov. 30, 1954, when she was struck within the thigh by a meteorite that had crashed by means of her roof and ricocheted off her hi fi.
Observers in Talladega County that day reported seeing a fireball within the sky and listening to an explosion, based on the Encyclopedia of Alabama. The metropolis’s police chief and mayor had been summoned to Hodges’ home, the place they took possession of the area rock.
Ann Hodges holds the meteorite that fell by means of her roof and hit her in Oak Grove. (Alabama Museum of Natural History)Alabama Museum of Natural History
Hodges turned the middle of a short-lived media storm as the primary particular person recognized to have survived being struck by a meteorite. She appeared on the favored quiz present “I’ve Got a Secret.” Life journal revealed a short article with a photograph of her harm beneath the headline, “A giant bruiser from the sky.”
The object was turned over to the Air Force after which the Smithsonian Institution earlier than returning to Alabama, the place it was the topic of a authorized wrestle between Ann and Hewlett Hodges — her partner — and their landlord over who owned it.
The case was settled, with the 8.5 lbs. meteorite going into Ann Hodges’ possession. She donated it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History on the University of Alabama, the place it’s on everlasting show.
Hodges didn’t ask for or obtain any revenue from her donation, based on a 2022 University of Alabama article. She died in 1972.
The meteorite is believed to be 4.5 billion years outdated and certain broke off from an asteroid orbiting the solar between Mars and Jupiter earlier than taking its plunge to Earth.
