Ann Elizabeth Hodges is the only person who survived after being hit by a meteorite
The fall of meteorites on the surface of the Earth is not too rare. There have also been cases of people dying as a result of such cataclysms. But the fact that a meteorite hit a person and he survived has been documented only once in the entire history of mankind. The lucky one was Ann Elizabeth Hodges, a resident of the American town of Sulacoga, Alabama.
The emergency happened on November 30, 1954, at about seven o'clock in the evening. A fragment of the asteroid Toro weighing 3.8 kg broke through the roof of the house where Ann and her husband lived. The hostess of the house was resting on the sofa in front of the TV when the meteorite broke through the roof, crashed into the radio standing on the table and ricocheted into the woman's side.
A fragment of a celestial body caused serious damage to the room and the things in it, but the victim escaped with only a large hematoma and a slight fright. The psychological consequences could have been more severe, but at the time of the disaster, Hodges was sleeping peacefully and, waking up from a strong blow, did not immediately understand what was wrong.
Her neighbors saw that before the meteorite fell, the area was illuminated with a bright light, and a certain object swept through the sky with a noise. The Cold War was in full swing, so some immediately decided that the city was attacked by Russian missiles and hurried to shelters. But when the crash was followed by silence, curiosity got the upper hand, and people went outside to find out what happened.
A crowd gathered around the Hodges house and the victim of the meteorite immediately became a local celebrity. Soon paramedics and police arrived at the house, who were called by the woman's husband. The journalists arrived almost simultaneously with them — the event was clearly sensational and every publication wanted to tell about it first.
Ann and her husband did not want to give the fragment of a celestial body to the cops, immediately claiming their rights to it. But the police did not stand on ceremony and seized the meteorite for research. First of all, it was necessary to make sure that they really had nothing to do with this incident, and besides, scientists were eager to study the asteroid fragment.
After a while, the guest from outer space was returned to the Hodges family, but the owner of the house that Ann and her husband rented began to claim him. I had to defend the right to the stone in court, which cost Ann and her husband a considerable sum of $ 500 at that time.
As a result, justice prevailed and the Hodges became the rightful owners of the Sulakoga meteorite (in the press it was named after the city). The couple seriously hoped to improve their financial situation at the expense of the curiosity, but, oddly enough, neither museums nor collectors showed any interest in the meteorite.
In the end, Ann and her husband simply donated a 3.5-kilogram fragment of a celestial body to the Smithsonian Institution Museum, where it remains to this day. As for the lucky girl, the only one in the world who survived a meteorite hit, she divorced in 1964. Commenting on the divorce, Mr. Hodges told reporters that along with the "cursed stone from the sky", discord had flown into his family.
Ann Hodges herself left this world 18 years later, in 1972, before she even reached the age of 50. But the Sulakoga meteorite can be considered an excellent example of the selectivity of fortune. A neighbor of an unhappy family, a small farmer, soon after the meteorite fell, found a small fragment of it on his plot. He managed to sell his piece profitably, and with the proceeds to buy a large farm and a new car.
Interestingly, the Sulakoga meteorite is very similar to its Chelyabinsk counterpart — the same black and unsightly.