'Attack' from space in 1954: how an American woman survived a meteorite fall
'10.02.2021'
Source: Historian
The only case in the history of the planet when a person managed to survive after an "attack" from space happened on November 30, 1954. On this day, a fragment of the asteroid Toro fell on the American town of Sulakoga, Alabama, falling into the house of the Hodges family, says Historian.
A fragment of a cosmic body weighing almost four kilograms (3.8 kg) broke through the roof of Anne Elizabeth Hodges' house at about seven in the evening, when the hostess lay down to rest in front of the TV in a large room. There was a radio on the table next to it, and a meteorite hit it, bouncing off into the woman.
Miraculously, a four-kilogram asteroid, later named after the city, pierced the roof, smashed the radio, but spared the woman who escaped with a slight fright, waking up from noise and a sharp pain in her side. The fragment left a large hematoma on the victim's body and went down in the history of the city.
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The times in the yard were alarming, the Cold War was in full swing, therefore, in a bright heavenly flash, eyewitnesses saw Russian missiles and the beginning of a nuclear war. However, fears were quickly dispelled and a crowd of onlookers rushed to the home of a modest housewife, who literally woke up famous, being the only person in the world who survived a meteorite hit.
The famous family, possessing an entrepreneurial streak, really wanted to keep the alien object with them, but the harsh police confiscated the celestial stone that staged the performance. The Hodges continued the battle in court, where they withstood a lawsuit with the landlord, who also claimed the Sulakog meteorite, and became the happy owners of a 4-kilogram gift from space.
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After paying $ 500 to obtain ownership, the couple wanted to sell the stone to a museum, exhibition, or private collection. But the plans for enrichment turned to dust, because the words “Internet” and “HYIP” had not yet appeared and there were no buyers. As a result, the ill-fated piece of the asteroid ended up in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution, to which the owners simply presented the recent sensation.
Now the Sulakoga meteorite rests on the exhibition stand, and Ann Elizabeth Hodges herself died in 1972, and remains to this day a unique lucky one who managed to survive the impact of a space object.
