Ann Hodges: The First Person Hit by a Meteorite

The impact of any meteorite can quickly draw media attention not only because of its unusual nature, but also because of its potential for damage. The Chelyabinsk bolide was a stark reminder, but if we want to explore an even stranger case, all arrows point to the small town of Sylacauga in Alabama, on November 30, 1954. That day a 5.5-kilogram meteorite fell, and one of its fragments struck a woman named Ann Hodges…

"Strike me dead." A classic phrase if ever there was one, but what are the real odds of suffering an impact? Unfortunately, the numbers vary too much. Some say 300,000 to 1 per year, others raise it to 700,000 to 1, and 900,000 to 1. Additional sources indicate 12,000 to 1 or 3,000 to 1 over a lifetime (the region has a great influence), but there is greater agreement when calculating the percentage of lethal impacts, between 5 and 10 percent.

Now, what about a meteorite? The rules change a bit here: The odds of dying from a space rock in a lifetime range from 700,000 to 1 to 1,300,000 to 1. Throughout history, multiple accounts of meteorite impacts on human beings have been recorded, but the first documented beyond any doubt happened in 1954.

A Meteorite in Sylacauga

Ann Hodges was at home, taking a nap on the sofa around noon on November 30. Her life changed forever when a piece of black rock about 30 centimeters (described as "like a very large grapefruit") tore through the roof of the house at full speed, hit a radio, bounced, and struck Hodges squarely on the hip.

The town of Sylacauga was immediately thrown into chaos. A crowd gathered at the door of the house, and Ann's husband (Eugene) had to push his way through. A federal geologist in the area said it was a meteorite, but people had their doubts, fueled by Cold War paranoia.

Overwhelmed by the presence of the public, Hodges was taken to the hospital, and the police confiscated the rock until the Air Force confirmed the geologist's analysis. The subsequent public claim was that the rock should remain in the Hodges family's possession, and so it did... at least for a while.

The problem was that Ann and her husband rented the house, and the owner of the property, Birdie Guy, sued for the fragment. People disagreed, but the law did, and they only reached an out-of-court settlement with 500 dollars on the table.

Eugene became convinced he could make a lot of money from the meteorite fragment and rejected an initial offer from the Smithsonian. However, the "jackpot" never materialized. Two years later, they donated the meteorite to the Alabama Museum of Natural History (it is still there). Some time later, Ann suffered a nervous breakdown, separated from her husband in 1964, and died in 1972 of kidney failure, at just 52 years old.

Eugene never abandoned the suspicion that the meteorite and all the attention "were too much for Ann". The museum director Randy Mecredy seemed to agree with that interpretation, and considered the Hodges to be simple people who did not want scandals. I'm afraid there is no happy ending here...

(Editor's note: Several portals suggest that Hodges is "the only" person to have been hit by a meteorite, but in 1992, a young Ugandan man experienced something similar with a 3-gram fragment.)

Source: NatGeo