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Many eyebrows were raised when a French woman claimed to have been hit by a meteorite earlier this month.
Not least because the chance of someone being hit by a space rock is estimated to be between one in 700,000 and one in 100 trillion.
That and the fact that there has only been one known meteorite victim — a 34-year-old woman from Alabama who was hit by a grapefruit-sized alien rock 70 years ago.
Well, it may be an unwelcome record, but Ann Hodges remains the only person in recorded history to be struck by a meteorite after dozens of geologists rushed to dispel the unnamed French resident’s claims.
She said she was hit in the ribs by a piece of meteorite while enjoying a cup of coffee with a friend on the terrace of her home in Schirmeck, northeastern France.
Painful: There has only been one known meteorite victim — an Alabama woman named Ann Hodges (pictured), who was hit by a grapefruit-sized alien rock nearly 70 years ago
Shocked: Hodges stands over the hole in the roof through which a meteorite came through
But some experts saw the story go global and said it couldn’t be a meteorite because it had irregular, pointed edges instead of being smooth like a space rock would after melting in Earth’s atmosphere.
Instead, they said it was just an ordinary earthy stone that either fell off a roof, off the wheels of an airplane, or was thrown by burglars to see if anyone was home.
However, the rock that hit Hodges was most definitely a meteorite.
On November 30, 1954, she was happily dozing on her couch when a 4.5-billion-year-old, 8.5-pound space rock shot through her roof, bounced off a radio, and hit her on the thigh and hand, leaving her with a large bruise.
Her mother, who was in another room, ran to her daughter’s aid when she heard a scream.
Neither knew what had happened in the immediate aftermath, only that the house was full of dust.
At first they thought the chimney had collapsed or a heater had blown before they discovered it a stone on the floor and a bruise on Ann’s body.
The pair then called the police and fire department.
Shortly before the impact, some Sylacauga residents reported seeing “a bright reddish light” across the sky “like a Roman candle leaving smoke.”
Others said they saw a “ball of fire, like a giant swinging arc” and heard a big bang.
Its intensity was so intense that many thought a plane crashed into the earth.
Authorities were inundated with calls expecting to find a crash site, before identifying Hodgeses’ home as “ground zero” and discovering a hole in the roof.
Only when they gathered all the evidence did the penny slowly begin to drop.
What emerged later is that as the meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere, it broke apart. One fragment hit Hodges, while another was discovered miles away by a farmer.
Eugene, Hodges’ husband, was completely unaware of what had happened until he returned home later that day to find emergency vehicles and a crowd of people around the couple’s home.
On November 30, 1954, she was happily dozing on her couch when a 4.5-billion-year-old, 8.5-pound space rock (pictured) shot through her roof, bounced off a radio, and hit her thigh.
Collateral damage: This is the radio that the meteorite bounced off of before hitting Hodges on the upper leg
His wife then told him that there had been “a little bit of excitement” that day.
Despite initially not needing hospital treatment, Hodges was admitted the next day – not because of the bruise, but because of the mental problems the ordeal had caused her.
Eugene would later claim that his wife’s behavior changed in the months and years after the meteor impact.
Her health problems worsened, her shyness turned into social anxiety, and she suffered from what appeared to be post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The couple divorced 10 years later.
Prior to their split, and in the immediate aftermath of the incident, Ann and Eugene spent a year in a bitter legal dispute with their landlady over the rights to the piece of meteorite that smashed through their home.
Although the law favored the landlord, the public rallied behind Hodges and she was eventually allowed to keep it after she and her husband agreed to pay a $500 (£389) settlement.
Disputed: A woman claimed she was hit by a meteorite while enjoying a cup of coffee with a friend in Schirmeck, northeastern France (pictured above). However, dozens of geologists rejected the idea that it was a space rock because of its irregular spines. Meteorites are usually smoother
Hodges had said of the legal squabble over property, “God meant it would hit me. After all, it hit me!’
Unfortunately, interest in the meteorite had waned by the time Hodges and her husband acquired the stone.
They tried to sell it but couldn’t find a buyer, so they initially used it as a door stop before closing it Alabama Natural History Museum.
The farmer who had also dropped a piece of the Hodges meteorite on his land was much more fortunate.
Julius Kempis McKinney quickly sold it to the Smithsonian while Hodges’ legal ordeal was still ongoing, allowing him to buy a new car and house with the proceeds.
Decades later, in 2017, part of this second, smaller piece of the space stone was sold at auction house Christie’s for $7,500 (£5,800).
Hodges would eventually pass away at just the age of 52, having struggled mightily in the spotlight of her fame.
She died of renal failure in a nursing home on September 10, 1972, while her ex-husband was alive until 2012.