On this day in space! Nov. 30, 1954: Meteorite falls on woman in Alabama

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On Nov. 30, 1954, an Alabama woman received an out-of-this-world surprise.

On Nov. 30, 1954, an Alabama woman received an out-of-this-world surprise. Elizabeth Hodges was napping on her couch when a 10-pound meteorite crashed through the ceiling and hit her side.

Elizabeth Hodge displays the bruise (at left) she received when a meteorite fell through her ceiling (at right) at her home in Alabama on Nov. 30, 1954. (Image credit: University of Alabama)

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, she went to the hospital to get checked out. Hodges had a nasty bruise, but was otherwise unharmed.

Scientists quickly confirmed the rock had fallen from space. Hodges eventually donated the meteorite to a natural history museum. To this day, she is the only person in recorded history to have been struck by a meteorite.

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Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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