A Meteorite Hits Ann Hodges

HISTORY This Week

The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios

History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

November 30, 1954. At about 12:45 in the afternoon, a space rock comes plummeting through the roof of a house in Sylacauga, Alabama. It bounces off a stand-up radio, ricochets around the living room, and collides with the thigh of Mrs. Ann Hodges, who’s been napping on the couch. Newspapers declare: “experts agreed unanimously that Mrs. Hodges was the first person known to have been struck by a meteorite.” What happened to this space rock after it crashed to Earth and thrust itself into volatile human affairs? And what happened to the human beings whose lives were upended by this rarest of rare events?

Thanks to our guests: Dr. Julia Cartwright, planetary scientist at the University of Alabama; Billy Field, professor at the University of Alabama and screenwriter; and Julie Love Templeton, attorney in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Dr. Cartwright is involved in a number of art/science collaborations to engage and educate the public about meteorites and planetary science. You can find out more on her website, https://le.ac.uk/people/julia-cartwright. Keep an eye out for Billy Field’s latest project, TheStoryAcorn.com, which launches in January 2023. The website will feature history from the Civil Rights movement, told by those who lived it. The website teaches students to gather stories from their own communities and share them with the world. Thanks also to Mary Beth Prondzinski, former collections manager at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, and to the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

** This episode originally aired November 28, 2022.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, History This Week listeners. It's Sally here. As we are heading to the end of the year,
0:05.7	I just wanted to thank you all for sticking with us these last five years. We really do love
0:12.6	bringing these stories to you every week, and we cannot wait to keep it going in 2026. If you
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0:34.1	Instagram or Facebook. Thank you so much for listening. We could not make this show
0:38.7	without you. The History Channel, original podcast. History This Week, November 30th,
0:49.1	1954. I'm Sally Helm. What I am about to tell you, I want you to keep in mind that the chances of it happening
0:59.3	are so low that I don't even know how you would calculate them.
1:04.9	At about 1245 in the afternoon, a space rock comes plummeting through the roof of a house in Silicaga, Alabama.
1:14.2	It bounces off a stand-up radio, ricochets around the living room, and then strikes a woman
1:21.1	who was, up until a moment ago, napping on the couch. Anne Hodges is declared the only known person to ever have been hit by a meteorite.
1:34.3	It's happened to a few other people since then, and there may have been others before too.
1:39.3	But in 1954, newspapers are saying,
1:43.3	experts agree unanimously that Mrs. Hodges was the first person known to have been struck by a meteorite.
1:52.0	The only recorded person ever to be so lucky or so unlucky.
1:59.4	We're going to tell you today about her life, what happened to it after her cosmic
2:04.4	encounter. But first, let's spend just a moment on the life of the meteorite. Let me put my
2:11.9	meteorite hat on. Okay. Here to give voice to our meteorite is Dr. Julia Cartwright,
2:18.7	a geologist and planetary scientist and a meteor expert.
2:23.9	Let us live in this meteor's mind for a moment.
	...

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