Here’s an interesting bit of news from 1879—possibly the first reported case of a death by meteorite in the U.S. Whether it is a true account or a bit of newspaper sensationalism is hard to say, but it’s definitely an intriguing (if somewhat gruesome) story!

Man killed by meteoriteMan killed by meteorite · Thu, Feb 6, 1879 – Page 3 · The Weekly Herald (Cleveland, Tennessee) · Newspapers.com

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One thought on “Death by Meteorite

  1. Clearly, a well conceived ploy by the couple to collect on the life insurance of the old man. They’d had enough of him snuffling around the house. A friend of theirs simply dropped the rock with perfect aim from 70,000 feet up in an air balloon. The couple conveniently arranged to be away that night and cleverly avoided revealing the calamity until the next morning. Brilliant. Later, they published sheet music of the event and made further profit.

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