Meteorite Over United States

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 18

Meteorite Over United States

CN.Z.P.A. Reuter —Copyright >

FORT WAYNE (Indiana), Sept. 17. An exploding meteorite hurtled across 1000 miles of the north-eastern United States tonight, turning night into day before bursting apart over Indiana.

Terrified Americans called police stations and newspaper offices .in nine states in search of an explanation. Residents of Anilac County, Michigan, said its fiery path was “so bright you could read by it,” and in Port Huron electronically-con-trolled street lights were fooled into switching off for the night. The meteorite, described as a bolid (fireball) by meteorologists at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, strewed two states and part of southern Canada with flaming fragments.

Several chunks as big as 18 Inches in diameter landed in a cluster on the Indiana farm of Mr Wayne Glasbum.

One fireball landed only 100 feet from him like “a dragon spitting fire—only larger,” he said. Police in Michigan state received numerous reports of small fires starting on farmland but patrol cars sent out to examine them found nothing serious. There were no reports of injuries to people. The meteorite was first seen around north New York state at 8 p.m. local and one airline pilot reported sighting its glow as far west as Denver, Colorado. Mr Charles Lindsay, a Washington airport meteorologist who saw the phenomenon, said it was “about the most brilliant thing I had ever seen in the sky.”