An Alabama woman made history 70 years ago Saturday when she survived a close encounter with a piece of falling space debris.

Ann Hodges, 34, was napping on her couch in Oak Grove, near Sylacauga, on Nov. 30, 1954, when she was struck in the thigh by a meteorite that had crashed through her roof and ricocheted off her radio set.

Observers in Talladega County that day reported seeing a fireball in the sky and hearing an explosion, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. The city's police chief and mayor were summoned to Hodges' house, where they took possession of the space rock.

Hodges became the center of a short-lived media storm as the first person known to have survived being struck by a meteorite. She appeared on the popular quiz show "I've Got a Secret." Life magazine published a brief article with a photo of her injury under the headline, "A big bruiser from the sky."

The object was turned over to the Air Force and then the Smithsonian Institution before returning to Alabama, where it was the subject of a legal struggle between Ann and Hewlett Hodges -- her spouse -- and their landlord over who owned it.

The case was settled, with the 8.5 lbs. meteorite going into Ann Hodges' possession. She donated it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama, where it is on permanent display.

Hodges did not ask for or receive any profit from her donation, according to a 2022 University of Alabama article. She died in 1972.

The meteorite is believed to be 4.5 billion years old and likely broke off from an asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter before taking its plunge to Earth.