On this day:
SKYFALLS: LIMESTONE AND ICE
On April 11, 1925, a ball of limestone burst from the sky near Bleckenstad, Sweden, shattering into fragments upon impact with the earth. The pieces were examined by Professor Hadding of Lund University and were found to contain fossilized marine shells and particles of an animal resembling a trilobite.
On April 11, 1983, a 100-pound block of ice dropped out of the sky, smashing onto city pavement in Wuxi, China. Icefalls have been reported around the world for hundreds of years. In the ninth century AD, during the reign of Charlemagne, a block of ice, measuring 5 x 2 x 3.5 meters (16.4 x 6.6 x 11.5 feet), fell from the sky. In the late 1700s, an ice block "as big as an elephant" fell in Seringa-patam, India.
In 1849, a crystal-clear chunk of ice weighing approximately 1,000 pounds fell on a farm in Ord, Scotland. More than 6 meters (19.7 feet) in circumference, it was reportedly made up of cube- and diamond-shaped pieces that were joined together. Also in Scotland, in 1950, a man driving his car near Dumbarton was caught in an ice shower; 112 pounds of ice were collected from the scene. Great Britain recorded numerous icefalls in 1950 and 1951.
In 1985 a sheet of ice, 6 feet (1.8 meters) long and 8 inches (20 centime-ters) thick, came whirling out of the sky at 200 mph (321 kph), in Hartford, Connecticut. It weighed 1,500 pounds and crashed into a fence ten feet away from two children who were playing in their backyard.
Text from: Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored by Juanita Rose Violins, published by Weiser Books, 2009
