November 9, 2025 marks the 102nd anniversary of the fireball witnessed by H.H. Nininger in McPherson, Kansas. This event birthed his career in meteorites, and many would say, the modern science of meteoritics.
From his autobiography:
“On the evening of November 9, 1923, faculty and students gathered in the chapel for a lecture, play, chorus or some other of the programs common to college communities. At the close of the program I walked toward home with my friend, Professor E. L. Craik. We paused in front of his house to chat. Astronomy didn’t enter our conversation. Had anyone asked, I could have told them that we were sailing along in our orbit at about eighteen-and-a-half miles per second, that our town and college along with all the rest of the earth’s surface were in normal rotation about its axis at a little less than a thousand miles an hour. But I surely could not have told that a meteorite only a few thousand miles away was following a course that within minutes would mean the extinction of this minor member of the solar family before our very eyes and at the same time would start a metamorphosis in the life of a young biologist.
“Suddenly a blazing stream of fire pierced the sky, lighting the landscape as though Nature had pressed a giant electric switch. The blade of light vanished with equal suddenness, leaving a darkness seeming thicker than before.
“Momentarily Professor Craik was speechless. Then he saw that I was bent over, making a mark on the sidewalk. He asked me what I was doing. I remember telling him I was going to find that meteorite and that I was plotting its path from where I saw it. He laughed, but I was serious.”
Nininger identified the vicinity of Coldwater, Kansas, as the likely area of the fireball’s fall. He eventually recovered two unrelated meteorites (one stony and one iron) from the vicinity, though he later concluded that neither of them was from the fall he had witnessed. However, the method he developed for chasing that fireball, educating the public about meteorites and enlisting the help of local residents and the press, was used for the remainder of his career.
In celebration of this Anniversary, copies of In Search of Falling Stars are 20% off for the month of November.