1999
March 26
Around midday a metal board, suspected by astronomers to be space rubbish, fell to the ground near a primary school in Yuhua District of Nanjing City, capital of east Jiangsu Province, China. Mr. Liang who witnessed the incident said he was walking out of the school about 11 .30 when he heard a strange sound above his head. Before he could figure out what was going on, this metal board about 52 cms long, 25 cms wide, silver-gray in color, and weighing 12. 5 kgs, crashed onto the brick ground about 10 meters away.
Professor Hu Zhongwei from the Astronomy Department of Nanjing University suspects the board to be space junk. In space there exist many lost or scrapped man-made satellites and other waste. He said it was possible that sometimes the junk falls into the earth's atmosphere where it is usually burnt up but some may reach the ground.
[Source: Guangzhou Morning Post -- Apr 2 1999]
July 2
A plague of frogs hopped into the living room of a house in Tonbridge, Kent
[Source: The People / London - July 4 1999]
September
Teacher Susan Townsend had a lucky escape when a 6lb block of ice came crashing through the roof of her school shed - just 5ft from where she stood. The ice is believed to have fallen from an aircraft's wing. The Civil Aviation Authority is investigating the incident at Barlestone Primary, Leicestershire.
[Source: Sunday Mirror / London -- Sept 12 1999]
2000
May 30
In drought-striken southern Ethiopia peasant farmers tending their fields were pelted by fish.
"The unusual rain of fish which dropped in millions from the air - some dead and others still struggling - created panic among the mostly religious farmers," the weekly Amharic newspaper said in its May 31 issue.
