As August historically is the month for meteor showers such as the Southern delta Aquarids, the alpha Capricornids, and the Perseids, one shocking meteoric happening occurred on an August night in 1913 in Tiverton, as broadcast in the August 29th New York Times.
FALL RIVER, Mass., August 28 – A meteor fell into the Seaconnett River near Tiverton, R. I., last night, churning up the water and producing an explosion that sounded like the discharge of a twelve-inch gun. The phenomenon occurred during an electrical storm.
The explosion was heard for a distance of twenty miles. In the immediate vicinity windows were broken and crockery shaken from shelves, while at Island Park, nearly two miles away, a merry-go-round was jarred into motion.
Persons who saw the fiery body as it hissed through the sky say it was of unusual size and traveling so rapidly as to appear almost like a flash of lightning. Great jets of steam spurted from the water when the meteor struck the river.
The New York Times
New York, New York
August 29, 1913
But wait, not so fast!
Tiverton “Meteor” Proves to be Fake
TIVERTON, R.I., September 8 – The Tiverton meteor of August 27 was today removed from the realm of natural phenomena by two young men who confessed to the police that the supposed celestial meteor was composed of sixty pounds of dynamite and a quantity of copper slag. The meteor which was reported to have fallen in the Seaconnet river was accompanied by a blinding light and a deafening crash.
Two fishermen later found in their nets a heavy piece of metal, which was declared to be the fallen “meteor.” The fishermen put their find on exhibition and did a profitable business until a Brown University geologist pronounced the meteor nothing but copper slag, found in quantities near a local manufacturing plant.
The police closed the exhibition and began an investigation which resulted in the confession of two young men that, with some companions, they had taken the dynamite and exploded it behind Gould’s Island in order to cause a sensation.
Atlanta Constitution
September 9, 1913