Abstract:
This document meticulously chronicles the spectacular Leonid meteor shower of November 13, 1833. This rare astronomical display, caused by Earth crossing the orbit of the Tempel-Tuttle comet, saw hundreds of thousands of meteors cascade across the sky from midnight to dawn, most visibly in the Deep South. While newspapers in larger Georgia cities like Milledgeville, Macon, and Savannah reported the "splendid phenomena", its impact on the sparsely populated Berrien County was felt deeply inspiring awe, fear, and widespread spiritual interpretations, with some believing it signaled the end of the world. This event prompted scientists like Yale professor Denison Olmsted to research its cause and leading to the eventual discovery of the Tempel-Tuttle comet in 1865-1866, establishing the link between comets and meteor showers. Though subsequent returns of the comet in 1899 and 1932 did not produce similar storms, scientists anticipate another potentially remarkable display around 2031-2033, exactly two centuries after the original "night the stars fell".