ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

History Trivia: Roy Sullivan: The Human Lightning Rod 165 Views


Share It!


Description:

Static shocks aren't so bad after getting struck by lightening 3 times, right, Roy Sullivan?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in Roy sullivan is not the

00:06

most important historical figure but he's one of my favorites

00:09

I was certainly shocked while reading about him Roy sullivan

00:15

is the only person to have ever been struck by

00:17

lightning seven times and he survived Every single one is

00:21

really cool right Sullivan grew up hiking the blue ridge

00:25

mountains which is a part of the appalachian mountains which

00:27

suppose across virginia west virginia north carolina by today's standards

00:32

he was pretty undereducated He did not complete high school

00:36

He did go to college He was just basically like

00:38

i want to be a park ranger So he became

00:41

a park ranger at shenandoah national park in nineteen thirty

00:44

six which wasn't very long after the park was actually

00:46

established And it was one of the first national parks

00:48

on the east coast So he's kind of like one

00:52

of the first of many things your fancy guys So

00:56

between nineteen forty two in nineteen seventy seven sullivan was

00:59

struck by lightning a total of seven times And like

01:02

i said he's survived every single time So it happened

01:04

once in the nineteen forties It happened once in the

01:07

nineteen sixties event happened five times in the night Eighteen

01:11

seventies Yeah You think at some point the guy would

01:13

retire early or something but no he just kept going

01:17

Of course he you know was injured every time he

01:20

would get burns you know he would cinch off eyebrows

01:23

singed hair And there was even a few times he

01:25

almost died He lost consciousness And yeah i was like

01:29

you think michael is so lucky Survived but like no

01:31

still really ugly My favorite parts he became known as

01:35

the spark ranger for her For her i'm sure he

01:39

appreciated that So there was rumors that would go around

01:42

about him like that he had lightning rods attached to

01:45

the posts of his four poster bed and stuff And

01:48

so a lot of people still don't believe the stories

01:50

but it's really not a country legend because v s

01:53

far as we know because the superintendent of the park

01:56

actually officially documented every single time he was struck by

01:59

lightning and roy sullivan act she didn't make it into

02:01

the guinness book of world records So he got something

02:04

for all of his troubles A it's a really cool

02:08

story When it's actually i got really sad because towards

02:11

the end people stopped wanting to be around him because

02:14

they were like i'm gonna get struck by lightning if

02:16

i'm around you all the time So frank stay away

02:20

like e I don't know for sure but i think

02:23

this lead teo In nineteen eighty three he died from 00:02:27.558 --> [endTime] a self inflicted gunshot wound which is sad Yeah

Up Next

GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
39791 Views

GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government

Related Videos

Fake News
11936 Views

How do you tell fake news from real news?

Jane Eyre Summary
123033 Views

When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...

What is Shmoop?
91299 Views

Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...

ACT Math 4.5 Elementary Algebra
492 Views

ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?