An exceptionally large and bright meteor streaks across the northern areas of the United States

A strikingly brilliant meteor was seen in a clear sky across the northern United States and Canada in the late evening.  Visible in a swath seven hundred miles wide, it first appeared over Michigan at an estimated altitude of ninety miles and passed between New Haven, Connecticut and New York City at a height of about forty-two miles around ten o'clock, just after having broken into three pieces.  It then streaked out over the Atlantic at an estimated speed of fifty times the speed of sound.  (By John Osborne)