Roy Sullivan survived seven lightning strikes between 1942 and 1977

Roy Sullivan (1912-1983) was a park ranger at Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia. His first lightning strike came in April 1942, inside a fire-watch tower: it burned a strip on his foot. The second, in July 1969, while driving down a mountain road: it took off his eyebrows and eyelashes. The third, in 1970, in his own garden: it hurt his shoulder. The fourth, in 1972, inside the ranger station: it set his hair on fire. The fifth, in 1973, crossing a clearing: it threw him two metres through the air. The sixth, in 1976, near a lagoon: it injured his ankle. The seventh, on 25 June 1977, while trout fishing: it burned his chest and stomach, and he still had to fight off with a stick a bear that was after his basket.

The Guinness Book of Records gave him in 1972 the title of ‘the man with the most documented lightning strikes’ and confirmed it after the seventh. The estimated odds of any given person being struck by lightning in their lifetime are about one in fifteen thousand. The odds of the same person being hit seven times are a figure with no known denominator: the only proof is Sullivan.