narrator: it came from outer space, searing the sky over a densely populated russian city. michael garnett: i went to the window and i looked outside and i just saw this giant streak across the sky. ruslan safarov (translated): it was so bright it was blinding, and i had to look down. narrator: a white-hot fireball as big as a building weighing 10,000 tons headed for earth. people had no idea what was about to hit. mark boslough: my first reaction was, this is the big one. probably something bigger than we ever expected to see in our lifetimes. this is a once-in-a-century event. narrator: it is the biggest recorded meteor strike
we are starting in chicago where right now president obama s about to take the stage to talk about two of the top priorities from his state of the union speech, jobs and guns. we expect him to connect the need for jobs as a way to get young people off the streets and out of trouble. right now you re looking at some video of cleopatra pendleton. she s the mother of the young girl struck down by gunmen in chicago a few weeks ago, right around the time of the inauguration after she performed at president obama s inaugural. she s one of the guests there for president obama s visit. we ll be going there to chicago as soon as mr. obama starts speaking. but first i want to bring in our chris cuomo who was in chicago right now. he s going to tell us a little bit about what we should expect from the president and what he ll be talking about. obviously, chris, gun violence has been a major issue in chicago for many, many months now and the president has been called to this question, wh