In what has become a right of passage for world leaders, a shoe was thrown at Hillary Clinton yesterday.

The Former Secretary of State was speaking at an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries meeting in Las Vegas when a woman hurled the shoe at the stage, narrowly missing Clinton's head.

At first, Clinton thought an animal had flown into the room.

She asked, "What was that? A bat? Is that a bat?"

Security officers walked through the crowd as the audience tried to figure out what was going on.

Clinton inquired, "Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque de Soleil?"

The crowd cheered as a blonde woman was led out of the Mandalay Hotel & Casino conference room with her hands raised above her head.

"My goodness, I didn't know solid waste management was so controversial," Clinton quipped. "Thank goodness she didn't play softball like I did."

While Clinton avoided being hit because of bad aim on the part of the attacker, Former President George W. Bush had to duck and dodge two shoes that were thrown at him in 2008.

At a Baghdad news conference, an Iraqi journalist threw the shoes while screaming "This is a farewell ... you dog!" and "You killed the Iraqis!"

Dozens of shoe-throwing assaults on world leaders have taken place since Bush's famous 2008 attack. In some Arab cultures, it is considered a severe insult to throw shoes at someone.

Clinton is expected to run for president in 2016. If she wins, she would become the first female president in United States history.