  Pulsar surveys offer one of the few opportunities to monitor even a small
fraction (~0.00001) of the radio sky for impulsive burst-like events with
millisecond durations. In analysis of archival survey data, we have discovered
a 30-Jy dispersed burst of duration <5 ms located three degrees from the Small
Magellanic Cloud. The burst properties argue against a physical association
with our Galaxy or the Small Magellanic Cloud. Current models for the free
electron content in the Universe imply a distance to the burst of <1 Gpc No
further bursts are seen in 90-hr of additional observations, implying that it
was a singular event such as a supernova or coalescence of relativistic
objects. Hundreds of similar events could occur every day and act as insightful
cosmological probes.
