Former Atlanta Braves baseball great, Hank Aaron, was born on this day in 1934 in Mobile, Alabama. For many, Henry Louis Aaron, Jr. is probably best known for breaking Babe Ruth's 1935 record of 714 career home runs.
On April 8, 1974, playing in a home game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Aaron hit his 715th career home run. The baseball slugger's record-breaking home run came in the fourth inning before a crowd of over 50,000 fans.
Aaron began his professional baseball career in 1952 and joined the Milwaukee Braves in 1954 and won the National League batting title in 1956. The following season he took home the league's MVP award. "Hammerin' Hank" went on to win his second league batting title in 1959.
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Aaron's baseball records include hitting .300 or higher for 14 seasons and in May 1970, he became the first player in baseball to record 500 homers and 3,000 hits.
The right-hander played for the Atlanta Braves from 1966 to 1974 and spent his final two seasons as a professional baseball player in Milwaukee with the Brewers.
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He retired in 1976, and returned to the Atlanta Braves taking an executive position with his former team. Aaron still holds the records for most career runs batted in (2,297), most career total bases (6,856) and most career extra base hits (1,477); he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982 and resides in the metro Atlanta area.
Editor's note: This information was gathered from History.com and several other websites.
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