1974 - Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth with 714 career home runs with a three-run shot off of Reds pitcher Jack Billingham. 1911 - Automobile maker Hugh Chalmers announces that he will award a new car ...

But the opponent for that April 4 opener 50 years ago, the Atlanta Braves, had a 40-year-old slugger named Hank Aaron ... idol Babe Ruth. Throughout the season and offseason, Aaron endured ...

That year, the U.S. Postal Department confirmed that Aaron received 900,000 letters, about a third of which "were letters of hate engendered by his bettering of Babe Ruth's career record." ...