Do you remember where you were at 8:07 p.m. CDT on this date 50 years ago?

Having trouble remembering? Here’s a hint: “There’s a new home run champion of all-time, and it’s Henry Aaron.”

Those were the words used by Milo Hamilton of the Atlanta Braves radio network when Aaron homered in the fourth inning against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing at that time on April 8, 1974.

If you were around a half-century ago and were a baseball fan, there’s a good chance you were watching NBC’s telecast of the Dodgers-Braves National League game in hopes of witnessing a moment in history by the Mobile native: Hank Aaron breaking perhaps what was the most sacrosanct record in U.S. sports.

Aaron hammered a high fastball from Downing over the 385-foot mark on the left-center field fence at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium for his 715th career home run, breaking his tie with Babe Ruth at the top of baseball’s all-time list.

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Also on hand to chronicle Aaron’s accomplishment was another Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster — Vin Scully for the Los Angeles Dodgers radio network.

After Aaron’s home run, Scully said: “What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. It is a great moment for all of us, and particularly Henry Aaron.”

On the call for the NBC broadcast that night were Curt Gowdy and Joe Garagiola. Gowdy told fans: “You’re watching one of the great moments in baseball history.” And he added a personal note: “This has to be, I think, my supreme thrill in broadcasting tonight.”

After about 10 minutes of celebration and ceremony, during which Aaron said, “I just thank God it’s all over,” the game resumed. During the break, it had started to rain. But the shower passed, and Aaron’s 715th home run went into the record book with no hitches.

Aaron got a congratulatory phone call from U.S. President Richard Nixon in the sixth inning, and the Braves went on to win the game 7-4.

After the game, Aaron told reporters: “I feel I can relax now. I feel my teammates can relax. I feel I can have a great season.”

As a footnote to the historic night, Aaron had walked and scored in the game’s second inning, breaking the record for most runs by a National League player, which had been held by another Alabama native, Willie Mays.

Aaron finished his career in 1976 with 755 home runs. That stood as baseball’s all-time record until Aug. 7, 2007, when the San Francisco Giants’ Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run.

Bonds stopped playing with 762 home runs. However, because Bonds became associated with using performance-enhancing drugs, Aaron is sometimes called baseball’s real home run king.

When a report surfaced in 2009 that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was contemplating expunging steroid-era statistics from the baseball’s record books, Aaron said: “In all fairness to everybody, I just don’t see how you really can do a thing like that and just say somebody isn’t the record-holder anymore, and let’s go back to the way that it was. If you did that, you’d have to go back and change all kinds of records.

“And the (home run) record was very important to me. It’s probably the most hallowed record out there, as far as I’m concerned, but it’s now in the hands of somebody else.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.