Hank Aaron hit one home run on April 8 during his Major League career. It happened 51 years ago, and it was the rare baseball play that transcended the game.

On April 8, 1974, the Mobile native did something that so many had thought for so long couldn’t be done: Aaron replaced Babe Ruth as baseball’s home run king by hitting the 715th round-tripper of his career.

In the fourth inning of a National League game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Aaron hammered a pitch from Al Downing over the 385 mark on the left-center field fence and into the home bullpen at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

Aaron broke the record of 714 home runs that had stood since Ruth circled the bases for the final time on May 25, 1935. And the Bambino had been baseball’s career home run leader for longer than that. Ruth held the home run record for 52 years, 263 days, taking the top spot from Roger Connor on July 18, 1921, with his 139th homer.

Aaron reigned as baseball’s home run king for 33 years, 121 days until Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run on Aug. 7, 2007. Bonds remains baseball’s all-time leader with 762 home runs, with Aaron in second place.

Aaron remains the MLB career leader for RBIs with 2,297, extra-base hits with 1,477 and total bases with 6,856.

While Aaron’s 715th home run was his most famous round-tripper, with 754 other regular-season homers, plus six in the postseason and two in the MLB All-Star Game, Hammerin’ Hank had many other four-baggers of note on his way to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Here are five:

Sept. 23, 1957: The Milwaukee Braves had a five-game lead on the second-place St. Louis Cardinals with six games to play in the National League season. With the game tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the 11th inning, Milwaukee shortstop Johnny Logan singled off St. Louis pitcher Billy Muffett. The rookie reliever retired future Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews for the second out of the inning, but Aaron connected for a home run over the center-field fence to clinch the pennant for the Braves. His teammates carried him off the field, and Aaron later would say the home run was the best moment of his baseball career.

June 18, 1962: Aaron connected for what is considered the longest home run of his career. The hit was only the third to reach the Polo Grounds’ distant center-field bleachers, which were 483 feet from the plate. One of the three was smashed by Milwaukee strongman Joe Adcock, a teammate of Aaron’s since the Mobilian broke into the big leagues in 1954. The other had been hit just the previous day by future Hall of Famer Lou Brock. Aaron’s home run came off Jay Hook, already 4-8 on his way to an 8-19 record for the woeful first-year New York Mets, a National League expansion team. Fellow Mobilian Frank Bolling led off the third inning for the Braves with a game-tying homer and, five batters later, Aaron launched a grand slam in Milwaukee’s 7-1 victory.

Sept. 25, 1966: With seven games left in the Atlanta Braves’ inaugural season, Aaron connected for two home runs in a 6-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta Stadium on his way to a league-leading 44. What was so special about Aaron’s homer leading off against Tommie Sisk in the fourth inning of a 6-2 Atlanta win? It pinned a crucial loss on the Pittsburgh Pirates, who missed a chance to move with one-half game of the league-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. Beyond that, the homer was the 860th hit by either Aaron or Eddie Mathews as Braves’ teammates and broke the record for most home runs hit by two teammates. Mathews was in his final season with the Braves. He and Aaron were teammates from 1954 through 1966 and finished with 863 homers between them. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit 859 homers as teammates on the New York Yankees from 1923 through 1934.

Sept. 17, 1969: Major League Baseball expanded in 1969, adding the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres to the National League and the Seattle Pilots and Kansas City Royals to the American League. The new 12-team leagues were split into divisions, and the Braves were in a dogfight with the San Francisco Giants in the NL West when Aaron led off the top of 12th inning of a 5-5 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a home run off reliever Ray Lamb. Atlanta won the game 6-5 to take a one-half-game lead over the Giants, who lost 2-1 to the Houston Astros that day. The victory launched a hot streak during which the Braves won 11 of their final 13 games to finish three games ahead of the Giants in the NL West and advance to the first National League Championship Series. Even though Aaron hit three home runs, the Braves were swept by the New York Mets in the best-of-five NL title series, and the Amazin’ Mets went on to win the World Series.

June 10, 1972: Aaron hit his 10th home run of the season on his way to 34 in 1972. More significantly, the homer was the 649th of Aaron’s career, lifting him past fellow Alabamian Willie Mays into sole possession of second place on the all-time home run list and symbolically stamping Aaron, and not Mays, as the player hunting Babe Ruth’s record. The homer off Wayne Twitchell was a grand slam in a 15-3 Atlanta victory, tying Aaron with Gil Hodges and fellow Mobilian Willie McCovey for the National League grand-slam record, which was 14 at the time.

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