1. 1974: Hank Aaron hits his 175th Home Run to set the new record.
PHOTO: Al.com
A record crowd of 53,775 sat on the edge of their seats at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on this day in 1974 as the Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Al Dowling stood on the mound facing one of the most fear hitters in baseball, Hall of Fame legend Hank Aaron himself. It was Dowling’s fourth pitch that Aaron sent flying into the stands for his 715th Home Run to surpass Babe Ruth’s record of 714. As Aaron rounded third the crowd went crazy, some even storming the field to congratulate him, he was greated by the entire Braves team as well as a swarm of press. Fireworks went off and the whole nine yards. Aaron went on to hit a total of 755 and that record stood until Barry Bonds hit his 756th in 2007
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2. 1916: Fatal car crash at a California Road Race
PHOTO: Corona Public Library
“Wild Bob” Burman just before the wreck
PHOTO: hemmings.com
Race Car driver “Wild Bob” Burman was behind the wheel of a blue Peugeot comfortably in first place at the Boulevard Race in Corona, California, when suddenly his wheel broke as he was going around a corner and sent him flying into a group of spectators killing himself, co driver/mechanic plus a spectator. There were said to be at least 5 other people critically injured in the accident. Burman was a very talented driver, he was known for setting the Top Speed record of the time at 129mph which again that was in 1916 when they didn’t even have roofs on most of the cars and some didn’t even have windshields. Try sticking your head out of the window on the highway at 65 mph, then imagine doubling that. Talk about a rush. Because of this fatality race organizers made the decision to no longer hold races on public roads and that all races from then on would be on a track type format.
3. 1994 The day the world found out about the death of Curt Cobain
PHOTO: Dailymail
PHOTO: the Guardian
On this day in 1994 its announced to the world that Curt Cobain had been found dead in the apartment above the garage of his Seattle home. He was found by a lighting contractor there to do some work on the home and it was a gruesome sight. It was reported that he had fresh needle marks in his arms and had suffered a shotgun wound to the head. There was a suicide note stuck into a plant with a ballpoint pen found near Cobain’s body. We recently talked about the forensic analysis that determined the rock legend had actually committed suicide three days earlier on April 5th, but today was the day that had such a massive impact on pop culture because this was the day that the world found out. People close to Cobain said that he always struggled with the fame of being a rock star and if you add that in with his other battles with substances things rarely doesn’t seem to end on a positive note. Its such a sad story though because the guy was only 27 years old, if someone could have gotten through to him and helped him out of the pit he was in just think of the musical magic that he would have been able to produce.
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