February is Black History Month and this year marks the 400th anniversary that blacks were brought to Bermuda as indentured servants. Throughout this month, The Royal Gazette will feature people, events, places and institutions that have contributed to the shaping of African history.Henry Louis Aaron was born February 5, 1934, in Mobile, Alabama, the third of eight children to Herbert Aaron, a shipyard worker at Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company, and his wife, Estella. Aaron decided he wanted to be a major-league baseball player after hearing a speech by the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson while visiting Mobile on April 3, 1950, during spring training. While in high school, Aaron began playing for the Mobile Black Bears, a semi-professional team, and in 1952 began a season with the Indianapolis Clowns. Aaron was the last player to come from Negro leagues and achieve success in Major League Baseball. In 1954, Aaron was brought up to the Milwaukee Braves to replace an injured outfielder. Aaron hit a home run in his first major league at-bat. He would continue to hit home runs in remarkable fashion for the next two decades. Aaron was the only major league player to hit at least 20 home runs in every season for 20 consecutive years, at least 30 for 15 years, or at least 40 for eight years. He was the first player to record more than 3.000 hits and 500 home runs. On April 8, 1974, Aaron hit his 715th career home run, breaking the record long held by Babe Ruth.In the period when Aaron was closing in on Ruth’s home run record, he grew angry and disillusioned by the hate mail and physical threats that he and his family received on a daily basis. When asked if he threw out the hate mail, Aaron replied, “No, I didn’t. That will never be thrown away ... We still have to be reminded that things are not as good as we think they are.”Although he will be remembered as the player who broke Ruth’s home run record, “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron set a number of other records in Major League Baseball. He held the record for most career home runs (755), until Barry Bonds broke it in 2007, but he still has the mark for most runs batted in (2,297). Aaron also won three consecutive Gold Glove awards from 1958 through 1960, played in a record-tying 24 All-Star games and was named National League MVP in 1957.Hank Aaron was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. The Hank Aaron Award is given annually to the best overall hitter in each league. In 2002, Henry Aaron was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by president George W. Bush, the highest honour given to a civilian by the US Government. Sources: Tom Stanton, Hank Aaron and the Home Run that Changed America (New York: William Morrow, 2004); National Baseball Hall of Fame, http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/aaron_hank.htm; The New Georgia Encyclopedia: Hank Aaron, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-739