Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021) 

Aaron played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from
1954 through 1976. Considered one of the greatest baseball
players in history, he spent 21 seasons with the Milwaukee /
Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) and two seasons
with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League (AL).

At the time of his retirement, Aaron held most of the game’s key
career power-hitting records. He broke the long-standing MLB
record for career home runs held by Babe Ruth and remained
the career leader for 33 years, until Barry Bonds surpassed his
famous total of 755 in 2007. He hit 24 or more home runs every
year from 1955 through 1973 and is one of only two players to
hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times.

On February 2, 1876, the National League of Professional
Baseball Clubs, which came to be more commonly known
as the National League (NL), was formed. The American
League (AL) was established in 1901 and in 1903, the first
World Series was held.

The first official game of baseball in the United States took
place in June 1846 in Hoboken, New Jersey.

    
    
    
    
    
   
On this day in 1936, the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elected its first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson.

Sanford Koufax, Nicknamed “the left Arm of God” and 
“Dandy Sandy," is 88.

On January 19,  1972, 36-year-old Sandy Koufax, the former
Los Angeles Dodgers star, became the youngest player
elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. "This is the only thing
that’s made having to retire early a little easier," says Koufax,
who retired at age 30. "This is the biggest honor I’ve ever been
given, not just in baseball, but in my life."

It was the ultimate All-American romance: the tall, handsome hero
of the country’s national pastime captures the heart of the beautiful, glamorous Hollywood star. But the brief, volatile marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio–the couple wed on January 14, 1954–
barely got past the honeymoon before cracks began to show in
its brilliant veneer.

In 1952, the New York Yankees slugger DiMaggio asked an
acquaintance to arrange a dinner date with Monroe, a buxom
blonde model-turned-actress whose star was on the rise after
supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business (1952) and
a leading role in the B-movie thriller Don’t Bother to Knock (1952).

The press immediately picked up on the relationship and began to
cover it exhaustively, though Monroe and DiMaggio preferred to
keep a low profile, spending evenings at home or in a back corner
of DiMaggio’s restaurant. On January 14, 1954, they were married
at San Francisco City Hall, where they were mobbed by reporters
and fans. Monroe had apparently mentioned the wedding plans to someone at her film studio, who leaked it to the press.