* 1981 – In the 39th game of his 3rd NHL season Wayne Gretzky scores 5 goals giving him 50 on the year setting a new NHL record previously held by Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy who earlier had each scored 50 goals in 50 games.

At 16, in his single year at the major junior level, Gretzky surpassed the OMJHL single-season scoring record, winning the OMJHL Rookie of the Year and Most Sportsmanlike awards.

Gretzky captured the Lou Kaplan Trophy as rookie of the year, and helped the Oilers to first overall in the league.

Gretzky became the youngest player to score 50 goals but was not eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, given to the top NHL rookie, because of his previous year of WHA experience.

Gretzky was sidelined for much of the 1992 – 93 regular season with an upper back injury, the only year in which he did not lead his team in scoring.

The sale was not completed until the following year, on February 15, 2001, after two missed deadlines while securing financing and partners before Ellman and Gretzky could take over.

The next year, although the Islanders had won three straight Stanley Cups, more attention was being paid to the upstart Edmonton Oilers, whose young superstar Wayne Gretzky had just shattered existing scoring records.

The team's performance would improve in 1978, when new owner Peter Pocklington acquired Wayne Gretzky as an under-age player ( consequentially, his first year of WHA experience prevented him from being an official 1979 – 80 NHL rookie ), as well as goaltender Eddie Mio and forward Peter Driscoll, from the recently-folded Indianapolis Racers for cash.

However, Pocklington had signed him to a twenty-one year personal services contract in 1979 and Pocklington used the contract to force the NHL to admit the Oilers and allow the Oilers to keep Gretzky.

However, Gretzky won the Conn Smythe Trophy after setting the record for most points in a playoff year ( forty-seven ).

Only three players have won the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Hart Memorial Trophy for most valuable player during the regular season in the same year: Bobby Orr in 1970 and 1972, Guy Lafleur in 1977 and Wayne Gretzky in 1985.

The latter fact was perhaps most prominent when in 1979 – 80, first-year phenom Wayne Gretzky was not eligible to win the Calder Trophy despite scoring 137 points ( the previous rookie record at the time being 95 ), because he had played a full season the previous year in the World Hockey Association.

He became the first ( and to this date, the only ) player to captain two different teams to the Stanley Cup, something his former teammate Wayne Gretzky couldn't do the year before, and provided two of the most memorable images of that Stanley Cup Finals.

He won his only Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender that year and finished second in voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP, behind Mario Lemieux and ahead of teammate Wayne Gretzky.

Sergei was introduced to Gretzky by Paul Coffey during the 1994 NHL All Star Game, which led to him staying over at his L. A home with his family for 2 weeks that year.

Note: Wayne Gretzky had 137 points in his first year in the NHL ( 1979 – 80 ), but was not considered a " rookie ", due to his time spent with the World Hockey Association's Indianapolis Racers and Edmonton Oilers, where he won the rookie of the year award in that league during the 1978 – 79 season with 104 points.

, Gardiner remains the second-oldest player to ever win the award, after Eddie Shore and along with Wayne Gretzky is one of only two players to be named most valuable in their first year in the league.

The following year was his breakout season, making the NHL for good with the Kings, where he became the team's lead centre after Wayne Gretzky was traded late in the year amidst a full-scale reorganization of the team ; Perreault scored 25 goals to finish second on the squad.

The Pittsburgh Penguins ' Kevin Stevens became only the third person in NHL history to outscore Gretzky in the regular season ( Marcel Dionne tied Gretzky in Wayne's rookie year, but had more goals, and Mario Lemieux won the Art Ross Trophy over Gretzky in 1988 and 1989 ).

Gretzky aside, many players made their debut in the NHL this season, both due to the WHA merger and to a change in the rules for the Entry Draft allowing eighteen and nineteen year olds to be drafted for the first time ; no fewer than six Hall of Famers ( Gretzky, Ray Bourque, Mark Messier, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet and Joe Mullen ; Mullen was undrafted ) debuted this season along with numerous other perennial stars.

he became Otto Klemperer's personal assistant at the Cologne Opera, and a year later was promoted to the position of regular conductor.

Manningham also proceeded M.A. in 1632 and became a fellow of his college in that year.

When the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company reached its 125th year as a going industrial concern during 1958, it became an almost unique institution in the mechanical world.

Thereafter seed and food became more plentiful and the colony remained in the north the year round.

One reel -- from eight to twelve minutes -- became the standard length from the year of Robbery, 1903, until Griffith shattered that limit forever with Birth Of A Nation in 1915.

Starting with the 7th Academy Awards, held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.

It became the fourth month of the calendar year ( the year when twelve months are displayed in order ) during the time of the decemvirs about 450 BC, when it also was given 29 days.

About 700 BC it became the eighth month when January and February were added to the year before March by King Numa Pompilius, who also gave it 29 days.

In the following year he became provisional Principal of the Theological College of Saint Thomas ( from which he had just graduated ), and in 1903 his appointment was made permanent.

Ahab became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned for twenty-two years.

Lists of these " year names " henceforth became a calendrical system used in most independent Mesopotamian city-states.

The situation became unstable and, in the following year, being led by what he afterwards discovered to be false representations, Afonso declared Peter a rebel and defeated his army in the Battle of Alfarrobeira, in which his uncle ( and father-in-law ) was killed.

In the twentieth year of the Buddha's ministry, he became the Buddha's personal attendant, accompanying him on most of his wanderings and taking the part of interlocutor in many of the recorded dialogues.

The same year Carnegie became a figure of controversy.

Anne was barely a year old when her mother became ill of what is believed to have been uterine cancer.

In that year he became Kappellmeister of the Imperial Chapel upon the death of Giuseppe Bonno ; as Kappellmeister he conducted the music and musical school connected with the chapel until shortly before his death, being official retired from the post in 1824.

When Afzal Khan died at the end of the year, Azam Khan became the new ruler, with Abdur Rahman as his governor in the northern province.

The year after his marriage Cuyp became the deacon of the reformed church.

In this year he became Statthalter in Belgium and received the army rank of lieutenant field marshal.

Bardot pleaded with Gainsbourg not to release this duet and he complied with her wishes ; the following year, he re-recorded a version with British-born model and actress Jane Birkin, which became a massive hit all over Europe.

On completion of his tour of duty in India, Montgomery returned to Britain in June 1937 where he became commanding officer of the 9th Infantry Brigade with the temporary rank of brigadier, but that year saw great tragedy when his wife was bitten by an insect while on holiday in Burnham-on-Sea.

William F. Miller was interim CEO until September of that year, when Whitney G. Lynn became interim president and CEO and then continued to have a succession of CEOs including Dale Fuller and Tod Nielsen.

In Bede's thirtieth year ( about 702 ) Bede became a priest, with the ordination again performed by Bishop John.

Ruth retired in 1935 after a short stint with the Boston Braves, and the following year, he became one of the first five players to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.