LOS ANGELES — December 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i was attacked, bringing the United States into World War II, was called “a date which will live infamy,” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his December 8, 1941 speech before the United States Congress, asking that they declare war against the Empire of Japan.
To be sure, December 7, 1941 was certainly a cataclysmic one in American and World History. Fast forward almost 47 years to August 9, 1988, a date that, for many Canadians, was another date which will live in infamy—the day when the unthinkable happened: then-Edmonton Oilers superstar center Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.