Premier League records are there to be broken, but in the case of Alan Shearer's long-standing achievement, no player has yet been able to surpass it.
It was on this day in 1999 that the England international striker found the net five times in Newcastle United's 8-0 thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday - the joint highest-winning margin since the restructuring of the top flight 23 years ago.
Andy Cole had previously laid claim to the record of most goals scored in a single game, coming in Manchester United's own crushing victory at Ipswich Town four years prior.
What made this occasion all the more special for Newcastle supporters was the fact that Sir Bobby Robson was taking charge of his first home match at the helm, with his side struggling at the wrong end of the table.
Six defeats and one draw from their opening seven fixtures saw the Magpies in need of a major turnaround, which was duly provided by a Shearer-inspired win against Wednesday to eventually kick on into a mid-table finish.
It was the ideal start for Robson, too, who would later write his name in St James' Park folklore, as a side which fell apart under Ruud Gullit soon showed signs of better things to come.
Shearer, who had never previously scored more than three goals in a single game, bagged himself a treble inside 12 first-half minutes in the most one-sided of affairs in the North-East.
The first, a deft flick from Noberto Solano's cross put the Toon Army well on their way after Aaron Hughes had opened the scoring, before the England international added a second from the spot following Emerson Thome's unfortunate handball inside the area.
Three minutes before the break, buoyed by the inspired home faithful, Shearer was at it again when directing home a Kieron Dyer pass. Game over before the break, then, but there was far more to come from the Magpies.
It was not the first time the prolific forward had achieved the feat of scoring three times inside the first half, either, having done likewise for England against Luxembourg just a fortnight prior.
One man who made his debut in that international match, Dyer, was proving to be a real problem for Wednesday to deal with, and it was the youngster who made it five soon after the restart.
The late Gary Speed added his own name to the scoresheet, but this contest belonged to one man, with Shearer adding two more to his tally late on.
After picking up a loose ball and firing past a down-and-out Kevin Pressman, the Toon talisman converted from the spot for the second time after substitute Paul Robinson was brought down just inside the area.
"It's been a long time coming," the man of the moment said after the match. "It's worth the wait but we mustn't get carried away. I'm sorry to bring everyone back down to earth but we have only got three points.
"We are still second bottom so there's still a lot of hard work to be done. But we are certainly on the right track as our last three performances have suggested."
While United eventually moved into mid-table and avoided a relegation scare, it was a different matter entirely for their opponents who dropped into the second tier come the end of the season.
As far as the goalscoring record itself is concerned, Shearer - by far and away the Premier League's all-time top scorer - joins Cole, Jermain Defoe and Dimitar Berbatov as being one of only four men to have struck five times in a single game.
Newcastle United XI: Harper, Barton, Hughes, Goma, Domi, Solano, Lee, Speed, Dyer, Ketsbaia, Shearer
Subs: Wright, Glass, McClen, Beharall, Robinson
Sheffield Wednesday: Pressman, Nolan, Thome, Walker, Newsome, Rudi, Sonner, Donnelly, Alexandersson, De Bilde, Booth
Subs: Srnicek, Carbone, Haslam, Sibon, O'Donnell
