How to return just one row after finding it

Hi all,
How would I write a query so, that it will stop searching as soon as it finds the first record in the table? The reason I would like to do that is so, the query doesn't go on and search for next 100,000 records for other records matching the same criteria. I just want the first one matching criteria and stop.

For example: I want to find PartDate where PartNumber = 1000 from PartHistory table.

Thanks in advance,
-MD Received on Fri Oct 01 1999 - 10:04:44 CDT