MOMENTS IN TIME

• On Dec. 20, 1957, rock-and-roll star Elvis Presley receives his draft notice for the U.S. Army. Fans sent tens of thousands of letters asking for him to be spared, but Elvis would have none of it. He was sworn in as an Army private in Memphis, Tenn., on March 24, 1958.

• On Dec. 21, 1975, in Vienna, Austria, Carlos the Jackal leads a raid on a meeting of oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, killing three people and taking 63 people hostage. OPEC did not hold another summit for 25 years.

• On Dec. 22, 1939, two express trains collide in Magdeburg, Germany, killing 132 people. The accident was probably due to the fact that the country's best rail engineers had all been conscripted into the military.

• On Dec. 23, 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cuts off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France. He later documented the event in a painting titled Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear.

• On Dec. 24, 1851, a devastating fire at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroys about two-thirds of its 55,000 volumes. The first library catalog, dated April 1802, listed 964 volumes and nine maps.

• On Dec. 25, 1938, producer David O. Selznick asks Vivien Leigh to play Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind." Author Margaret Mitchell received an unprecedented $50,000 for the rights to her novel.

• On Dec. 26, 1974, beloved comedian Jack Benny dies of cancer. Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in 1894. Despite the stingy skinflint image he cultivated on the air, Benny was known for his generosity and modesty in real life.