MOMENTS IN TIME

The History Channel

• 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.” During his lifetime, van Gogh sold only one painting.

• On Dec. 22, 1900, the first car to be produced under the “Mercedes” name is delivered to its buyer, Emil Jellinek, an Austrian car racer and auto dealer to the rich and famous. In exchange for buying 36 of the cars, the auto company agreed to name its new machine after Jellinek’s 11-year-old daughter, Mercedes.

• On Dec. 24, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge touches a button and lights the first national Christmas tree to grace the White House grounds. The tree was the first to be decorated with electric lights — a strand of 2,500 red, white and green bulbs.

• On Dec. 20, 1957, rock ‘n’ roll star Elvis Presley receives his draft notice for the United States Army. He served in Company D, 32nd Tank Battalion, 3rd Armor Corps in Friedberg, Germany, where he attained the rank of sergeant.

• On Dec. 25, 1962, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a film based on the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Harper Lee, opens in theaters. The Great Depression-era story of racial injustice and the loss of childhood innocence is told from the perspective of a young Alabama girl named Scout Finch.

• On Dec. 21, 1975, in Vienna, Austria, Carlos the Jackal leads a raid on a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), killing three people and taking 63 hostage. Carlos managed to evade international authorities until 1994, when French agents captured him hiding in the Sudan.

• On Dec. 19, 1986, Michael Sergio, who parachuted into Game Six of the 1986 World Series at New York’s Shea Stadium, is fined $500 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service. Sergio had landed on the infield with a “Let’s Go Mets” banner in the first inning of the sixth game between the Mets and the Boston Red Sox.

(c) 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.