



One this day in 1620, one week after the Mayflower was anchored
at Plymouth harbor in present-day Massachusetts, construction
of the first permanent European settlement in New England began.
These dwellings would shelter them through their difficult first
winter in America.


General George S. Patton Jr., an American World War II
hero famed for his battlefield brilliance, unvarnished view
of combat and volatile personality, died in Heidelberg,
Germany, on this day in history, Dec. 21, 1945. He was
60 years old.
Patton was paralyzed in an auto accident on Dec. 9. "Old
Blood and Guts" died in the hospital of a blood clot in his
heart.


On December 20, 1957, while spending the Christmas holidays
at Graceland, his newly purchased Tennessee mansion, rock-
and-roll star Elvis Presley received his draft notice for the United
States Army.

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)