On Dec. 21, 1945, U.S. Army Gen. George S. Patton, 60, died in Heidelberg, Germany, 12 days after being seriously injured in a car accident.

Ten years ago

The Senate rejected opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The Senate approved a six-month extension of the USA Patriot Act to keep the anti-terror law from expiring on Dec. 31, 2005.

Five years ago

The Census Bureau announced that the nation’s population on April 1, 2010, was 308,745,538, up from 281.4 million a decade earlier. A divided Federal Communications Commission approved, 3-2, new rules known as “net neutrality” meant to prohibit broadband companies from interfering with Internet traffic flowing to their customers.

One year ago

Jordan Axani, a 28-year-old businessman from Toronto, and a woman he’d never met before, Elizabeth Quinn Gallagher, a 23-year-old student from Nova Scotia, set out on a round-the-world trip. (Axani had advertised on social media for a travel companion after breaking up with his girlfriend, also named Elizabeth Gallagher; the companion was required to be a Canadian named Elizabeth Gallagher to take advantage of the non-refundable, nonexchangeable airline tickets.)

— By The Associated Press