On this date

In 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated.

In 1916, the World War I Battle of Verdun began in France as German forces attacked; the French were able to prevail after 10 months of fighting.

In 1945, during the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima, the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea was sunk by kamikazes with the loss of 318 men.

In 1947, inventor Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which used self-developing film to produce a blackand-white photograph in 60 seconds.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon began his historic visit to China as he and his wife, Pat, arrived in Beijing.

In 1975, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 21⁄2 to eight years in prison for their roles in the Watergate coverup (each ended up serving 11⁄2 years).

In 1986, Larry Wu-tai Chin, the first American found guilty of spying for China, killed himself in his Virginia jail cell.

Ten years ago: Serb rioters broke into the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade and set fire to an office during protests against Western support for an independent Kosovo.

Five years ago: Drew Peterson, the Chicago-area police officer who gained notoriety after his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished in 2007, was sentenced to 38 years in prison for murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

One year ago: President Donald Trump condemned recent threats against Jewish community centers in the U.S. as “painful reminders” of lingering prejudice and evil; the president also denounced “bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms” during his first visit to the new Smithsonian black history museum.