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The U.S. achieves the first moon landing
This goal was first accomplished during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969 when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. -
Nixon becomes the first U.S. President to travel to China
was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one of its staunchest foes. The visit has become a metaphor for an unexpected or uncharacteristic action by a politician. -
Televised Senate hearings on Watergate begin
The scandal takes its name from the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., the site of a 17 June 1972 break-in into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Subsequently, five men were arrested for breaking and entering. On September 15, a grand jury indicted the burglars, Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis, and two other men, E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G. Gordon Liddy, for conspiracy, burglary and violation of federal wiretapping law -
Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. President to resign
The resignation speech was delivered on August 8, 1974, at 9:01 pm Eastern time from the Oval Office and was carried live on radio and television. The core of the speech was Nixon's announcement that Gerald Ford, as Vice President, would succeed to the presidency, effective at noon Eastern time the next day. Around this announcement, he discussed his feelings about his presidential work and general political issues that would need attention once he left. He never admitted to criminal wrongdoing, -
Gerald Ford signs the Helsinki Accords on European security
The Helsinki Accords. In the summer of 1975 Gerald Ford traveled to Helsinki, Finland, and the leaders of 30 other nations to sign the Helsinki Accords. -
U.S. celebrates the bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence
A series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to the historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic. The Bicentennial culminated on Sunday, July 4, 1976, with the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. -
Jimmy Carter negotiates the Camp David Accords to promote peace in the Middle East
Carter chose to continue and for three more days negotiated. 18 September 1978. According to The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East: .In Israel, there is lasting support of the Camp David Peace Accords -
American hostages held in Iran are set free
The situation between Iran and the United States. Fifty-two US citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamic students and militants took over the Embassy of the United States in support of the Iranian Revolution. -
U.S. boycotts the Moscow summer Olympics
The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan spurred United States President Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from the country by 12:01 A.M. Eastern Standard Time on February 20, 1980. The official announcement confirming the boycott was made on March 21.