Nixon’s Resignation and the Watergate Scandal

  • Watergate Scandal Starts.

    Five men were arrested while trying to bug the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate, a hotel and office building in Washington, D.C. After one day, the White House press secretary, Ronald Ziegler, famously called the Watergate break-in a “third-rate burglary.”
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    Nixon’s Resignation and the Watergate Scandal

  • Nixon’s Re-election

    The Washington Post reported that a $25,000 check, that was intended for Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign, was deposited in the bank account of one of the Watergate burglars. It was one of the first developments linking the Watergate break-in to Nixon’s campaign.
  • The Committee to Re-Elect the President

    aka CREEP, was a group working on President Nixon’s re-election campaign, led by John Mitchelle. James McCord, the leader of the burglars at the Watergate building, was it’s security coordinator.
  • Saturday Night Massacre

    The dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus during the Watergate Scandal of 1973.
  • Trial for the Watergate Scandal

    The trail for the burglary at the Diplomatic National Committee’s HQ begins.
  • Nixon Refuses to Help the Investigation

    Nixon had taped his conversations and calls in office but refused to give Cox and Senate Watergate investigators the recordings, which became known as the “Nixon tapes.” The tapes were believed to contain critical evidence of a cover-up of Nixon’s involvement in the break-in; the previous month, Dean, the former White House counsel, acknowledged that he had talked with Nixon about the Watergate matter dozens of times.
  • Nixon’s Regination

    Nixon resigned from office on Augest 8, 1974, becoming the first president in American History to ever do so.