Nixon resigns 1974
In an evening televised address, President Richard M. Nixon
announces his intention to become the first president in American
history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against him for
his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House.
“By taking this action,” he said in a solemn address from the Oval
Office, “I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of
healing which is so desperately needed in America.”
Just before noon the next day, Nixon officially ended his term as the
37th president of the United States. Before departing with his family
in a helicopter from the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and
enigmatically raised his arms in a victory or peace salute. The
helicopter door was then closed, and the Nixon family began their
journey home to San Clemente, California.
Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th
president of the United States in the East Room of the White House.
After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a
television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national
nightmare is over.” He later pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have
committed while in office, explaining that he wanted to end the national
divisions created by the Watergate scandal.
On June 17, 1972, five men, including a salaried security coordinator
for President Nixon’s reelection committee, were arrested for breaking
into and illegally wiretapping the Democratic National Committee
headquarters in the Washington,
D.C., Watergate complex. Soon after, two other former White House aides
were implicated in the break-in, but the Nixon administration denied
any involvement. Later that year, reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob
Woodward of The Washington Post discovered a higher-echelon conspiracy surrounding the incident, and a political scandal of unprecedented magnitude erupted.
In May 1973, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, headed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina,
began televised proceedings on the rapidly escalating Watergate affair.
One week later, Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was sworn in as
special Watergate prosecutor. During the Senate hearings, former White
House legal counsel John Dean testified that the Watergate break-in had
been approved by former Attorney General John Mitchell with the
knowledge of White House advisers John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman, and
that President Nixon had been aware of the cover-up. Meanwhile,
Watergate prosecutor Cox and his staff began to uncover widespread
evidence of political espionage by the Nixon reelection committee,
illegal wiretapping of thousands of citizens by the administration, and
contributions to the Republican Party in return for political favors.
In July, the existence of what were to be called the Watergate
tapes–official recordings of White House conversations between Nixon and
his staff–was revealed during the Senate hearings. Cox subpoenaed these
tapes, and after three months of delay President Nixon agreed to send
summaries of the recordings. Cox rejected the summaries, and Nixon
fired him. His successor as special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, leveled
indictments against several high-ranking administration officials,
including Mitchell and Dean, who were duly convicted.
Public confidence in the president rapidly waned, and by the end of
July 1974 the House Judiciary Committee had adopted three articles of
impeachment against President Nixon: obstruction of justice, abuse of
presidential powers, and hindrance of the impeachment process. On July
30, under coercion from the Supreme Court, Nixon finally released the
Watergate tapes. On August 5, transcripts of the recordings were
released, including a segment in which the president was heard
instructing Haldeman to order the FBI to halt the Watergate
investigation. Three days later, Nixon announced his resignation.
(More Events on This Day in History)
-
American Revolution
- 1775 Morgan and Virginians arrive in Cambridge
-
Automotive
- 1963 Land Rovers used in famous Great Train Robbery
-
Civil War
- 1863 Lee offers resignation
-
Cold War
- 1945 Truman signs United Nations Charter
-
Disaster
- 1956 Fire traps 262 miners
-
General Interest
- 1879 Emiliano Zapata born
- 1942 German saboteurs executed in Washington
-
Hollywood
- 1986 Spike Lee’s first feature, She’s Gotta Have It, premieres
-
Literary
- 1818 Keats returns from walking tour
-
Music
- 1988 Gangsta rap hits the mainstream with the release of N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton
-
Old West
- 1839 General Nelson Miles is born
-
Presidential
- 1974 Nixon resigns
-
Sports
- 1988 Lights go on at Wrigley
-
Vietnam War
- 1968 Nixon and Agnew receive the Republican Party nomination
- 1973 Vice President Agnew under attack
- 1974 Nixon announces that he will resign the Presidency
-
World War I
- 1918 Battle of Amiens
-
World War II
- 1945 Soviets declare war on Japan; invade Manchuria
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