August 9th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Unusual succession makes Ford president 1974

 

In accordance with his statement of resignation the previous evening, Richard M. Nixon officially ends his term as the 37th president of the United States at noon. 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. Richard Nixon was the first U.S. president to resign from office.

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.”

Ford, the first president who came to the office through appointment rather than election, had replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president only eight months before. In a political scandal independent of the Nixon administration’s wrongdoings in the Watergate affair, Agnew had been forced to resign in disgrace after he was charged with income tax evasion and political corruption. In September 1974, Ford 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.

(More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution

• 1776 Guy Johnson predicts Indian allegiances

• Automotive

• 2000 Bridgestone/Firestone announces massive tire recall

• Civil War

• 1862 Rebels score narrow victory at the Battle of Cedar Mountain

• Cold War

• 1985 Arthur Walker found guilty of spying for Soviet Union

• Crime

• 1969 Manson cult kills five people

• Disaster

• 1976 Hurricane Belle strikes Eastern Seaboard

• General Interest

• 1936 Owens wins 4th gold medal
• 2010 JetBlue flight attendant quits job via escape slide
• 378 Romans routed at Adrianople

• Hollywood

• 1969 Actress Sharon Tate found murdered

• Literary

• 1949 Mystery writer Jonathan Kellerman born

• Music

• 1995 Jerry Garcia dies

• Old West

• 1877 Nez Perce fight Battle of Big Hole

• Presidential

• 1974 Ford is inaugurated

• Sports

• 1988 The Great One gets traded

• Vietnam War

• 1967 Marines launch Operation Cochise
• 1974 Nixon leaves office

• World War I

• 1914 Walter Rathenau of AEG takes charge of German war production

• World War II

• 1945 Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki