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Nixon is elected vice president.
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Nixon defeated by John F. Kennedy in presidential election.
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Nixon runs for governor of California – defeated by Jerry Brown
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Richard Nixon defeats Hubert Humphrey in the presidential election.
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Nixon Goes to China, a foreign policy triumph.
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Woodward and Bernstein investigate Watergate break-in.
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Five burglars are arrested in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex. They were attempting to place a wiretap on the telephone of the Committee chairman
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a grand jury indicts the five burglars and two accessories for conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws.
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Nixon re-elected by a sweeping margin, Electoral College votes 520-17
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Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities chaired by Sen. Sam Ervin begins an investigation of the break-in
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Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities chaired by Sen. Sam Ervin begins an investigation of the break-in
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three high-level White House aides and the attorney general resign. Nixon gives his new attorney general (Elliott Richardson) authority to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate scandal.
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White House staffer Alexander Butterfield reveals to the Senate Select Committee that Nixon has began bugging the Oval Office in 1969 and that recordings of conversations exist. The special prosecutor immediately subpoenas those tapes, however,
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Nixon fires the special prosecutor because of his continuing insistence on gaining access to the Oval Office tapes.
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the United States House of Representatives voted 410-4 to begin an investigation of bringing impeachment charges against Nixon.
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seven key Nixon aides are indicted by a grand jury for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation. Nixon was secretly named as an unindicted co- conspirator, information that becomes public months later.
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The Nixon White House, persisting in its claims of executive privilege, and the special prosecutor continue arguing over access to the tapes and the case goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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In the case of U.S. v. Nixon, the court rules unanimously that claims of executive privilege are void and orders that the tapes be turned over to the special prosecutor.
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a recorded conversation between Nixon and his chief of staff on June 23, 1972, establishes incontrovertibly that Nixon took steps to thwart the investigations of the break-in by the FBI and the CIA. This tape is dubbed “the smoking gun.”
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Nixon resigns.
