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Nixon wins
Richard Nixon won the 1968 elections against democratic apponent Henry Humphrey in closest elections in U.S. history. -
Inauguration
NIxon is inaugurated as the 37th president of the United States of America. -
Pentagon Papers
The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers - the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War. The Washington Post will begin publishing the papers later that same week. -
Plumbers burglarizes psychiatrist's office.
The White House "plumbers" unit - named for their orders to plug leaks in the administration - burglarizes a psychiatrist's office to find files on Daniel Ellsberg, the former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. -
$25,000 Check
A $25,000 cashier's check, apparently earmarked for the Nixon campaign, wound up in the bank account of a Watergate burglar, The Washington Post reports. -
Nixon Reelected
Nixon is reelected in one of the largest landslides in American political history, taking more than 60 percent of the vote and crushing the Democratic nominee, Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota. -
NIxon recording conversations!
Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals in congressional testimony that since 1971 Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls in his offices. -
NIxon refuses to hand in tapes.
Nixon refuses to turn over the presidential tape recordings to the Senate Watergate Committee or the special prosecutor. -
1,200 pages of edited conversations.
The White House releases more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes to the House Judiciary Committee, but the committee insists that the tapes themselves must be turned over. -
Supreme courts rules "Hand over Tapes".
The Supreme Court rules unanimously that Nixon must turn over the tape recordings of 64 White House conversations, rejecting the president's claims of executive privilege. -
Impeachment
House Judiciary Committee passes the first of three articles of impeachment, charging obstruction of justice. -
Nixon resigns
Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to resign. Vice President Gerald R. Ford assumes the country's highest office. He will later pardon Nixon of all charges related to the Watergate case.
