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Richard Nixon Wins the electon of 1968 over Hubert Humphrey.
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Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president of the United States of America.
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Nixon approves a plan that greatly expandes domestic intelligence-gathering by the FBI, CIA and other agencies. He has second thoughts a few days later and takes back his approval.
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Daniel Ellsberg has givenThe New York Times the Pentagon Papers, which are the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War. The New Yrok Times begins to publish them. The Washington Post will begin publishing the papers later that same week.
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Nixon's White House aides start his enemies list.
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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.
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Five men, one of whom says he used to work for the CIA, are arrested at 2:30 a.m. trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex.
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A $25,000 cashier's check, apparently earmarked for the Nixon campaign, wound up in the bank account of a Watergate burglar.
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On this day, Nixon has the conversation with Haldeman that is dubbed the "smoking gun" tape. Nixon is telling Haldeman that tey need to use the CIA to cover up the Watergate break-in.
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One of the Watergate burglars recieves a cahier's check, apparently from the Nixon campaign.
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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.
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H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resign over the scandal.
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L. Patrick Gray reisigns. He has destroyed files from E. Howard Hunt's safe, and has been found out. William Ruckelshaus is appointed as his replacement.
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John Dean has told Watergate investigators that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least 35 times
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The Senate Watergate Committee begins its nationally televised hearings. Attorney General-designate Elliot Richardson taps former solicitor general Archibald Cox as the Justice Department's special prosecutor for Watergate.
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Watergate prosecutors find a memo addressed to John Ehrlichman describing in detail the plans to burglarize the office of Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist
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Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals in congressional testimony that since 1971 Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls in his offices.
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Nixon refuses to turn over the presidential tape recordings to the Senate Watergate Committee or the special prosecutor.
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Nixon fires Archibald Cox and abolishes the office of the special prosecutor. Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus resign. Pressure for impeachment mounts in Congress.
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Nixon declares, "I'm not a crook," maintaining his innocence in the Watergate case.
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The White House can't explain an 18 ½-minute gap in one of the subpoenaed tapes. Chief of Staff Alexander Haig says one theory is that "some sinister force" erased the segment.
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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.
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The House Judiciary Committee passes the first three articles of impeachment on this day. They chrage Nixon with obstruction of justice.
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The "Smoking Gun" tape was made public. from here on, there is no possibility of Nixon being innocent
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Richard Nixon resigns to avoid being impeached and removed from office. Gerald R. Ford assumes the Presidency. Later, he pardons Nixon of all charges having to do with the Watergate case.
