Watergate Scandal Summary
Timeline of Watergate
November 1968: Richard Nixon, the 55-year-old former vice
president defeats Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in US history.
1969: Ehrlichman suggests to Caulfield that he leave the White House and set up a private security business that would provide security to the 1972 Nixon campaign.
July 14, 1970: Nixon endorses the Huston Plan
July 1, 1971: David Young and Egil Krogh
write a memo suggesting the formation of what would later be called the “White House Plumbers” in response to the leak of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg.
June 13, 1971: The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers the Defense Department’s secret history of the Vietnam War.
June 17, 1972: Five men, one of whom used to work for the CIA, are arrested trying to bug the offices of
the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex.
June 19, 1972: A GOP security aide is among the Watergate burglars, The Washington Post reports.
August 1, 1972: A $25,000 cashier’s check, apparently earmarked for the Nixon campaign, wound up in the bank account
of a Watergate burglar.
October 10, 1972: FBI agents establish that the Watergate break-in stems from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of the Nixon reelection effort.
November 11, 1972: Nixon is reelected in one of the largest landslides in American political history, taking more than 60 percent of the vote.
January 30, 1973: G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the
Watergate incident.
April 30, 1973: Top White House staffers, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard
Kleindienst resign over the scandal.
May 18, 1973: The Senate Watergate committee begins its nationally televised hearings.
June 3, 1973: John Dean has told Watergate investigators that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least
35 times.
June 13, 1973: Watergate prosecutors find a memo addressed to John Ehrlichman describing in detail the plans to burglarize the office of Pentagon Papers.
July 13, 1973: Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals in congressional testimony
that since 1971 Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls.
July 18, 1973: Nixon orders the White House taping system disconnected.
July 23, 1973: Nixon refuses to turn over the presidential tape recordings to the Senate Watergate committee.
October 20, 1973: Nixon fires Archibald
Cox and abolishes the office of the special prosecutor.
November 17, 1973: Nixon declares, “I’m
not a crook,” maintaining his innocence.
December 7, 1973: The White House can’t
explain an 18 1/2 -minute gap in one of the tapes. Chief of staff Alexander Haig
says one theory is that “some sinister force” erased the segment.
April 30, 1974: The White House
releases more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes to the
House Judiciary Committee.
July24, 1974: The Supreme Court rules
unanimously that Nixon must turn over the tape recordings of 64 White House
conversations.
July 27, 1974: House Judiciary
Committee passes the first of three articles of impeachment, charging
obstruction of justice.
August 8, 1974: Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to
resign. Vice President Gerald R. Ford assumes the country’s highest office.
July 27, 2003: Thirty years after the Senate select committee hearings on Watergate riveted the nation and doomed the Nixon
presidency, a key figure in the scandal says Richard M. Nixon personally ordered
the burglary of Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex.
November 13, 2003: Congressional
negotiators agree to undo part of a Watergate-era law that prevented former president
Richard M. Nixon from taking his tapes and papers with.
December 11, 2003: National Archives and
Records Administration releases 240 more hours of tape of the 37th
president.
May 27, 2004: Transcripts of telephone conversations
released show President Richard M. Nixon jokingly threatened to drop a nuclear
bomb on Capitol Hill in March 1974.
February 4, 2005: Thousands of pages of
notes, memos, transcripts and other materials collectively known as the Woodward
and Bernstein Watergate Papers opens to the public at the
University of Texas
May 31, 2005: The Washington Post confirms that W. Mark Felt, a
former number-two official at the FBI, was Deep Throat.
(Source: http://www.thefreeresource.com/watergate-scandal-facts-historical-timeline-and-resources)
president defeats Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in US history.
1969: Ehrlichman suggests to Caulfield that he leave the White House and set up a private security business that would provide security to the 1972 Nixon campaign.
July 14, 1970: Nixon endorses the Huston Plan
July 1, 1971: David Young and Egil Krogh
write a memo suggesting the formation of what would later be called the “White House Plumbers” in response to the leak of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg.
June 13, 1971: The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers the Defense Department’s secret history of the Vietnam War.
June 17, 1972: Five men, one of whom used to work for the CIA, are arrested trying to bug the offices of
the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex.
June 19, 1972: A GOP security aide is among the Watergate burglars, The Washington Post reports.
August 1, 1972: A $25,000 cashier’s check, apparently earmarked for the Nixon campaign, wound up in the bank account
of a Watergate burglar.
October 10, 1972: FBI agents establish that the Watergate break-in stems from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of the Nixon reelection effort.
November 11, 1972: Nixon is reelected in one of the largest landslides in American political history, taking more than 60 percent of the vote.
January 30, 1973: G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the
Watergate incident.
April 30, 1973: Top White House staffers, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard
Kleindienst resign over the scandal.
May 18, 1973: The Senate Watergate committee begins its nationally televised hearings.
June 3, 1973: John Dean has told Watergate investigators that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least
35 times.
June 13, 1973: Watergate prosecutors find a memo addressed to John Ehrlichman describing in detail the plans to burglarize the office of Pentagon Papers.
July 13, 1973: Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals in congressional testimony
that since 1971 Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls.
July 18, 1973: Nixon orders the White House taping system disconnected.
July 23, 1973: Nixon refuses to turn over the presidential tape recordings to the Senate Watergate committee.
October 20, 1973: Nixon fires Archibald
Cox and abolishes the office of the special prosecutor.
November 17, 1973: Nixon declares, “I’m
not a crook,” maintaining his innocence.
December 7, 1973: The White House can’t
explain an 18 1/2 -minute gap in one of the tapes. Chief of staff Alexander Haig
says one theory is that “some sinister force” erased the segment.
April 30, 1974: The White House
releases more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes to the
House Judiciary Committee.
July24, 1974: The Supreme Court rules
unanimously that Nixon must turn over the tape recordings of 64 White House
conversations.
July 27, 1974: House Judiciary
Committee passes the first of three articles of impeachment, charging
obstruction of justice.
August 8, 1974: Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to
resign. Vice President Gerald R. Ford assumes the country’s highest office.
July 27, 2003: Thirty years after the Senate select committee hearings on Watergate riveted the nation and doomed the Nixon
presidency, a key figure in the scandal says Richard M. Nixon personally ordered
the burglary of Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex.
November 13, 2003: Congressional
negotiators agree to undo part of a Watergate-era law that prevented former president
Richard M. Nixon from taking his tapes and papers with.
December 11, 2003: National Archives and
Records Administration releases 240 more hours of tape of the 37th
president.
May 27, 2004: Transcripts of telephone conversations
released show President Richard M. Nixon jokingly threatened to drop a nuclear
bomb on Capitol Hill in March 1974.
February 4, 2005: Thousands of pages of
notes, memos, transcripts and other materials collectively known as the Woodward
and Bernstein Watergate Papers opens to the public at the
University of Texas
May 31, 2005: The Washington Post confirms that W. Mark Felt, a
former number-two official at the FBI, was Deep Throat.
(Source: http://www.thefreeresource.com/watergate-scandal-facts-historical-timeline-and-resources)