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Timeline

Before 1971

  • November 5, 1968 – Nixon is elected President.
  • January 20, 1969 – Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th President of the United States.

1971

  • February 1971 – Nixon orders the installation of a secret taping system that records all conversations in the Oval Office, his Executive Office Building office, and his Camp David office as well as selected telephones in these locations.
  • June 13, 1971 – 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 in the week.
  • August 21, 1971 – Nixon’s Enemies List is started by White House aides.
  • September 9, 1971 – The White House Plumbers (E. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, and others) break into the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, Lewis Fielding, in an unsuccessful attempt to steal psychiatric records to smear Ellsberg—the defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press. The White House Plumbers, also known as the Plumbers, was a covert White House Special Investigations Unit composed of ex-FBI and CIA operatives to investigate the leaked Pentagon Papers. This specific operation was under the direction of John Ehrlichman or his staff within the White House.

1972

  • January 1972 – G. Gordon Liddy, one of the Plumbers, is transferred to the Committee to Re-Elect the President (abbreviated CRP, but often mocked by the acronym CREEP). He obtains approval for a wide-ranging plan of espionage against the Democratic Party from Attorney General John Mitchell.
  • May 28, 1972 – Liddy’s team breaks into the DNC Headquarters at the Watergate complex for the first time, bugging staffers’ telephones.
  • June 17, 1972 – Five men are arrested after breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters—Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martínez, James W. McCord, and Frank Sturgis. Among their possessions were bugging devices, thousands of dollars in cash, and rolls of film. James McCord, one of the men arrested, is the security director for the CRP.
  • June 20, 1972 – Bob Woodward (The Washington Post) has his first of several meetings with the source and informant known as “Deep Throat”—W. Mark Felt, the associate director of the FBI.
  • June 20, 1972 – Nixon and H. R. Haldeman, the White House chief of staff, have a conversation that is recorded by the White House taping system; eighteen and half minutes of this conversation will later be erased.
  • June 23, 1972 – President Nixon and Haldeman have a conversation that becomes the content of the “smoking gun” tape which was released two years later following an order by the Supreme Court. The tape reveals that Nixon ordered the FBI to abandon its investigations of the Watergate break-in—demonstrating Nixon’s knowledge of the White House connection to the Watergate burglaries and his role within the cover-up.
  • August 30, 1972 – President Nixon announces that John Dean has completed an internal investigation into the Watergate break-in and found no evidence of White House involvement.
  • September 15, 1972 – Hunt, Liddy, and the Watergate burglars (Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martínez, James W. McCord, and Frank Sturgis) are indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in the June break-in.
  • November 7, 1972 – Nixon is re-elected.

    1973

    • January 8, 1973 – The Watergate break-in trial begins presided over by Judge John Sirica. Hunt pleads guilty (January 11); Barker, Sturgis, Martínez, and Gonzalez plead guilty (January 15); Liddy and McCord are convicted on all counts of break-in indictment (January 30).
    • January 20, 1973 – Nixon is inaugurated for his second term.
    • February 7, 1973 – US Senate creates Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, popularly known as the Senate Watergate Committee; Senator Sam Ervin (D-NC) is the chairman. Rufus Edmisten is appointed Deputy Chief Counsel on the Senate Watergate Committee
    • March 21, 1973 – In a White House meeting, John Dean tells Nixon, “We have a cancer—within—close to the Presidency, that’s growing.” They discuss how to pay the convicted Watergate burglars as much as $1 million in cash to continue the cover-up.
    • March 23, 1973 – Watergate burglar James McCord’s letter to Judge John Sirica is read in open court. In the letter, McCord claims that some of his testimony was perjured under pressure and that the burglary was not a CIA operation and had involved other government officials.
    • April 6, 1973 – John Dean begins cooperating with Watergate prosecutors.
    • April 27, 1973 – L. Patrick Gray, acting FBI director, resigns after admitting that he destroyed documents from E. Howard Hunt’s safe that were given to him by John Dean after the Watergate break-in. William Ruckelshaus is appointed his replacement.
    • April 30, 1973 – White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman resign; White House counsel John Dean is fired.
    • April 30, 1973 – Nixon delivers his first primetime address to the nation on the Watergate scandal where he stresses his innocence.
    • May 17, 1973 – The Senate Watergate Committee begins public hearings to investigate the Watergate incident.
    • May 25, 1973 – Archibald Cox sworn in as the Justice Department's special prosecutor for Watergate.
    • June 3, 1973 – John Dean tells Watergate investigators that he has discussed the cover-up with Nixon at least 35 times.
    • July 6, 1973 – President Nixon informs the Senate Watergate Committee that he will not appear to testify nor grant access to his presidential files, claiming Executive Privilege.
    • July 13, 1973 – Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals the presence of a White House taping system since 1971.
    • July 18, 1973 – Nixon reportedly orders the White House taping system disconnected.
    • July 23, 1973 – The Senate Committee and Special Prosecutor Cox subpoena White House tapes and documents. Rufus Edmisten and Terry Lenzner serve the subpoena to Leonard Garment on behalf of the President.
    • July 25, 1973 – President Nixon refuses to comply with the subpoena and turn over the presidential tapes.
    • August 9, 1973 – The Senate Watergate Committee files suit against Nixon for failure to comply with subpoena.
    • August 15, 1973 – The Senate Watergate Committee wraps up its hearings.
    • August 15, 1973 – Nixon delivers his second primetime address to the nation on Watergate where he claims that the investigations are a witch-hunt against him and his administration.
    • October 10, 1973 – Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns amidst bribery and income-tax evasion charges. Two days later, Nixon nominates Gerald Ford as vice president who is then sworn in in December.
    • October 12, 1973 – In Nixon v. Sirica (1973), the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholds the subpoena issued by Judge John Sirica. The decision states that executive privilege is for the courts to define, not the executive themselves.
    • October 19, 1973 – Nixon attempts a legal maneuver to avoid handing over the tapes to Cox by suggesting that Senator John Stennis (D-MS) summarize the tapes for investigators. This becomes known as the “Stennis compromise.” Cox will refuse the offer the next day.
    • October 20, 1973 – “Saturday Night Massacre” – Nixon orders the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resign rather than carry out these orders. Solicitor General Robert Bork carries out the orders and fires Cox.
    • October 23, 1973 – President Nixon agrees to hand over tapes in compliance with the subpoena.
    • November 1, 1973 – Leon Jaworski is appointed new special prosecutor.
    • November 17, 1973 – Nixon delivers “I am not a crook” speech at a televised press conference in Florida.
    • November 21, 1973 – Senate Committee announces the discovery of an eighteen and half minute gap on the tape of Nixon-Haldeman conversation on June 20, 1972. The White House is unable to explain the gap; Nixon’s secretary Rose Mary Woods later claims she accidentally erased the material.

    1974

    • February 6, 1974 – The House of Representative authorizes the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether grounds exist for the impeachment of President Nixon.
    • March 1, 1974 – Indictments are handed down for the “Watergate Seven” (John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson), and the grand jury names Nixon as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
    • April 16, 1974 – Special Prosecutor Jaworski issues a subpoena for 64 White House tapes.
    • April 29, 1974 – Nixon delivers his third primetime address to the nation in which he announces that he will make the White House tape transcripts public.
    • April 30, 1974 – The White House releases more than 1,200 pages of edited tape transcripts, but the House Judiciary Committee insists the actual tapes must be turned over.
    • May 9, 1974 – The House Judiciary Committee starts impeachment proceedings against Nixon.
    • June 27, 1974 – James Reston takes a break from teaching to go to Washington, D.C., to witness the impeachment proceedings. This marks the start of his impeachment diary.
    • July 24, 1974 – The Supreme Court unanimously (8-0) upholds Jaworski’s subpoena for tapes for the Watergate trial; the case is known as United States v. Nixon (1974).
    • July 27-30, 1974 – The House Judiciary Committee debates and approves three articles of impeachment—obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. The impeachment was sent to the floor of the House for a full vote, but the vote was never carried out.
    • August 5, 1974 – Nixon releases transcripts of three conversations with Haldeman on June 23, 1972—later referred to as the “smoking gun.” The transcripts reveal Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
    • August 7, 1974 – Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), Senator Hugh Scott (R-PA), and Representative John Rhodes (R-AZ) meet with Nixon. They tell Nixon that there are enough votes in the Senate to convict him and that he would face impeachment when the articles reached the House.
    • August 8, 1974 – Nixon announces his resignation in a nationally televised speech.
    • August 9, 1974 – Nixon signs his letter of resignation—the only president to resign the office. Vice President Gerald Ford becomes president.
    • September 8, 1974 – President Gerald Ford pardons former President Nixon, ending the investigations.
    • October 17, 1974 – Ford testifies before Congress on the pardon—the first sitting president to testify before Congress since President Lincoln.

    1975 and on

    • January 1, 1975 – John Mitchell, John Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman are convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury.
    • 1976 – David Frost asks James Reston to be an advisor and researcher for Frost’s upcoming interviews with Nixon.
    • May 4, 1977 – The first of four interviews between Nixon and British TV journalist David Frost is broadcasted on television and radio. An estimated 45 million viewers watched the premiere broadcast—the largest television audience for a political interview in history.
    • May 15, 1978: Nixon publishes his memoirs, RN, the Memoirs of Richard Nixon.
    • May 31, 2005 – W. Mark Felt, former Associate Director of the FBI, declares that he is Deep Throat—the secret informant to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein at The Washington Post. This was confirmed by Woodward and Bernstein.

    References:

    Farnsworth, M. (n.d.). Watergate Chronology. Watergate.info. https://watergate.info/chronology

    HISTORY Staff. (2023, June 29). The Watergate Scandal: A Timeline. HISTORY. Retrieved July 24, 2023, from https://www.history.com/news/watergate-scandal-timeline-nixon

    National Archives. (n.d.). Watergate: A Chronology. Retrieved July 24, 2023, from https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/watergate-constitution/chronology.html

    Nixon v. Sirica. (n.d.). Casetext. Retrieved September 8, 2023, from https://casetext.com/case/nixon-v-sirica/

    The Watergate Trial > Timeline. (n.d.). Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum/exhibits/watergate_files/content.php?section=1&page=d