The Watergate Scandal: A Timeline ( titulo)

January 1969

Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37 President of the United

States.

February 1971

Richard 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 and on 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.

1971

Nixon and his staff recruit a team of ex-FBI and CIA operatives,
later referred to as “the Plumbers” to investigate the leaked
publication of the Pentagon Papers.

January 1972

One of the “plumbers,” G. Gordon Liddy, is transferred to the

Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), where he obtains
approval from Attorney General John Mitchell for a wide-ranging
plan of espionage against the Democratic Party.
May 28, 1972

Liddy’s team breaks into the Democratic National Committee

Headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. for
the first time, bugging the telephones of staffers.

June 17, 1972

Five men are arrested after breaking into the Democratic National
Committee Headquarters . Among the items found in their
possession were bugging devices, thousands of dollars in cash and
rolls of film. Days later, the White House denied involvement in the
break-in.

June 17, 1972

A young Washington Post crime reporter, Bob Woodward, is sent

to the arraignment of the burglars.

June 20, 1972

Bob Woodward has his first of several meetings with the source
and informant known as “Deep Throat ,” whose identity, W. Mark
Felt, the associate director of the FBI, was only revealed three
decades later .

August 1, 1972

An article in The Washington Post reports that a check for $25,000

earmarked for Nixon’s 1972

August 30, 1972

Nixon announces that John Dean has completed an internal
investigation into the Watergate break-in, and has found no
evidence of White House involvement.

September 29, 1972

The Washington Post reports that while serving as Attorney

General, John Mitchell had controlled a secret fund to finance
intelligence gathering against Democrats.

October 10, 1972

Woodward and Bernstein report that the FBI had made connections
between Nixon aides and the Watergate break-in.

October 1972

Articles by Woodward and Bernstein describe the existence of a

major “dirty tricks” campaign conducted against Democratic
Presidential candidate Edmund Muskie, orchestrated by Donald
Segretti and others paid by CREEP and Nixon’s private attorney.

November 7, 1972

Nixon is elected to a second term in office after defeating

Democratic candidate George McGovern.

January 8, 1973

The Watergate break-in trial begins.

January 30, 1973

Former Nixon aide and FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy and James
McCord, an ex-CIA agent and former security director of the
Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), are convicted for
their roles in the break-in at the Watergate complex.

March 21, 1973

In a White House meeting, White House Counsel John Dean tells

Nixon, “We have a cancer—within—close to the Presidency, that’s
growing.” He and Nixon discuss how to pay the Watergate bribers
as much as $1 million in cash to continue the cover-up.

March 23, 1973

Watergate burglar James McCord’s letter confessing the existence

of a wider conspiracy is read in open court by Judge Sirica. The
Watergate cover-up starts to unravel.

April 6, 1973

Dean begins cooperating with Watergate prosecutors.

April 9, 1973

The New York Times reports that McCord told the Senate
Watergate Committee that a Republican group, the Committee to
Re-elect the President (CREEP) had made cash payoffs to the
Watergate burglars.

April 27, 1973

Acting FBI director L. Patrick Gray resigns after admitting that he

destroyed documents given to him by John Dean days after the
Watergate break-in.

April 30, 1973

The Watergate scandal intensifies as Nixon announces that White
House aides John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman have resigned.
White House counsel John Dean is fired. (In October that year,
Dean would plead guilty to obstruction of justice.) Attorney General
Richard Kleindienst resigns. Later that night, Nixon delivers his
first primetime address to the nation on Watergate, stressing his
innocence.

May 17, 1973

Senator Sam Ervin opens the Senate Select Committee on

Presidential Campaign Activities into the Watergate incident.

May 18, 1973

The first nationally televised hearings of the Senate Select

Committee begin. Attorney General-designate Elliot Richardson
appoints law professor and former U.S. Solicitor General Archibald
Cox as special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation.

June 3, 1973

The Washington Post reports that Dean told Watergate

prosecutors that he discussed the cover-up with Nixon at least 35
times. On June 25, Dean testifies before the Senate Select
Committee about Nixon’s involvement

June 13, 1973

Prosecutors discover a memo to John Ehrlichman regarding plans

for the Plumbers’ break-in of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist.

July 13, 1973

Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary,
meets with Senate investigators, where he reveals the existence of
an extensive, secret taping system in the White House. On July 16,
he testifies before the Senate Committee in a live broadcast,
revealing that since 1971 Nixon had recorded all conversations and
telephone calls in his offices.

July 18, 1973

Nixon reportedly orders the White House taping system

disconnected.

July to October 1973

President Nixon refuses to turn over recordings of his White House

conversations to the Senate investigation and to Cox. The tapes
are believed to include evidence that Nixon and his aides had
attempted to cover up their involvement in the Watergate break-in
and other illegal activities. Nixon files appeals in response to
various subpoenas ordering him to turn over the tapes.

August 15, 1973

The same day the Senate Select Committee wraps up its hearings,
Nixon delivers a second primetime address to the nation on
Watergate, saying “It has become clear that both the hearings
themselves and some of the commentaries on them have become
increasingly absorbed in an effort to implicate the President
personally in the illegal activities that took place.” He reminded the
American people that he had already taken “full responsibility” for
the “abuses that occurred during my administration.”

October 10, 1973

Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns , amidst bribery and income-tax

evasion charges, unrelated to the Watergate break-in. Two days
later, Nixon nominates Michigan Congressman Gerald Ford as vice
president. Ford is sworn in in December.

October 19, 1973

Nixon attempts a legal maneuver to avoid handing over the tapes

to Cox by suggesting U.S. Sen. John Stennis to summarize the
tapes for investigators. Cox will refuse the offer the next day.

October 20, 1973

Nixon orders the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox in what

becomes known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.” Attorney
General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William
Ruckelshaus resign rather than carry out these orders. Solicitor
General Robert Bork fires Cox. Several days later, Leon Jaworski
is appointed as the second special prosecutor.

November 17, 1973

During a televised press conference in Florida, Nixon famously

declares, “I’m not a crook,” and continues to profess his innocence.

March 1, 1974

Indictments are handed down for the “Watergate Seven,” including

John Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. The grand jury
names Nixon as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”

April 30, 1974

Transcripts of more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the

Nixon tapes are released by The White House.

May 9, 1974
House Judiciary Committee starts impeachment proceedings
against Nixon.

July 24, 1974

The Supreme Court rules that Nixon must surrender dozens of

original tape recordings of conversations to Jaworski.

July 27-30, 1974

Three articles of impeachment are debated and approved by the

House Judiciary Committee against Nixon—obstruction of justice,
misuse 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. Known as the “smoking gun,” the transcripts
reveal Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate cover-up.

August 8, 1974

President Nixon resigns . In a nationally televised speech, the

president says, "I have never been a quitter. To leave office before
my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But
as president, I must put the interest of America first...Therefore, I
shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow."

August 9, 1974

Nixon signs his letter of resignation. Vice President Gerald Ford

becomes president .
September 8, 1974

Nixon is pardoned by President Gerald Ford for any offenses he

might have committed against the United States while president.

January 1975

Former chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, former domestic policy

advisor John Ehrlichman, and former attorney general and Nixon
campaign manager John Mitchell are tried and convicted of
conspiracy charges arising from Watergate. In total, 41 people will
receive criminal convictions related to the Watergate scandal.