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Richard Milhous Nixon, the 55-year-old former vice president who lost the presidency for the Republicans in 1960, reclaimed it by defeating Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in U.S. history.
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Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president of the United States.
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Nixon approved a plan for greatly expanding domestic intelligence-gathering by the FBI, CIA and other agencies. He had second thoughts a few days later and rescinded his approval.
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The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers.The Washington Post began publishing the papers later that same week.
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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.
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Nixon's Enemies List is started by White House aides.
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The White House "plumbers" unit -burglarized a psychiatrist's office to find files on Daniel Ellsberg, the former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers.
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Edgar Hoover died. L. Patrick Gray was appointed as acting FBI director.
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Five men, one of whom says he used to work for the CIA, are arrested at 2:30 a.m by an off-duty police officer. They were trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex.
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A GOP security aide is among the Watergate burglars. Former attorney general John Mitchell, head of the Nixon reelection campaign, denied any link to the operation.
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Reportedly based on a tip from Deep Throat. Bob Woodward reported in the Washington Post that one of the burglars had E. Howard Hunt in his address book and possessed checks signed by him, and that Hunt was connected to Charles Colson.
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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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Hunt, Liddy and the Watergate burglars are indicted by a federal grand jury.
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John Mitchell, while serving as attorney general, controlled a secret Republican fund used to finance widespread intelligence-gathering operations against the Democrats.
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Nixon was 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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Five defendants pleaded guilty as the burglary trial began. Liddy and McCord were convicted after the trial.
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Confirmation hearings began for confirming L. Patrick Gray as permanent Director of the FBI. During these hearings, Gray revealled that he had complied with an order from John Dean to provide daily updates on the Watergate investigation, and also that Dean had "probably lied" to FBI investigators.
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White House counsel John Dean began cooperating with federal Watergate prosecutors.
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L. Patrick Gray resigned after it comes to light that he destroyed files from E. Howard Hunt's safe. William Ruckelshaus was appointed as his replacement.
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Nixon's top White House staffers, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resigned over the scandal. White House counsel John Dean was fired.
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The Senate Watergate Committee began its nationally televised hearings. Attorney General-designate Elliot Richardson taped former solicitor general Archibald Cox as the Justice Department's special prosecutor for Watergate.
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John Dean has told Watergate investigators that he had discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least 35 times.
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Watergate prosecutors found 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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Nixon orders White House taping systems to be disconnected.
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Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, revealled in congressional testimony that since 1971 Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls in his offices.
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Nixon refused to turn over the presidential tape recordings to the Senate Watergate Committee or the special prosecutor
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Spiro Agnew resigned as Vice President of the United States due to corruption while he was the governor of Maryland.
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Gerald Ford was nominated as Vice President under the 25th Amendment.
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Nixon fired Archibald Cox and abolished the office of the special prosecutor. Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus resigned. Pressure for impeachment mounted in Congress.
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Leon Jaworski was appointed the new special prosecutor.
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Nixon declared, "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 said one theory is that "some sinister force" erased the segment.
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Nixon campaign aide Herbert Porter pleaded guilty to perjury.
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Nixon personal counsel Herbert Kalmbach pleaded guilty to two charges of illegal campaign activities.
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"Watergate Seven" indicted;John N. Mitchell,H. R. Haldeman,John Ehrlichman,Charles Colson,Gordon C. Strachan,Robert Mardian,Kenneth Parkinson.
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Dwight Chapin convicted of lying to a grand jury
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Ed Reinecke, Republican lieutenant governor of California, indicted on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee.
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The White House released more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes to the House Judiciary Committee, but the committee insisted that the tapes themselves must be turned over.
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The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Nixon must turn over the tape recordings of 64 White House conversations, and rejected the president's claims of executive privilege.
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House Judiciary Committee passed the first of three articles of impeachment, charging obstruction of justice.
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Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign. Vice President Gerald R. Ford assumed the country's highest office. He would later pardon Nixon of all charges related to the Watergate case.
