January 8, 1973: U.S. v. Liddy et al., the trial of the five burglars arrested at the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee, as well as two accomplices, begins. Howard Hunt would plead guilty on January 11. Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martinez, and Virgilio Gonzalez plead guilty on January 15.
January 20, 1973: Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated president of the United States at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, and begins his second term of office.
January 22, 1973: The Supreme Court rules in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”
January 23, 1973: Nixon announces that an agreement has been reached to end American combat in Vietnam, which also marks the end of the military draft and a transition to an all-volunteer military.
January 27, 1973: The peace treaty ending the Vietnam War is signed in Paris; it requires that all American POWs be returned.
January 30, 1973: Watergate burglars James McCord and G. Gordon Liddy are convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and wiretapping. Several key questions go unanswered, such as who ordered the burglary and what the burglars were looking for.
February 7, 1973: The U.S. Senate creates the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities with Senate Resolution 60, more popularly known as the Ervin Committee for its chairman, Senator Sam Ervin (D-NC).
February 12, 1973: The first group of Vietnam POWs returns to the United States.
February 28, 1973: Hearings begin for the confirmation of L. Patrick Gray as director of the FBI. Gray had been serving as acting director since J. Edgar Hoover’s death the previous May.
March 17, 1973: Watergate burglar—and former CIA director of security—James McCord writes a letter to Judge Sirica suggesting that some with knowledge of the Watergate break-in had perjured themselves, and that higher-ups were involved, a claim that leads investigators to focus on the White House.
March 21, 1973: Nixon, Bob Haldeman, and Counsel to the President John W. Dean III discuss the Watergate break-in and the subsequent cover-up. Dean tells the president that the cover-up is “a cancer on the presidency” that must be excised or his presidency will be in danger.
April 6, 1973: While remaining counsel to the president, John Dean begins cooperating with Watergate investigators.
April 17, 1973: Nixon announces that members of the White House staff are to testify before the Senate Watergate Committee, a breakthrough in White House cooperation with the investigation.
April 23, 1973: The White House issues a statement denying that Nixon had prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in.
April 27, 1973: L. Patrick Gray resigns after the revelation that he destroyed files from Howard Hunt on the orders of the White House. William Ruckelshaus is appointed as his replacement.
April 30, 1973: Nixon accepts the resignations of his two closest White House aides, H. R. “Bob” Haldeman and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs John D. Ehrlichman, as well as Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and John Dean. Nixon publicly accepts responsibility for Watergate.
May 1, 1973: The U.S. Senate votes in favor of a resolution calling for the appointment of a Watergate special prosecutor.
May 17, 1973: The Ervin Committee begins televised hearings.
May 25, 1973: Archibald Cox is sworn in as the Watergate special prosecutor.
June 3, 1973: John Dean tells prosecutors that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with Nixon at least thirty-five times.
July 1, 1973: The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is founded.
July 7, 1973: Nixon informs the Ervin Committee that he will not testify and will not permit access to presidential records.
July 12, 1973: The last presidential conversation is recorded on the secret taping system. Chief of Staff Alexander M. Haig Jr. orders the cessation of all taping, but only after 3,700 hours have been recorded.
July 13, 1973: During a private interview with investigators from the Ervin Committee, Alexander P. Butterfield, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration and a former White House aide, reveals the existence of the secret White House taping system in advance of his public testimony.
July 16, 1973: During his testimony at the televised hearings of the Ervin Committee, Butterfield is questioned about the White House taping system and gives details of how the system worked.
July 23, 1973: The Ervin Committee and the special prosecutor subpoena the first White House tapes and presidential records as part of their investigation. Two days later, Nixon states that he will refuse to cooperate with the subpoena on the basis of executive privilege and separation of powers.
July 31, 1973: U.S. Representative Robert F. Drinan (D-MA) introduces an impeachment resolution in Congress.
August 9, 1973: The Ervin Committee files suit against Nixon for failing to comply with the subpoena.
September 22, 1973: Henry A. Kissinger is sworn in as secretary of state.
October 6–24, 1973: An Arab-Israeli war, later known as the Yom Kippur War, commences when a coalition of Arab nations led by Egypt and Syria attacks Israel.
October 10, 1973: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns as a result of corruption charges unrelated to Watergate. The charges stem from activities going back to when he was county executive of Baltimore County, Maryland.
October 12, 1973: Nixon nominates House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford to replace Spiro T. Agnew as vice president.
October 19, 1973: In a compromise offered by the White House, Senator John Stennis would be permitted to listen to the White House tapes and prepare a summary for the Ervin Committee and the special prosecutor.
October 20, 1973: Cox refuses Nixon’s compromise. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resign rather than fire the Watergate special prosecutor, as ordered by President Nixon. However, Acting Attorney General Robert Bork agrees to fire Cox. These events would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.”
October 23, 1973: Nixon agrees to comply with the subpoena for his tapes.
October 24, 1973: Nixon vetoes the War Powers Resolution, which is passed by Congress over his veto. The intent of the War Powers Resolution is to make the president more accountable to the Congress during wartime.
November 1, 1973: Leon Jaworski is named Watergate special prosecutor.
November 17, 1973: Nixon famously says to a gathering of Associated Press managing editors, “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
November 21, 1973: The Ervin Committee discovers an eighteen-and-a-half-minute erasure on one of the subpoenaed tapes, which becomes known as the “eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap.” White House secretary Rose Mary Woods admits responsibility for a portion of the erasure.
December 6, 1973: Gerald R. Ford becomes vice president.
January 2, 1974: Nixon signs the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, which establishes a national fifty-five-mile-per-hour speed limit.
February 6, 1974: The House of Representatives votes to proceed with its presidential impeachment probe, to be conducted by the Judiciary Committee.
March 1, 1974: Nixon is named as an unindicted co-conspirator.
April 16, 1974: Jaworski issues a subpoena for sixty-four White House tapes.
April 29, 1974: Nixon announces that he will publish 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of taped conversations subpoenaed by the Watergate special prosecutor and the House Judiciary Committee in the hope that Congress will not subpoena any additional tapes. He submits them to the House Judiciary Committee the next day.
May 7, 1974: Nixon signs the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, which represents the first energy policy in the history of the United States.
May 9, 1974: Impeachment hearings begin in the House Judiciary Committee.
July 24, 1974: The Supreme Court rules in U.S. v. Nixon that President Nixon must hand over subpoenaed tapes to John Sirica, U.S. District Court chief judge, in a major revision of executive privilege.
July 27–30, 1974: The House Judiciary Committee adopts three articles of impeachment against President Nixon, which charge Nixon with obstruction of justice, abuse of powers, and failure to comply with subpoenas.
August 8, 1974: In a television broadcast, Nixon announces to the nation that he will resign, effective the next day.
August 9, 1974: Nixon departs the South Lawn of the White House at 10:00 A.M. on Marine One for the last time. He flies to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. From there, he flies to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, California, aboard the Spirit of ’76, the name he gave Air Force One to commemorate the forthcoming bicentennial celebration.
September 8, 1974: Nixon accepts a pardon from President Gerald R. Ford “for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.” While Nixon would never admit any wrongdoing, many in the public conclude that accepting a pardon suggests that he is in fact guilty of something.