From Break-In to Pardon

1972

June 17: Five men--including James W. McCord Jr., security director for the Committee for the Re-Election of the President--are arrested at the Watergate office building for breaking into Democratic National Committee headquarters. Soon, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt Jr., two others with connections to the president, are linked to the break-in.

Sept. 15: Hunt, Liddy and the Watergate burglars are indicted by a federal grand jury.

1973

Jan. 8: Five defendants plead guilty as the burglary trial begins. Liddy and McCord are convicted.

Feb. 7: Senate Watergate committee is established.

March 19: McCord writes a letter to Judge John J. Sirica saying the defendants had pleaded guilty under pressure. McCord also writes that perjury was committed, and that others are involved in the Watergate break-in.

April 6: White House counsel John Dean begins cooperating with federal Watergate prosecutors.

April 30: The resignations of Atty. Gen. Richard Kleindienst and Nixon aides John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman are announced by the White House. John Dean is fired.

May 18: Archibald Cox is appointed special prosecutor for the Watergate case.

June 25: In testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee, Dean outlines a political espionage program conducted by the White House, and says Nixon was participating in the Watergate cover-up within a few days of the burglary.

July 16: The tape-recording system in Nixon’s office is revealed by former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield.

July 26: After Nixon’s refusal to turn over the White House tapes, the Senate Watergate Committee subpoenas several of them.

Aug. 29: Sirica orders Nixon to give up nine tapes for the judge’s private review. It is the first loss in Nixon’s fight to maintain control of the tapes.

Oct. 20: The “Saturday Night Massacre.” Cox is fired as special Watergate prosecutor. Atty. Gen. Elliot Richardson refuses Nixon’s order to fire Cox and resigns; his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, also refuses and is fired. Solicitor Gen. Robert H. Bork fires Cox.

Nov. 1: Nixon appoints Leon Jaworski as the new special prosecutor.

1974

March 1: An indictment is returned against seven former presidential aides in connection with the Watergate cover-up. Nixon is named as an unindicted co-conspirator.

May 9: Impeachment hearings begin by the House Judiciary Committee.

July 24: In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court orders Nixon to surrender the tapes to Jaworski.

July 27: The House Judiciary Committee votes 27-11 to approve an impeachment article that charges Nixon with obstructing justice. Approval of two other articles follows.

Aug. 5: Nixon releases transcripts of three conversations with Haldeman six days after the break-in. The transcripts reveal Nixon ordered the FBI to abandon its investigation of the break-in, fearing such an investigation would reveal the involvement of the campaign.

Aug. 7: Three senior Republicans in Congress meet with Nixon, advising him that his chances of avoiding impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate are “gloomy.”

Aug. 8: Nixon announces he will resign.

Aug. 9: Nixon resigns; Gerald Ford takes office.

Sept. 8: Ford pardons Nixon “for all offenses against the United States which he . . . has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 20, 1969, through Aug. 9, 1974.”