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| = Wikipedia Watergate Timeline =
| | #REDIRECT [[:Category:Watergate]] |
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| This timeline is based only on ''All The President's Men''.
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| * November 5, 1968: Richard Nixon [[United States presidential election of 1968|elected President]]
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| * July 1, 1971: [[David Young (Watergate)|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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| * August 21, 1971: [[Nixon's Enemies List]] is started by White House aides (though Nixon himself may not have been aware of it); to "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies."
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| * May 2, 1972: J. Edgar Hoover dies; [[L. Patrick Gray]] is appointed acting [[Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI director]].
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| * June 17, 1972: '''The plumbers are arrested''' at 2:30 a.m. in the process of burglarizing and planting [[Covert listening device|surveillance bugs]] in the [[Democratic National Committee]] offices at the [[Watergate Hotel]].
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| * June 20, 1972: Reportedly based on a tip from [[Deep Throat]], [[Bob Woodward]] reports 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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| * September 15, 1972: [[E. Howard Hunt|Hunt]], [[G. Gordon Liddy|Liddy]] and the Watergate burglars are indicted by a federal grand jury.
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| * November 7, 1972: '''[[United States presidential election, 1972|Nixon re-elected]]''' in the largest plurality of votes in American history.
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| * January 8, 1973: Five defendants plead guilty as the burglary trial begins. Liddy and [[James McCord|McCord]] are convicted after the trial.
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| * February 28, 1973: Confirmation hearings begin for confirming [[L. Patrick Gray]] as permanent Director of the [[FBI]]. During these hearings, Gray reveals 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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| * March 17, 1973: Watergate burglar [[James McCord]] writes a letter to Judge [[John Sirica]], claiming that some of his testimony was perjured under pressure and that the burglary was not a CIA operation, but had involved other government officials, thereby leading the investigation to the White House.
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| * April 6, 1973: White House counsel John Dean begins cooperating with federal Watergate prosecutors.
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| * April 27, 1973: L. Patrick Gray resigns after it comes to light that he destroyed files from E. Howard Hunt's safe. [[William Ruckelshaus]] is appointed as his replacement.
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| * April 30, 1973: Senior White house administration officials [[John Ehrlichman]], [[H. R. Haldeman]], and [[Richard Kleindienst]] resign; [[John Dean]] is fired.
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| * May 17, 1973 : The [[Senate Watergate Committee]] begins its nationally televised hearings.
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| * May 19, 1973: Independent [[special prosecutor]] [[Archibald Cox]] appointed to oversee investigation into possible presidential impropriety.
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| * June 3, 1973: [[John Dean]] tells Watergate investigators that he has discussed the [[cover-up]] with Nixon at least 35 times.
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| * July 13, 1973: [[Alexander Butterfield]], former presidential appointments secretary, reveals that all conversations and telephone calls in Nixon’s office have been taped since 1971.
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| * July 18, 1973: Nixon orders White House taping systems disconnected.
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| * July 23, 1973: Nixon refuses to turn over presidential tapings to Senate Watergate Committee or the special prosecutor.
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| * Vice President replaced:
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| ** October 10, 1973: [[Spiro Agnew]] resigns as [[Vice President of the United States]] due to corruption while he was the [[governor of Maryland]].
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| ** October 12, 1973: [[Gerald Ford]] is nominated as Vice President under the [[25th Amendment]].
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| * October 20, 1973: "[[Saturday Night Massacre]]" - Nixon fires special prosecutor Cox. Ruckelshaus and [[Elliot Richardson]] refuse to comply and resign. [[Robert Bork]] considers resigning but carries out the order.
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| * November 1, 1973: [[Leon Jaworski]] is appointed new special prosecutor.
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| * November 17, 1973: Nixon delivers "I am not a crook" speech at a televised press conference at Disney World (Florida).
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| * January 28, 1974: Nixon campaign aide [[Herbert Porter]] pleads guilty to perjury.
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| * February 25, 1974: Nixon personal counsel [[Herbert Kalmbach]] pleads guilty to two charges of illegal campaign activities.
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| * March 4, 1974: "[[Watergate Seven]]" indicted.
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| * April 5, 1974: [[Dwight Chapin]] convicted of lying to a grand jury.
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| * April 7, 1974: [[Ed Reinecke]], Republican [[lieutenant governor of California]], indicted on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee.
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| * April 30, 1974: White House releases edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes, but the House Judiciary Committee insists the actual tapes must be turned over.
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| * June 15, 1974: Woodward and Bernstein's book ''[[All the President's Men]]'' is published by Simon & Schuster (ISBN 0-671-21781-X).
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| * July 24, 1974: ''[[United States v. Nixon]]'' decided: Nixon is ordered to give up tapes to investigators.
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| * Congress moves to [[impeach]] Nixon.
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| ** July 27 to July 30, 1974: House Judiciary Committee passes articles of Impeachment.
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| ** Early August 1974: A previously unknown tape from June 23, 1972 (recorded a few days after the break-in) documenting Nixon and Haldeman formulating a plan to block investigations, is released. This recording would later became known as the "[[Smoking Gun]]".
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| ** Key Republican Senators tell Nixon that enough votes exist to convict him.
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| * August 8, 1974: '''Nixon resigns [[President of the United States|presidency]]'''. Gerald Ford becomes President.
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| * September 8, 1974: President Ford ends investigations by granting Nixon a pardon.
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| * November 7, 1974: [[94th Congress]] elected: [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]] picks up 5 Senate seats and 49 House seats. Many of the freshman congressmen are very young; the media dubs them "[[Watergate Babies]]".
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| * December 31, 1974: As a result of Nixon administration abuses of privacy, [[Privacy Act of 1974]] passes into law. Ford is persuaded to veto the bill by Cheney and Rumsfeld; Congress overrides Ford's veto. (Note that the newly-elected Congress had not taken office yet, this Congress was still the [[93rd Congress]].)
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| * January 1, 1975: John N. Mitchell, John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.
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| * July 27, 1975: [[Church Committee]] chaired by [[Frank Church]] commences, to investigate foreign and domestic intelligence-gathering activities.
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| * November 4, 1975: Ford replaces several Nixon cabinet members in the "[[Halloween Massacre]]", engineered by Ford aide [[Donald Rumsfeld]]. [[Richard Cheney]], [[George H. W. Bush]] and [[Brent Scowcroft]] join Ford administration; Rumsfeld becomes [[Secretary of Defense of the United States|Secretary of Defense]]; Henry Kissinger remains as [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] but not [[National Security Advisor (United States)|National Security Advisor]].
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| * May 5, 1976: Church Committee superseded by [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]].
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| * October 25, 1978: [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]] enacted, creating [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]] and limiting federal government domestic surveillance powers. Recommended by Church Committee.
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| * April 22, 1994: Richard Nixon dies.
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| * May 21, 2005: [[W. Mark Felt]], former Associate Director of the FBI during the Watergate years, declares that he is [[Deep Throat]], this declaration would later be confirmed by reporters [[Bob Woodward]] and [[Carl Bernstein]]. Some writers would later dispute this claim.
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| * December 18, 2008: Mark Felt dies at the age of 95.
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