APRIL
1973:
FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigns after admitting to destroying documents
given to him by White House Counsel John Dean. President Nixon announces
resignations of four top aides amid escalating evidence in the Watergate
scandal: H. R. Haldeman, White House chief of staff; John Ehrlichman,
domestic affairs advisor; John Dean, White House counsel; and Richard
Kleindienst, attorney general.
MAY
1973:
Senate Watergate Committee opens public hearings. Sears Tower completed
in Chicago, the world's tallest building.
MAY-SEPTEMBER
1973:
White House staff and associated persons testify before Senate committee
investigating potential abuses of power and illegal activities conducted
by the president or his staff.
JUNE
1973:
John Dean testifies and implicates Nixon and his top staff in Watergate
break-in and cover-up.
JULY
1973:
Alexander Butterfield testifies to the existence of taped White House
conversations; later in July, Nixon refuses to release tapes, citing executive
privilege.
SEPTEMBER
1973:
John Ehrlichman and G. Gordon Liddy indicted for the 1971 burglary of
the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Ellsberg provided Pentagon
documents to the New York Times in 1971. Erhlichman and Liddy then
created the White House "plumbers" unit to plug security leaks.
OCTOBER
1973:
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns after pleading no contest to charges
of income tax evasion. House Minority Leader Gerald Ford nominated to
replace Agnew as vice president. Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State,
and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their
efforts to end the war. Tho declines. First black mayor of a major southern
city, Maynard Jackson, wins election in Atlanta, Georgia. Arab oil embargo
creates shortages in gasoline and petroleum products and increased prices;
lifted in March 1974.
OCTOBER
20, 1973:
Atty. Gen. Eliot Richardson and Deputy Atty. Gen. William Ruckelshaus
resign after refusing Nixon's order to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor
Archibald Cox, an episode that became known as the "Saturday Night
Massacre."
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