Timeline 1968-1974

NOVEMBER 1968: Richard M. Nixon elected 37th president of United States by narrow margin over Democrat Hubert Humphrey.

JANUARY 1969: Nixon inaugurated as 37th president of the United States. "Counterinaugural" protest in Washington, D.C.

MARCH 1969: Musician John Lennon marries artist Yoko Ono.

APRIL 1969: U.S. troop levels in South Vietnam reach 540,000, the highest level of the war.

MAY 1969: Nixon orders troop withdrawal from Vietnam. Police storm People's Park in Berkeley, California; one student is killed as demonstrators are gassed and wounded.
 

 
 

JULY 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

AUGUST 1969: Woodstock festival rocks a farm in upstate New York for three days.

NOVEMBER 1969: Nixon begins Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with Soviets.

APRIL 1970: Nixon announces U.S. invasion of Cambodia. It lasts April 29-June 30. First Earth Day celebrated, focusing attention on the environment.

MAY 1970: Four students are killed by Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in antiwar protest. State police kill two black students at Jackson State College in Mississippi.

JUNE 1970: Nixon signs bill giving 18-year-olds the right to vote.

SEPTEMBER 1970: Photographer Fred J. Maroon begins nine-month project to photograph the Nixon White House staff at work. The Mary Tyler Moore Show premieres on television. Musician Jimi Hendrix dies of drug overdose.

DECEMBER 1970: Environmental Protection Agency is created to set and enforce U.S. air and water pollution standards. Nixon signs National Air Quality Control Act. The world's tallest building, the North Tower of the World Trade Center, New York City, is completed.
 

 

LOOK magazine, September 1971, cover photo by Maroon.

 

APRIL 1971: Nixon announces lifting of over 20-year trade embargo with the People's Republic of China. U.S. Supreme Court upholds school busing to end segregation.

JUNE 1971: New York Times begins publication of classified Pentagon Papers.

SEPTEMBER 1971: Photographer Fred J. Maroon's book Courage and Hesitation, written with Allen Drury, is published.
 

 
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OCTOBER 1971: Rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar opens in New York City.

FEBRUARY 1972: Nixon makes historic trip to China, the first by a U.S. president.

MARCH 1972: Equal Rights Amendment guaranteeing women equality of rights under the law is passed by Congress; falls short of ratification by the states. The Godfather wins the Oscar for best picture.

MAY 1972: Nixon makes first visit by U.S. president to the Soviet Union, reaching trade, arms, and joint space ventures agreements.

JUNE 17, 1972: Five men arrested for burglary of Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate complex, Washington, D.C.

JUNE 1972: Fred Maroon begins two-week assignment to photograph the Committee to Reelect the President for LIFE magazine.

JULY 1972: Ms. magazine launched by Gloria Steinem.
 

 

Washington Star, Sunday Magazine, November 7, 1971. The article highlights the book Courage and Hesitation with Fred Maroon's photographs and captions.

 

SEPTEMBER 1972: Federal grand jury indicts five men for Watergate burglary, including former Nixon White House aides G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt. Arab terrorists enter Olympic Village in Munich, Germany, killing 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.

NOVEMBER 1972: Nixon reelected president by historic margin over Democrat George McGovern. Dow Jones Index closes above 1000 on New York Stock Exchange for first time in history.

DECEMBER 1972: LIFE magazine ends production after 36 years.

JANUARY 1973: Nixon inaugurated for second term as president. James McCord and G. Gordon Liddy convicted of Watergate break-in. Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho sign Paris peace accords; cease-fire enacted. Supreme Court hears Roe v. Wade arguments and votes to legalize abortion in first six months of pregnancy.

MARCH 1973: Last U.S. troops withdrawn from Vietnam; 8500 American civilian technicians remain.
 

 

LIFE, September 1972, article on the Committee to Reelect the President, photos by Fred J. Maroon.

 

 

 

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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."
 

 

TIME, April 16, 1973, John Dean photograph by Fred J. Maroon.

 

OCTOBER 23, 1973: Eight presidential impeachment resolutions introduced in the House of Representatives. Nixon announces he will turn over White House tapes.

NOVEMBER 1973: Eighteen-and-a-half minute gap discovered in Oval Office tapes during crucial days after the Watergate break-in. Nixon secretary Rose Mary Woods testifies that she accidentally erased some tape.

DECEMBER 1973: Gerald Ford sworn in as vice president to replace Spiro Agnew. American Graffiti a hit movie.

FEBRUARY 1974: House of Representatives approves impeachment inquiry against Nixon to be conducted by House Judiciary Committee. Wealthy college student Patty Hearst kidnaped by self-styled Symbionese Liberation Army members.
 

 
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APRIL 1974: Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record.

JUNE 1974: Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward publish All the President's Men, a detailed account of the Watergate episode.

JULY 1974: Three articles of impeachment voted against Nixon in House Judiciary Committee.

AUGUST 8, 1974: President Richard Nixon announces he will resign his office the following day.

AUGUST 9, 1974: Gerald Ford sworn in as 38th President of the United States.

SEPTEMBER 1974: President Ford pardons Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while president.

 

 

Newsweek, October 19, 1998, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger at window, Oval Office.

 

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