A chronology of the principal developments in connexion with the Watergate Affair:
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June 17, 1972: five men were arrested by the police inside the Watergate premises of the Democratic Party National Committee. All five were formally charged on Sept. 19 with conspiring to break into the Democratic headquarters, tapping telephones, planting electronic surveillance devices, and stealing and photographing documents belonging to the Democratic National Committee
June 23, 1972: President Nixon discussed "the political aspects of the situation" with Mr. H. R. Haldeman, then chief of staff at the White House (i.e. six days after the break-in at the Watergate building);
July 16, 1973: Existence of tape recordings of virtually all conversations in the President's office since early 1971 disclosed by Mr. Alexander P. Butterfield, a former deputy assistant to the President, in testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee.
July 17: Senate Watergate Committee asked the President for the tapes concerning the Watergate investigation.
July 23: President Nixon refused to release the tapes.
August 7: White House lawyers told Judge Sirica that the courts had no power to force Mr. Nixon to release the tapes.
August 29: Judge Sirica ordered the President to produce the tapes for his examination, so that he could decide whether to give them to the grand jury. The White House announced that the President would not comply with the order.
August 30: President Nixon decided to appeal to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
October 12: The Court of Appeals ruled that President Nixon must turn over the tapes to Judge Sirica.
October 17: Judge Sirica ruled that the Federal District Court lacked jurisdiction to comply with the Senate Committee's request for the tapes.
October 19: President Nixon announced that he would not hand over the tapes to Judge Sirica.
October 23: President Nixon agreed to surrender Watergate tapes to Judge Sirica.
November 26: The seven existing Watergate tapes and other material were handed over by President Nixon to Judge Sirica.
July 13, 1974: The Senate Select Committee which, under the chairmanship of Senator Sam J. Ervin, had been conducting an intensive investigation of the Watergate affair, issued its final report--a massive document of 2,217 pages contained in three volumes. In the course of an 18-month investigation and hearings described by the International Herald Tribune as "the most intensive congressional inquiry into alleged White House corruption in U.S. history", the Senate Committee held 52 days of televised public sessions, at which testimony was taken from 62 witnesses, and interviewed more than 1,000 persons; in all, the printed record of the Committee's hearings and exhibits covered nearly 6,000 pages in 18 volumes, with further volumes expected of previously undisclosed evidence and of executive sessions with witnesses.
The report, which was unanimous, described Watergate as "one of America's most tragic happenings" which had been followed by a "sordid aftermath... characterized by corruption, fraud and abuse of official power", and which reflected "an alarming indifference to the concepts of morality and public trust". In issuing its final report, the Senate Select Committee made some 35 specific recommendations calling for major reforms designed to prevent any recurrence of such a national scandal as Watergate.
July 24: Supreme Court rules that President Nixon must hand over 64 tapes sought by the Watergate special prosecutor, Mr. Leon Jaworski.
July 27 and 28: The adoption by the House Judiciary Committee of three articles of impeachment against President Nixon.
August 5: President Nixon admits that he had withheld information on the Watergate affair, and specifically that he had discussions with Mr. H. R. Haldeman, then chief of staff at the White House six days after the break-in at the Watergate building).
August 8: President Nixon announced his resignation--Mr. Nixon being the first President in American history to have resigned the presidency;
August 9: Vice-President Gerald R. Ford sworn in as the 38th President of the United States.
This article comes from Keesings Worldwide Online
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