1974: Richard M. Nixon
Thirty Seventh President of the United States

On August 8, 1974, Richard Nixon became the only United States president to resign from office. The announcement came less than two years after he was re-elected to office in a landslide victory pledging an end to the Vietnam War and promoting campaign finance reform.

A botched burglary at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate triggered an investigation that eventually exposed an administration full of political espionage and sabotage.

	November 27, 1997: The Nixon tapes June 27, 1997: Watergate: 25 Years Later July 5, 1996: A discussion about presidents and the FBI An essay on Nixon

The Watergate break-in -- the event that has become synonymous with the illegal activities of the Nixon administration -- was performed by five men hired by the re-election campaign for Nixon. It was arranged to repair sophisticated bugging instruments throughout the Democratic Party headquarters and the men were paid with money earmarked for the Nixon re-election campaign. The investigation eventually exposed that the administration maintained a "secret intelligence fund" to investigate political players and had deliberately botched Democratic campaigns by fabricating leaks to the press.

Nixon maintained that any illegal activities had been performed without his knowledge or approval, and appointed a Special Prosecutor, General Archibald Cox. Cox exposed a number of high-level Nixon officials' knowledge of the illegal activities. Five months into his investigation, Nixon fired Cox and abolished the position in a move known as the Saturday Night Massacre.

As the Justice Department and the House Judiciary Committee continued their investigations, evidence mounted against the president. Nixon resisted turning over key pieces of evidence, including tape-recorded conversations he had held in his office.

	The Washington Post Watergate Site The Articles of impeachment The White House Nixon page. History of Watergate

On July 27, 1974, the Committee voted that the president be impeached, claiming he had "prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice," they listed nine specific reasons for the charge.

In his resignation speech two weeks later, Nixon said "I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body." The 37th president went on to say that he no longer had the political base to continue governing, and would pass the responsibility down to his vice president, Gerald Ford.

A month later, President Ford pardoned Nixon, saying, "Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It can go on and on, or someone must write `The End' to it. I have concluded that only I can do that. And if I can, I must."

Nixon responded by saying "In accepting this pardon, I hope that his compassionate act will contribute to lifting the burden of Watergate from our country… That the way I tried to deal with Watergate was the wrong way is a burden I shall bear for every day of the life that is left to me."