The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century

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Richard Nixon

Reconciliation was the first goal set by President Richard M. Nixon. The Nation was painfully divided, with turbulence in the cities and war overseas. His accomplishments while in office included revenue sharing, ending the draft, enacting new anticrime laws and instituting a broad environmental program. As he had promised, he appointed justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. One of the most dramatic events of his first term occurred in 1969, when American astronauts made the first moon landing. Some of his most acclaimed achievements came in his quest for world stability. During visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced tensions with China and the U.S.S.R. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. In January 1973, he announced an accord with North Viet Nam to end American involvement in Indochina. In 1974, his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria. But the Watergate scandal ultimately led to his resignation.

Early Life and Career

January 9, 1913 - April 22, 1994

Born in California in 1913, Nixon had a brilliant record at Whittier College and Duke University Law School before beginning the practice of law. In 1940, he married Patricia Ryan; they had two daughters, Patricia (Tricia) and Julie. During World War II, Nixon served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific. On leaving the service, he was elected to Congress from his California district. In 1950, he won a Senate seat. Two years later, General Eisenhower selected Nixon, age 39, to be his running mate. As Vice President, Nixon took on major duties in the Eisenhower administration. Nominated for President by acclamation in 1960, he lost by a narrow margin to John F. Kennedy.

January 9, 1913: Richard Nixon is born in Yorba Linda, California, to Frank and Hannah Milhous Nixon.
1930: Nixon attends Whittier College in Whittier, California.
1934: Nixon attends Duke University Law School.
June 21, 1940: Nixon marries Thelma Catherine (“Pat”) Ryan in Riverside, California.
1943: Nixon serves active duty in the U.S. Navy. Nixon is assigned to South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command as a ground officer; he serves at New Caledonia, Bougainville and Green Island.
February 21, 1946: Daughter Patricia (“Tricia”) Nixon is born.
January 3, 1947: Nixon is sworn in as Representative for the Twelfth Congressional District of California. His tenure lasts until November 1950.
July 5, 1948: Daughter Julie Nixon is born.
August 5, 1948: Nixon brings Alger Hiss to the witness stand on charges of Communist spy activities. The case catapults Nixon into national attention.
November 7, 1950: Nixon is elected as Senator for California. He serves a part of one term.
September 23, 1952: Nixon gives “Checkers” speech on television after reports showed that California businessmen had raised money for him. In his defense, he states that his wife wears only a “respectable Republican cloth coat” and the only gift he has kept was Checkers, the family’s cocker spaniel.
November 4, 1952: Nixon is elected Vice President of the United States to President Dwight Eisenhower.
November 6, 1956: Nixon is re-elected Vice President of the United States to President Dwight Eisenhower.
April 27, 1958: In Latin America trip, Nixon faces anti-Nixon riots in Lima, Peru, on May 8 and in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 13.
July 22, 1959: Nixon makes a trip to U.S.S.R.
July 24, 1959: Nixon participates in the “Kitchen Debate” with Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev. The debate takes place in a model kitchen in the American National Exhibition, and Nixon’s strong defense of capitalism highlights his political capabilities.
July 27, 1960: Nixon receives Republican nomination for President.
November 8, 1960: Nixon is defeated in the Presidential election by John F. Kennedy.
November 6, 1962: Nixon is defeated in California gubernatorial race by Democratic incumbent Edmund G. Brown.
1963: Nixon practices law in New York City.
November 5, 1968: Nixon is elected thirty-seventh President of the United States.
December 22, 1968: Nixon’s daughter Julie marries Dwight David Eisenhower II, grandson of former president Dwight Eisenhower.

Presidency

January 20, 1969 - August 9, 1974

In his 1972 bid for office, Nixon defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern by one of the widest margins on record. Within a few months, his administration was embattled over the so-called “Watergate” scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign. The break-in was traced to officials of the Committee to Re-elect the President. A number of administration officials resigned, and some were later convicted of offenses connected with efforts to cover up the affair. Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings that indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation. As a result of unrelated scandals in Maryland, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973. Nixon nominated, and Congress approved, House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as Vice President. Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin “that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.”

March 17, 1969: Nixon orders secret bombings of Cambodia to destroy North Vietnamese supply routes and base camps, commencing with "Operation Breakfast."
April 29, 1969: Nixon celebrates Duke Ellington's birthday and awards Ellington the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
May 1969: Nixon orders FBI wiretaps to track the sources of leaks revealing secret bombings of Cambodia.
May 21, 1969: Nixon nominates Warren Burger as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
July 20, 1969: Apollo 11 lands on the moon.
July 25, 1969: Nixon outlines what became known as the Nixon Doctrine, whereby the United States would provide arms and aid—but not military forces—to its Asian allies, who would provide their own military forces in resisting communist aggression.
August 8, 1969: Nixon announces the Family Assistance Plan, his welfare reform proposal providing direct payments to the working poor. Rejected by Congress, the FAP never became law.
November 3, 1969: Nixon outlines the policy of “Vietnamization” whereby the United States would provide South Vietnam with equipment and financial aid but withdraw American troops. He asks for the support of the “silent majority.”
April 18, 1970: Nixon presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Apollo 13 astronauts.
April 30, 1970: Nixon announces the launching of military attacks on enemy sanctuaries in Cambodia.
May 4, 1970: National Guardsmen fire on antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University protesting the American invasion of Cambodia, killing four and wounding nine students.
July 9, 1970: Nixon announces a plan to establish the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
September 1970: The Jordan Crisis, also known as “Black September,” marks violence against Palestinian attempts to overthrow King Hussein’s monarchy.
December 21, 1970: Elvis Presley meets President Nixon in the Oval Office.
February 16, 1971: Nixon begins secretly recording conversations and meetings in the Oval Office and in the Cabinet Room.
April 20, 1971: In Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board, the Supreme Court rules that busing children as a means of dismantling dual school systems was constitutional.
June 12, 1971: Daughter Patricia (“Tricia”) Nixon marries Edward Ridley Finch Cox at the White House.
June 13, 1971: New York Times begins publishing the “Pentagon Papers” that revealed duplicity of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations’ Vietnam policy.
June 30, 1971: Twenty-sixth amendment to the Constitution is adopted granting eighteen, nineteen, and twenty-year-olds the right to vote.
July 9, 1971: Nixon sends Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Peking, China, to arrange with Prime Minister Chou en Lai a visit for President Nixon.
July 15, 1971: Nixon announces that he will be the first President to visit the People’s Republic of China, which, since the Communist revolution in 1949, has been isolated from the West.
September 3, 1971: Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin is signed by the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France to establish trade and travel relations between West Berlin and West Germany and communications between East Berlin and West Berlin.
October 21, 1971: Nixon nominates Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and William H. Rehnquist as Associate Justices of the Supreme Court.
November 22, 1971: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 leads to India’s victory and independence of Bangladesh.
February 21, 1972: Nixon visits People’s Republic of China.
April 20, 1972: Bob Hope visits the White House.
May 20, 1972: Nixon visits Austria, U.S.S.R., Iran and Poland and signs the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), limiting each nations’ strategic arms.
June 17, 1972: Five burglars from a domestic espionage network working for the Commitee to Re-Elect the President are arrested inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Washington, D.C., Watergate office complex.
June 23, 1972: Haldeman and Nixon discuss the progress of the FBI’s investigation, especially the tracing of the source of money found on the burglars. They propose having the CIA ask the FBI to halt its investigation of the Watergate break-in by claiming that the break-in was a national security operation. This conversation is commonly referred to as the “smoking gun.”
June 29, 1972: Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional.
August 1, 1972: A $25,000 cashier check designated for the Nixon campaign is found in the bank account of a Watergate burglar.
September 5, 1972: Olympic Games are disrupted when Palestinian terrorists kill 11 Israeli athletes.
November 7, 1972: Nixon is re-elected to a second term by one of the widest margins on record.
January 22, 1973: Supreme Court rules in Roe vs. Wade, stating that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”
January 27, 1973: Peace treaty ending the Vietnam War is signed in Paris.
March 21, 1973: In a conversation among President Nixon, John Dean and H. R. Haldeman, Dean recaps the history of the Watergate break-in and the subsequent cover-up for the President. Dean tells the President that the cover-up is “a cancer on the Presidency” that must be excised or his Presidency would be in danger.
April 30, 1973: Nixon accepts the resignations of Assistant to the President H. R. Haldeman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs John D. Ehrlichman, Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and Counsel to the President John Dean. Nixon accepts responsibility for the Watergate affair.
July 16, 1973: During his testimony at the public hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, Alexander Butterfield publicly reveals the existence of the White House taping system and details specifics of how the system worked.
October 6, 1973: Arab-Israeli War (Yom Kippur War) occurs when a coalition of Arab nations led by Egypt and Syria attacks Israel.
October 10, 1973: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns after corruption charges beginning when he was county executive of Baltimore County, Maryland. Gerald R. Ford replaced Agnew as Vice President.
November 17, 1973: To the Associated Press managing editors, Nixon says, “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
July 27, 1974: The House Judiciary Committee votes for approval by the full House of three articles of impeachment against President: 1) obstruction of justice 2) abuse of power 3) defying Congressional subpoenas.
August 8, 1974: In a television broadcast, Nixon announces to the Nation his resignation that would be effective the next day.

Post-Presidency

August 9, 1974 - April 22, 1994

In his last years, Nixon gained praise as an elder statesman. By the time of his death on April 22, 1994, he had written numerous books on his experiences in public life and on foreign policy.

August 9, 1974: Nixon leaves office. At 10:00 A.M., he boards a helicopter on the South Grounds of the White House and flies to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. From there, Nixon flies to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in California aboard the Spirit of 76.
August 1985: In a five-week, fact-finding trip, Nixon visits and meets with top leaders in China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Pakistan, Turkey and Great Britain.
1986: Nixon meets with Mikhail Gorbachev.
June 22, 1993: Mrs. Nixon dies at home in Park Ridge, New Jersey.
April 22, 1994: Nixon dies in New York City.