Watergate Timeline

Watergate: A Timeline Nixon is upbeat as he boards a helicopter following his resignation, believing it is headed to Disneyland. His mood darkens, however, when he learns that the Justice Department has tricked him into going to the dentist. June 17, 1972: Burglars break into Watergate; stymied scandal suffix commission decides the event will be called "Watergate-gate." June 20, 1972: DC judge declares the culprits - four Cuban nationals and a former CIA man - "perhaps the most suspicious persons currently living." June 20, 1972: National media determines that former CIA man, Cuban henchmen breaking into Democratic headquarters is not newsworthy, unusual. June 21, 1972: Dry Midwesterner and Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward takes eleven minutes to say the word "Watergate." Nov. 7, 1972: Nixon reelected; tells chief of staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, "I have and will continue to ask our staff to violate federal law in a variety of ways." Wisely records conversation. April 6, 1973: Attorney General John Mitchell suggests that burglars heard Soviet Leader Brezhnev was hiding in DNC headquarters; went to investigate. May 17, 1973: Watergate hearings open in the Senate. Chair Sam Ervin of South Carolina spends hours perfecting "Southern" accent beforehand. June 29, 1973: One-time CIA agent and White House aide E. Howard Hunt contemplatively puffs on pipe; thinks about buying new trenchcoat-sunglasses combo. July 16, 1973: White House aide Alexander Butterfield tells Senate committee that Nixon sang show tunes in shower, adored pet poodle named "Donkeepuss." Also: recorded all oval office conversations. July 16, 1973: Nixon has first scotch of unbroken year-long bender. July 30, 1973: Former Nixon aide John Dean, 14, testifies he was pushed around and called "four eyes" by bigger, older White House aides. August 5, 1973: Nixon aide John Erlichman tears the ears off puppy, pisses on disabled woman prior to Senate testimony. September 15, 1973: H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, too angry to speak during hearing, gnaws on microphone. October 20, 1973: Nixon fires entire Justice Department, sends U.S. judicial system on fact-finding trip to remote island, begins work on elaborate presidential sash, scepter. December 4, 1973: Pat Nixon extinguishes cigarette, stares at rug. January 20, 1974: Nixon wonders aloud if delivering State of the Union topless might get everybody's mind off Watergate; orders invasion of Maryland. April 3, 1974: Pat Nixon abandons plans to grin. August 4, 1974: House committee votes to impeach Nixon, president stakes office on outcome of arm wrestling contest with Barry Goldwater. August 6, 1974: Supreme Court orders Nixon to turn over tapes; president asks Idi Amin for sanctuary. August 9, 1974: Amin refuses, calling Nixon "too creepy"; Nixon resigns.