Watergate

On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Within two years, that break-in had unraveled into the worst constitutional crisis in American history, forcing a sitting president to resign and permanently altering the country's relationship with its own government. Watergate did not simply end Richard Nixon's presidency. It ended something more diffuse: a residual public faith that elected officials were operating within recognizable limits.

The cover-up was far worse than the crime. Nixon's White House paid hush money to the burglars, obstructed FBI investigations, destroyed evidence, and fired the special prosecutor rather than comply with a subpoena for White House tape recordings — the "Saturday Night Massacre" of October 1973. Nixon told the nation he was not a crook. The tapes told a different story. When transcripts emerged proving Nixon had ordered the cover-up just six days after the break-in, his congressional support collapsed overnight, and impeachment became inevitable.

Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 — the only American president ever to do so. Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon one month later provoked widespread outrage and likely cost Ford the 1976 election. The scandal generated sweeping campaign finance reforms, strengthened the Freedom of Information Act, and created the independent counsel statute. The suffix "-gate" entered the political lexicon as permanent shorthand for scandal. More lastingly, Watergate installed a baseline skepticism toward government that has never entirely lifted.