INDEPTH: U.S. POLITICS
Watergate: A timeline
CBC News Online | June 1, 2005
 W. Mark Felt at his home in Santa Rosa, California. (AP Photo)
The revelation in May 2005 that W. Mark Felt, a former deputy associate director of the FBI, was the fabled Washington Post informant has brought the Watergate scandal back into the public eye.
Here's how the affair unfolded.
Jan. 21, 1969:
Richard Milhous Nixon is sworn in as U.S. president after defeating Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in the country's history.
June 13, 1971:
The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers, the leaked Defence Department files on the Vietnam War.
Sept. 3, 1971:
The White House Special Investigations Unit, nicknamed the "Plumbers" because of their investigations into information leaks from the administration, burglarizes the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, the former State Department employee who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the Times.
May 28, 1972:
Operatives working for the Committee to Re-elect the President (known to Republicans as the CRP but by many others, especially later, as CREEP) break into the offices of the Democratic National Convention at the Watergate hotel and office complex and attempt to install wiretaps.
June 17, 1972:
At 2:30 a.m., police arrest five men at the Watergate complex attempting to fix the bugs they planted earlier. At his arraignment, one of the accused identifies himself as an agent of the CIA. Another is found to be a security aide for the CRP.
June 23, 1972:
 President Richard Nixon, shown in 1973. (AP Photo)
Aug. 1, 1972:
A cashier's check for $25,000, earmarked for the CRP, was deposited into the account of one of the burglars, the Washington Post reports.
Sept. 15, 1972:
The five Watergate burglars are indicted, along with planners E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. White House counsel John Dean dismisses any link to the president.
Oct. 10, 1972:
The Post reports that the FBI has established that the Watergate break-ins were part of the Nixon re-election campaign's political spying and sabotage.
Nov. 7, 1972:
Nixon is re-elected in a landslide, defeating Senator George McGovern of South Dakota by taking 60 per cent of the popular vote and every electoral vote except those of Massachusetts and D.C.
January 1973:
The Watergate trial. Hunt and four of the burglars plead guilty. Liddy and James McCord plead innocent, but are convicted on eight counts, including conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping.
Feb. 7, 1973:
The Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities is established.
April 30, 1973:
Nixon goes on national TV to announce that Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and two top White House aides, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, have resigned over the Watergate scandal. White House council John Dean, who just testified before the Senate, is fired. Dean would later became a key witness against Nixon.
June 13, 1973:
 W. Mark Felt, Aug.30, 1976. (AP Photo)
July 16, 1973:
Alexander Butterfield, a former aide to the president, testifies before the Senate committee that Nixon has recorded all conversations and phone calls in his office since 1971.
July 18, 1973:
Nixon orders the White House taping system disconnected.
July 25, 1973:
Nixon refuses to hand over the Watergate tapes to the Senate committee, claiming executive privilege. The Senate would later subpoena the tapes and, again, Nixon would refuse.
Aug. 15, 1973:
Nixon again addresses the nation to explain why he has claimed executive privilege and why the tapes should not be turned over.
Oct. 10, 1973:
Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigns. Gerald Ford would later be named to replace him.
Oct. 20, 1973:
The "Saturday Night Massacre." Nixon asks Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox to resign for his failure to compromise on the Watergate tapes. Cox refuses to resign. Nixon orders his attorney general, Elliot Richardson, to fire Cox. He refuses and resigns. Nixon orders Richardson's assistant to fire Cox. He refuses and resigns. Nixon orders his solicitor general, Robert Bork, to fire Cox and he does so.
The series of resignations would prompt several members of the House of Representatives to begin drafting impeachment resolutions.
Nov. 17, 1973:
Nixon holds a press conference at Walt Disney World, saying, "I'm not a crook," and urging Americans to move beyond Watergate.
Nov. 21, 1973:
The White House reports that two of the tapes subpoenaed by the Senate committee are missing and one has an 18½-minute erased gap. White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig would later claim that "some sinister force" had erased the tape.
March 1, 1974:
A grand jury for Watergate-related crimes names Nixon as an "unindicted co-conspirator." Seven of Nixon's former staff are indicted.
April 20, 1974:
In lieu of releasing the Watergate tapes themselves, the White House provides more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts.
May 9, 1974:
The House judiciary committee begins impeachment hearings.
July 24, 1974:
The Supreme Court rejects Nixon's claims of privilege and rules unanimously that he must hand over tapes of 64 White House conversations.
July 30, 1974:
The judiciary committee passes the last of three articles of impeachment against Nixon.
Aug. 8, 1974:
Nixon announces his resignation in a nationwide televised address. Vice-President Gerald Ford would take over the presidency the next day.
Sept. 8, 1974:
Ford grants Nixon a "full, free and absolute" pardon for all charges related to the Watergate scandal.
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