Tricky Dick's Downfall: Watergate Scandal Topples a President

On August 8, 1974, in a moment that would redefine American political drama, President Richard Nixon became the first and only U.S. president to resign from office. Facing certain impeachment and removal due to the Watergate scandal, Nixon delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, announcing his resignation effective the next day at noon.

The previous evening, a delegation of senior Republican leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott and House Minority Leader John Rhodes, had visited Nixon at the White House. In a stark, somber meeting, they candidly informed him that he had lost all political support and would be abandoned by his own party if he chose to fight impeachment.

Nixon's resignation came exactly two years after he had triumphantly begun his second term, following a landslide electoral victory in 1972. The irony was palpable: a president who had built his career on anti-communist rhetoric and law-and-order principles was undone by a third-rate burglary and subsequent cover-up.

At precisely 12:03 PM on August 9, 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president, famously declaring, "Our long national nightmare is over." Nixon's resignation marked a pivotal moment in American political history, demonstrating that no individual, not even the president, was above the law.