Timeline of the Watergate scandal —Regarding attempts by the sitting U.S. President to discredit an anti-war whistleblower of official capacity, and upon exposure of related improprieties, to use the powers of office to silence political and legal opposition.
- 1964 - U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War officially begins.
- June 17, 1967: Robert McNamara creates Vietnam Study Task Force to create a top-secret history of the Vietnam war (the "Pentagon Papers").
- November 5, 1968: Richard Nixon elected President
- January 15, 1969: "Pentagon Papers" study is completed, five days before Nixon administration takes office. Its official title is "US-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: History of US Decision Making Process on Vietnam Policy."
- May 9, 1969: A front-page story in The New York Times reveals that the United States is bombing Cambodia. Morton Halperin is suspected as the source by J. Edgar Hoover and Henry Kissinger, and Halperin's phones are (illegally) tapped until February 1971.
- August 1969: Ellsberg, having become disillusioned with the war, decides to reveal the Pentagon Papers to the public at any cost to himself. Ellsberg and Anthony Russo take the next several months to secretly copy the papers.
- 1970-1971: Ellsberg tries to convince several Congressmen to release the papers, including J. William Fulbright and George McGovern; none agree.
- March 1971: Ellsberg gives copies to Neil Sheehan at the The New York Times. The Times decides to publish despite advice from their lawyers that they could be held accountable for espionage.
- June 13, 1971: The New York Times publishes its first article about the papers. The initial article in the planned series is titled "Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces Three Decades of Growing US Involvement."
- Nixon, initially unconcerned, is convinced by Kissinger that the disclosure is extremely dangerous.
- June 14, 1971: John N. Mitchell telegrams The New York Times warning the material was protected under the Espionage Act of 1917 and demands they refrain from publishing based on the papers. The Times refuses.
- June 15, 1971: New York Times ordered to halt publication based on the papers; the Times complies, but the order is fought in court.
- June 17, 1971: Ellsberg goes into hiding with his wife, Pat, around Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- June 18, 1971: The Washington Post begins publishing excerpts, and is subsequently similarly enjoined from publication. Over the next days, Ellsberg leaks copies to 17 newspapers in succession.
- June 28, 1971: Ellsberg surrenders to US Attorney's Office in Boston, Massachusetts.
- June 29, 1971: Sen. Mike Gravel reads from the papers in Congress and enters most of the papers into the Congressional Record. He had received the papers from Ellsberg via Ben Bagdikian and excised portions which could be damaging to national security. This version is distributed overnight by Gravel's office to a large number of journalists, and would later be published by Beacon Press.
- June 30, 1971: New York Times Co. v. United States decided; United States Supreme Court orders New York Times to be allowed to resume publication
- July 1, 1971: David Young and Egil Krogh write a memo suggesting the formation of what would later be called the "White House Plumbers" in response to the Pentagon Papers leak.
- August 21, 1971: Nixon's Enemies List is started by White House aides (though Nixon himself may not have been aware of it); to "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies."
- September 9, 1971: The "Plumbers" burglarize the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Lewis Fielding, seeking damaging information. (They fail to find Ellsberg's file.) This remains unknown to Ellsberg and the public until Ellsberg's trial.
- May 2, 1972: J. Edgar Hoover dies; L. Patrick Gray is appointed acting FBI director.
- June 17, 1972: The plumbers are arrested at 2:30 a.m. in process of burglarizing (planting surveillance bugs in) the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Hotel.
- June 20, 1972: Based on a tip from Deep Throat, Bob Woodward reports in the Washington Post that one of the burglars had E. Howard Hunt in his address book and possessed checks signed by him, and that Hunt was connected to Charles Colson.
- November 7, 1972: Nixon re-elected
- January 3, 1973: Ellsberg and Russo go on trial for release of Pentagon Papers, facing up to 115 years imprisonment. Judge William Byrne presides.
- January 30, 1973: G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt sentenced to prison.
- March 17, 1973: Watergate burglar James McCord writes a letter to Judge John Sirica, claiming that some his testimony was perjured under pressure from John Dean and John N. Mitchell, thereby implicating and leading to the investigation of the White House.
- April 26, 1973: Break-in of Fielding's office is revealed during the Ellsberg trial.
- April 27, 1973: L. Patrick Gray resigns after it comes to light that he destroyed evidence from E. Howard Hunt's safe. William Ruckelshaus is appointed as his replacement.
- April 30, 1973: As a result of the revelation of the Fielding break-in, John Ehrlichman, H. R. Haldeman, Richard Kleindienst resign; John Dean is fired.
- May 9, 1973: Evidence of illegal wiretapping of Ellsberg and Halperin by the FBI is revealed to the court in Ellsberg's trial.
- May 11, 1973: Byrne dismisses all charges against Ellsberg and Russo, citing illegal evidence gathering.
- May 17, 1973 : The Senate Watergate Committee begins its nationally televised hearings.
- May 19, 1973: Independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox appointed to oversee investigation into possible presidential impropriety.
- June 3, 1973: John Dean tells Watergate investigators that he has discussed the cover-up with Nixon at least 35 times.
- July 13, 1973: Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals that all conversations and telephone calls in Nixon’s office have been taped since 1971.
- July 18, 1973: Nixon orders White House taping systems disconnected.
- July 23, 1973: Nixon refuses to turn over presidential tapings to Senate Watergate Committee or the special prosecutor.
- Vice President replaced:
- October 20, 1973: "Saturday Night Massacre" - Nixon fires special prosecutor Cox. Ruckelshaus and Elliot Richardson refuse to comply and resign. Robert Bork considers resigning but carries out the order.
- November 1, 1973: Leon Jaworski is appointed new special prosecutor.
- November 17, 1973: Nixon delivers "I am not a crook" speech at televised press conference.
- November 30, 1973: Egil Krogh pleads guilty to conspiracy.
- January 28, 1974: Nixon campaign aide Herbert Porter pleads guilty to perjury.
- February 25, 1974: Nixon personal counsel Herbert Kalmbach pleads guilty to two charges of illegal campaign activities.
- March 4, 1974: "Watergate Seven" indicted.
- April 5, 1974: Dwight Chapin convicted of lying to a grand jury.
- April 7, 1974: Ed Reinecke, Republican lieutenant governor of California, indicted on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee.
- April 30, 1974: White House releases edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes, but the House Judiciary Committee insists the actual tapes must be turned over.
- June 15, 1974: Woodward and Bernstein's book All the President's Men is published by Simon & Schuster (ISBN 0-671-21781-X).
- June 21, 1974: Charles Colson sentenced to 1 to 3 years for obstruction of justice related to Fielding break-in.
- July 24, 1974: United States v. Nixon decided: Nixon is ordered to give up tapes to investigators.
- Congress moves to impeach Nixon.
- July 27 to July 30, 1974: House Judiciary Committee passes articles of Impeachment.
- Early August 1974: A previously unknown tape from June 23, 1972 (recorded a few days after the break-in) documents Nixon and Haldeman formulating a plan to block investigations.
- Key Republican Senators tell Nixon that enough votes exist to convict him.
- August 9, 1974: Nixon resigns presidency. Gerald Ford becomes President.
- September 8, 1974: President Ford ends investigations by granting Nixon a pardon.
- November 4, 1975: Ford replaces several Nixon cabinet members in the "Halloween Massacre", engineered by Ford aide Donald Rumsfeld. Richard Cheney, George H. W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft join Ford administration; Rumsfeld becomes Secretary of Defense; Henry Kissinger remains as Secretary of State but not National Security Advisor.
- November 7, 1974: 94th Congress elected: Democratic Party picks up 5 Senate seats and 49 House seats. Many of the freshman congressmen are very young; the media dubs them "Watergate Babies".
- December 31, 1974: As a result of Nixon administration abuses of privacy, Privacy Act of 1974 passes into law. Ford is persuaded to veto the bill by Cheney and Rumsfeld; Congress overrides Ford's veto. (Note that the newly-elected Congress had not taken office yet, this Congress was still the 93rd Congress.)
- U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends.
- December 1974: the US Congress cuts off all military funding to South Vietnam.
- April 30, 1975: The war ends with the Fall of Saigon and the collapse of South Vietnam.
- January 1, 1975: John N. Mitchell, John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.
- July 27, 1975: Church Committee chaired by Frank Church commences, to investigate foreign and domestic intelligence-gathering activities.
- April 4, 1976: The movie All the President's Men starring Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Hal Holbrook is released.
- May 5, 1976: Church Committee superseded by Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
- September 7, 1977: G. Gordon Liddy released from prison; sentence commuted by Jimmy Carter.
- October 25, 1978: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act enacted, creating Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and limiting federal government domestic surveillance powers. Recommended by Church Committee.
- April 22, 1994: Richard Nixon dies.
- May 21, 2005: Deep Throat, secret source to Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, reveals his identity: W. Mark Felt, former Associate Director of the FBI.
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