January 8
The trial of the Watergate Seven (Barker, Gonzalez, Hunt, Liddy, Martinez, McCord and Sturgis) begins in Washington. It is presided over by Judge John Sirica.
January 11
Hunt pleads guilty.
January 15
Barker, Gonzalez, Martinez and Sturgis plead guilty.
January 30
Former Nixon aides G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident. Both had pleaded not guilty.
February 7
The Senate votes (77-0) to create the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. The Committee is chaired by Senator Sam Ervin (Democrat, North Carolina). Ervin cultivated a folksy image as a country lawyer, but his superivsion of this committee is crucial to the outcome. His deputy is Senator Howard Baker (Republican, Tennessee).
March 19/23
James W. McCord writes a letter to Judge John Sirica in which he claims that the defendants had pleaded guilty under duress. He says they committed perjury and that others are involved in the Watergate break-in. He claims that the burglars lied at the urging of John Dean, Counsel to the President, and John Mitchell, the Attorney-General.
These allegations of a cover-up and obstruction of justice by the highest law officers in the land blew Watergate wide open.
April 6
John Dean, the White House Counsel, begins co-operating with the Watergate prosecutors.
April 17
Nixon announces that White House staff will appear before the Senate Committee. He promises "major new developments" in the investigation and says there has been real progress towards finding the truth.
April 17
An official statement from the White House claims Nixon had no prior knowledge of the Watergate affair.
Easter Sunday
Nixon asks John Dean to prepare a report about the Watergate affair. He sends Dean to Camp David to write the report.
April 30
Nixon appears on national television and announces the dismissal of Dean and the resignations of Haldeman and Erlichman, describing them as two of his "closest advisers". The Attorney-General, Richard Kleindienst, also resigns and is replaced by Elliot Richardson.
May 17
The Senate Watergate Committee begins public hearings.
May 18
The Senate Watergate committee begins its nationally televised hearings. Watch a contemporary report of James McCord's appearance:
Attorney General-designate Elliot Richardson announces the appointment of former solicitor general Archibald Cox as the Justice Department's special prosecutor for Watergate. He is sworn in on May 25.
June 03
It is reported by the Washington Post that John Dean has told Watergate investigators that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least 35 times.
June 13
Watergate prosecutors find a memo addressed to John Ehrlichman describing in detail the plans to burglarize the office of Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
June 25
Testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee, Dean claims that Nixon was involved in the cover-up of the Watergate burglary within days in June 1972. In a seven-hour opening statement, he details a program of political espionage activites conducted by the White House in recent years.
July 7
Nixon tells the Senate Committee that he will not testify before it and will not grant access to Presidential documents, claiming Executive Privilege.
July 13
Alexander P. Butterfield, a former presidential appointments secretary, informs the Senate Committee of the White House taping system. He says that since 1971 Nixon has recorded all conversations and telephone calls in his office. A protracted legal battle begins between the White House, the Congress and the Special Prosecutor.
July 18
Nixon reportedly orders the White House taping system disconnected.
July 23
The Senate Committee and Archibald Cox demand that Nixon hand over a range of White House tapes and documents.
July 24
John Ehrlichman appeared before the Senate Watergate Committee. View a contemporary news report:
July 25
Nixon refuses to surrender any documents or tapes.
July 26
The Watergate Committee subpoenas several White House tapes.
August 9
The Senate Committee takes legal action against Nixon for failure to comply with the subpoena.
August 15: Nixon delivers a second Address to the Nation on Watergate. Nixon claimed "executive privilege" for the tapes and argued that he should not have to hand them over. Archibald Cox and the Senate Watergate committee request the Supreme Court instruct Nixon to surrender the tapes.
August 29
Judge Sirica orders Nixon to hand over 9 tapes for Sirica to review in private. This is the first of a number of court battles that Nixon is to lose.
October 10
Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew resigns after pleading no contest to a charge of income tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation and a $10,000 fine.
October 12
Nixon nominates Gerald Ford, Republican
Minority leader in the House of Representatives, as vice-president. At the same time, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld Judge Sirica's ruling that Nixon should surrender tape recordings relevant to Watergate.
Around this time, Nixon's own tax returns also come under investigation.
October 19
Nixon offers a compromise to the Senate Watergate Committee, proposing that the Democratic Senator from Mississippi, John Stennis, be permitted to listen to the tapes and prepare summaries for Special Prosecutor Cox.
October 20
Cox rejects the Stennis compromise. In a series of events that became known as the Saturday Night Massacre:
Nixon orders his Attorney-General, Elliot Richardson, to fire Archibald Cox. Richardson refuses and resigns in protest.
Nixon orders the deputy Attorney-General, William Ruckelshaus, to fire Cox. Ruckelshaus refuses and is sacked.
Robert Bork, the Solicitor-General, now acting as Attorney-General, fires Cox.
In the 1980s, Bork becomes a controversial Reagan nominee to the Supreme Court. His nomination is rejected by the Senate.
October 23
Under immense pressure, Nixon agrees to comply with the subpoena and releases some of the tapes.
November 1
Leon Jaworski is named as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.
November 17 During a press conference, Nixon defends his actions, urges the nation to put Watergate behind it and says "I'm not a crook.
November 21
A gap of 18 and a half minutes is discovered on the tape of the conversation between Nixon and Haldeman on June 20, 1972. Electronics experts report that the gap is the result of at least 5 separate erasures. Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, denies deliberately erasing the tape.
December 7
White House Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig, says one theory is that "some sinister force" erased the 18 and a half minutes of tape.
