Richard Nixon Events

1913 Jan 9 Richard Nixon is Born
Richard Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, to Francis A. Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon in a house his father had built in Yorba Linda, California. His mother was a Quaker, and his upbrin...
1930 Richard Nixon Attends Whittier College
Nixon initially attended Fullerton High School in Fullerton, but later transferred to Whittier High School, where he graduated second in his class in 1930. Financial concerns forced him t...
1934 Richard Nixon Attends Duke University Law School
In 1934, he graduated second in his class from Whittier and received a full scholarship to Duke University School of Law. His future plans at this time focused solely on law; he was elec...
1940 Jun 21 Richard Nixon Marries Thelma "Pat" Ryan
In January 1938, Nixon was cast in the Whittier Community Players production of The Dark Tower. There he played opposite a high school teacher named Thelma "Pat" Ryan. Nixon pursued her, ...
1943 Richard Nixon Serves Active Duty in the U.S. Navy
Nixon was eligible for an exemption from military service, both as a Quaker and through his job working for the OPA, but he did not seek one and was commissioned into the United States Na...
1947 Jan 3 Richard Nixon is Sworn into the House of Representatives
Soon after World War II ended, a group of Whittier Republicans approached Nixon about running for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. Nixon accepted their offer, and wag...
1950 Nov 7 Richard Nixon is Elected as Senator for California
In the 1950 mid-term elections, Nixon ran against Democratic Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas for a seat in the U.S. Senate, representing California. The campaign is best remembered a...
1952 Sep 23 Richard Nixon Delivers his 'Checkers' Speech
The Checkers speech or Fund speech was an address made by United States Senator from California and Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon on television and radio on Septemb...
1953
to 1961
Richard Nixon Serves as Vice President
In part because of his reputation as an ardent anti-communist, 39-year-old Nixon was selected by Republican party nominee General Dwight D. Eisenhower to be the Vice Presidential candidat...
1953 Jan 20 Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th president of the United States
The Republican Party successfully promoted the candidacy of the popular General of the Army in the 1952 election over the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson. The oath of office was ad...
1960 Sep 26 Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy Appear in First Televised Presidential Debate
The 1960s were a significant changing of the guard in U.S. leadership and also in how Americans chose their leader. During the 1960 debates between the two candidates, Americans for the ...
1960 Oct 21 Final Debate Airs Between Vice President Richard M. Nixon And Senator John F. Kennedy
On October 21, 1960, American viewers were riveted to their television sets for the broadcast of the fourth and final debate between Vice President Richard M. Nixon, the Republican presid...
1969 Jan 20 Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president of the United States
An almost-winner of the 1960 election, and a close winner of the 1968 election, the former Vice President and California Senator and Congressman had defeated the Democratic Vice Presiden...
1970 May 4 Kent State Shootings
The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent-State massacre, occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed colleg...
1970 Jul 23 President Nixon Approves Plan to Expand Domestic Intelligence-Gathering
July 23, 1970 Nixon approves a plan for greatly expanding domestic intelligence-gathering by the FBI, CIA and other agencies. He has second thoughts a few days later and rescinds his app...
1971 Sep 3 The "White House Plumbers" Burglarize a Psychiatrist's Office to Find Files on Daniel Ellsberg
The White House Plumbers, sometimes simply called the Plumbers, were a covert White House Special Investigations Unit established July 24, 1971 during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Its...
1972 Feb 21 Richard Nixon Arrives In China For An Official Visit
On February 21, 1972, Richard M. Nixon arrived in China for an eight-day official visit. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China since its inception in 19...
1972 Jun 17 Five Men are Arrested for Trying to Bug the Watergate Complex
On June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the latch on locks on several doors in the complex (leaving the doors unlocked). He took th...
1972 Jun 19 James McCord, Security Coordinator for President Nixon, is Named in Watergate Bugging Arrests
One of the five men arrested early Saturday in the attempt to bug the Democratic National Committee headquarters is the salaried security coordinator for President Nixon's reelection comm...
1973 Jan 20 Richard Nixon's second inauguration
The election of 1972 consolidated the gains that the President had made with the electorate in 1968. Although the Democratic Party maintained majorities in the Congress, the presidential...
1973 Oct 10 Spiro Agnew Resigns as the Vice President
On October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew became the second Vice President to resign the office. Unlike John C. Calhoun, who resigned to take a seat in the Senate, Agnew resigned and then pleaded ...
1973 Oct 12 President Richard Nixon Nominates Gerald Ford to be Vice President
On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned and then pleaded no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme w...
1974 Aug 9 Richard M. Nixon Resigns the Office of the President of the United States
On March 1, 1974, former aides to the president, known as the "Watergate Seven" — Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Charles Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian and Kenneth Parkinson ...
1974 Sep 8 Gerald Ford Issues Unconditional Presidential Pardon to Richard Nixon
President Ford granted former President Richard M. Nixon an unconditional pardon today for all Federal crimes that he "committed or may have committed or taken part in" while in office, a...
1993 Jun 22 Pat Nixon Dies
Pat Nixon died on June 22, 1993 of health problems, including emphysema and lung cancer. Her funeral services were held on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace during t...
1994 Apr 22 Richard Nixon Dies
Nixon suffered a severe stroke at 5:45 p.m. EDT on April 18, 1994, while preparing to eat dinner in his Park Ridge, New Jersey home. It was determined that a blood clot resulting from his...