THIS DAY IN HISTORY: NOVEMBER 17, 1973
In September 1952, Richard Nixon took to the airwaves to defend his reputation after it was alleged he had taken $ 18,000 from a fund for political expenses. He vehemently denied any wrongdoing, but admitted he had received one gift — a “little cocker spaniel dog” that his daughter Tricia had named Checkers. “And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it,” Nixon stated. Corny as it was, the “Checkers Speech” worked, and Nixon kept his position as the vice- presidential nominee on the Republican ticket. A few weeks later, he was elected alongside President Dwight Eisenhower. Two decades later, Nixon found himself in hot water again during the Watergate scandal. It began with a botched burglary at the Democratic National Committee offices on June 17, 1972, which seemed inconsequential at first. Nixon was re- elected president in a landslide victory on Nov. 7, 1972. But his aides were soon implicated in Watergate. On Jan. 30, 1973, G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping, and two months later AttorneyGeneral Richard Kleindienst and White House staffers H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman resigned over the scandal. Pressure mounted until Oct. 20, when Nixon fired the special prosecutor looking into Watergate, Archibald Cox. This led to the resignation of another AttorneyGeneral, Elliot Richardson. Nixon decided to take his case to the public with an election- style campaign. On Nov. 17, 1973, he spoke to 400 editors from The Associated Press in Florida, and made the startling statement, “I am not a crook.” He got off the hook with the Checkers Speech, but this time, few people believed him. With impeachment looming, Nixon became the first ( and only) American president to resign from office on Aug. 8, 1974.