Thirty-three years ago today, President Richard Nixon resigned only a year and a half into his second presidential term. After the Watergate Scandal, certainly one of the biggest in United States history, President Nixon had little recourse but to resign or wait to be the second impeached president in history.

On June 17, 1972, five men broke into the Watergate building, the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. After noticing tape covering several office doors, a security guard called the local police and Virgilio González, Bernard Baker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis were arrested and charged with attempted burglary, as well as attempted interception of telephone and other communications. Three months later, on September 15, a grand jury indicted them and two others for conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws.

The story would have ended with that verdict and sentence, but in March of 1973, one of the convicted, James McCord, wrote a letter to Judge John J. Sirica detailing the coverup of the attempted Watergate break-in. With this simple piece of paper and accusatory words, McCord set into motion one of the most memorable events in American political history.
Investigations conducted by the FBI, Senate Watergate Committee, House Judiciary Committee, and the media revealed that President Nixon and his staff had been responsible for not only the coverup of the Watergate Scandal, but also also campaign fraud, political espionage, massive wiretapping, political sabotage, and other break-ins. Furthermore, a secret account, funded by money laundered in Mexico, was identified as the primary source of buying the silence of those who covered up the presidency’s illegal operations.
After two years of compiling evidence against Richard Nixon and his staff, investigators discovered that the president had wiretapping technology in his office, which he had used to record many conversations. Upon review of the tapes, if was further discovered that Nixon had purposely obstructed justice and that he, himself, tried to cover up the Watergate break-in. This incriminating conversation was later nicknamed the Smoking Gun, a phrase that has been coined and utilized in pop culture ever since.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that President Nixon had to turn over the Smoking Gun tapes, and with that ruling, his impeachment was as certain as it could ever be. On August 8, 1974, Richard Nixon announced to the public that he would resign from the presidency. On August 9, his resignation went into effect at noon, making him the first president, and thus far only, to resign from his position.