This Day in History:
President Nixon
Refuses to Hand Over Tapes January 4, 1974 The tapes were secret
recordings that Nixon
had made of every
conversation in the Oval Office. Their existence had been
revealed by Nixon aides — including
White House counsel John Dean — during grand
jury testimony concerning the Watergate break-in. In 1972, members of Nixon's
Committee to Re-Elect the President
broke into the Democratic National
Committee’s Watergate headquarters. After a security guard
on patrol of the offices
called the police, the
burglars were arrested. Their arrest led
to the unraveling of
the Watergate scandal. The Senate Watergate
Committee soon subpoenaed
Nixon's White House tapes. His refusal to hand
them over is widely
considered the beginning
of the end of his presidency. He resigned
eight months later.