Today in history: The beginning of the biggest political scandal in U.S. history

An exterior view of the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., which contained the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.

(Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

June 17

On this day. 1972: Five men were arrested for breaking into Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington's Watergate building. It was the beginning of the biggest political scandal in U.S. history — Watergate — which ended with the only resignation of a president, Richard Nixon, on August 9, 1974. Watergate also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction, and incarceration of 43 people, including dozens of top Nixon administration officials.

The scandal unraveled rather quickly, thanks to dogged reporting by two reporters from The Washington Post: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. In addition, after the break-in, the FBI linked cash the burglars had to a "slush fund" used by the Committee for the Re-election of the President ("CREEP"). As a Senate committee launched an investigation into Watergate, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape-recording system in his offices and that he had recorded numerous conversations. Nixon refused to turn the tapes over, citing executive privilege, but eventually did so after the Supreme Court ordered him to do so. The tapes showed that Nixon tried to cover up the break-in, helped raise "hush money" for the burglars, tried to hinder the FBI's investigation, and destroyed evidence.

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