Timeline of the Richard Nixon presidency

The presidency of Richard Nixon began on January 20, 1969 when Richard Nixon was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on August 9, 1974, when, in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office, he resigned the presidency (the first U.S. president ever to do so).

1969

1970

1971

• January 1 – President Nixon spends New Year's Day at Camp David with his family and aides.[1]
• January 2 – The White House releases the text of a message sent to Congress by President Nixon the previous day alongside his vetoing of a bill raising the pay for roughly 850,000 federal workers.[2]
• January 22 – President Nixon delivers the 1971 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.
• February 16 -- Secret Service Agents install the White House Taping system. Its operation will be refined over the months to improve its reception.
• March 24 – In a 51-46 vote, the Senate cuts off government funding for the Nixon-supported supersonic transport airplane.[3]
• June 13 – The New York Times begins publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers.[4]
• July 15 – President Nixon announces that he had been invited to visit China.[5]
• November 3 – Secretary of Defense Laird meets with top American officials based in Saigon on intentions to send thousands of GIs back to the US during the holiday season.[6]
• November 8 – The White House states its interest in the imposition of revisions made to a water pollution control bill sponsored by Senator Edmund Muskie.[7]
• November 16 – Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Richardson discloses that the Nixon administration is looking into reforming the Social Security accounting system.[8] The Senate votes 53 to 29 in favor of President Nixon having the authority to impose a 15% surcharge on imports into the US.[9] Secretary of the Treasury Connally lauds the wage-price increase as successful and foresees post-freeze controls cutting inflation in half during the following year.[10]
• December 2 – Earl Butz is sworn in as the 18th United States Secretary of Agriculture.[11]
• December 9 – President Nixon vetoes a federal childcare program that he charges as too costly and unworkable.[12] Congress sends a tax cut bill to President Nixon reducing the taxes on individuals and businesses by US$15.8 billion during the night.[13]
• December 10 – President Nixon signs a tax bill, cutting consumer and business taxes by 15.8 billion over the following three years, into law.[14] William Rehnquist is confirmed to the United States Supreme Court by a Senate vote of 68 to 26.[15]
• December 11 – United States Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard resigns.[16]
• December 12 – Secretary of State Rogers said continued lack of action by the United Nations on the India-Pakistan War would portray the UN as ineffective while speaking to reporters.[17]

1972

• January 2 – President Nixon explains his ordering of bombing within North Vietnam was due to a violation of a 1968 understanding that ceased bombing by the US during a nationally televised interview.[18]
• January 3 – Jack Anderson claims that United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger complained about President Nixon giving him "hell every half hour" in regards to the India-Pakistan conflict and that Kissinger said this during a December 3, 1971 strategy session.[19]
• January 4 – President Nixon pledges the US will become the leading maritime country in the world while speaking at a shipbuilding yard in San Diego, California.[20]
• January 11 – President Nixon signs an executive order alongside issuing a memoranda setting ordering pay increases to over 118,000 federal blue collar workers.[21]
• January 13 – President Nixon announces the withdrawal of 70,000 American troops over the course of the next three months in a statement during the White House press briefing.[22]
• January 20 – President Nixon delivers the 1972 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.
• January 28 – President Nixon announces the creation of an Office of Drug Law Enforcement within the Justice Department for the overseeing of jailing of illicit drug dealers.[23]
• January 29 – A White House source discloses that President Nixon was known as "Quarterback" in messages sent to Secretary of State Kissinger during negotiations with North Vietnam.[24]
• January 30 – United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird says a draft call will not take place until at least April during a televised interview.[25]
• February 21 – Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China
• May 22 – President Nixon visits the Soviet Union.[26]
• October 18 – Clean Water Act
• November 7 – President Nixon wins re-election against Senator George McGovern from South Dakota, the Democratic candidate.
• December 1 – The White House discloses that Treasury Secretary Schultz will remain in his position during the second term of President Nixon with expanded responsibilities.[27]
• December 2 – Interior Secretary Morton strips the supervision rights of the three men involved in Indian affairs alongside announcing his taking of personal command of the endeavor.[28]
• December 4 – The government announces the withholding of 689 million in federal welfare payments as part of an effort to dislocate those not needing the program from those eligible.[29]
• December 26 – Former President Harry S. Truman dies

1973

• January 1 – The Labor Department states its choice to raise guidelines on income for the determining of who is eligible for federal programs and specifies the raise as US$193 higher.[30]
• January 2 – The Pentagon states American bombers possibly damaged a North Vietnam hospital and the a civilian airport in Hanoi following the Hanoi-Haiphong area bombing.[31]
• January 3 – Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler states members of Congress should consider the possibility of convincing the North Vietnamese of their interest in acting against peace efforts.[32]
• January 4 – President Nixon holds a meeting with military and diplomatic advisors in the Oval Office for discussions on Vietnam and the upcoming Paris peace talks.[33]
• January 5 – President Nixon meets with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders for a breakfast to inform them the US should know whether a quick settlement in Vietnam is possible after the Paris peace talks.[34]
• January 6 – The House and Senate jointly officiate the re-election of President Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew to a second term during a ceremony.[35]
• January 8 – United States Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird says 5,000 men will be drafted between March 1 and July 1 during an appearance before Congress.[36]
• January 9 – The Defense Department denies allegations made in a Saigon report that the US had resumed preemptive reaction air strikes over North Vietnam.[37] The White House announces President Nixon's acceptance of the resignation of Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission Miles Kirkpatrick.[38]
• January 11 – President Nixon reveals Phase 3 in a message to Congress which eliminates a majority of wage and price controls.[39]
• January 12 – The White House says Cabinet members will resume testifying before Congress and their upcoming appearances will be at convenience.[40]
• January 14 – President Nixon sends United States Army General Alexander Haig to meet with President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu.[41]
• January 16 – White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler says United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will not return to the Paris peace talks ahead of the following week.[42] South Vietnamese sources state President Nixon intends to declare a unilateral Vietnam cease-fire to start on the eve of his second inauguration.[43]
• January 17 – White House sources rebuke claims of an imminent cease-fire, citing earlier statements that President Nixon would not address peace negotiations during the week.[44]
• January 18 – The Florida White House announces Secretary of State Kissinger will return to the Paris peace talks for a completion of "the text of an agreement".[45]
• January 19 – Defense Secretary Laird says he cannot confirm the use of a cease-fire being effective in ending the Southeast Asia conflict during a Pentagon press conference.[46] Press Secretary Ziegler states President Nixon will have more press conference beginning with his second term.[47]
• January 20 – Nixon is sworn into his second term as President of the United States by Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.
• January 22 – Former President Lyndon B. Johnson dies
• January 27 – Paris Peace Accords
• June 22 – Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War
• July 18 -- The White House Taping system is disconnected for the final time, after its public revelation in testimony by White House Aide Alexander Butterfield
• October 6 – The Yom Kippur War begins, which sparked the 1973 oil crisis, leading to the 1970s energy crisis.
• October 10 – Spiro Agnew resigns as Vice President.
• October 12 – Nixon nominates House minority leader Gerald Ford for Vice President.
• November 5 – The term "Shuttle diplomacy" is first used to describe the efforts of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to facilitate the cessation of hostilities following the Yom Kippur War.[48]
• December 4–5 – President of Romania Nicolae Ceausescu meets with President Nixon for discussions on the development of economic relations between Romania and the United States.[49]
• December 4 – President Nixon delivers an address in a formal welcome of President Ceausescu to the White House on the South Lawn during the morning.[50]
• December 6 – Following Congressional approval, Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 40th Vice President of the United States. President Nixon signs H.R. 9474, a veterans disability and death pension bill, during an Oval Office ceremony.[51]

1974

References

1. "Nixon Watches TV Bowl Games and Signs 66 Bills". Chicago Tribune. January 2, 1971.
2. "Major Battles Put Off; Pay Raise Vetoed". Chicago Tribune. January 3, 1971.
3. Warden, Philip (March 24, 1971). "A Defeat for Nixon". Chicago Tribune.
4. "Pentagon Papers – Vietnam War". History.com. Retrieved 2017-02-04.
5. "Nixon announces trip to China – Jul 15, 1971". History.com. Retrieved 2017-02-04.
6. "Laird Meets With U.S. Officials In Saigon". Herald-Journal. November 4, 1971.
7. "Nixon Administration Reportedly Seeks Revision In Water". Herald-Journal. November 9, 1971.
8. "White House Eyes Social Security System Revision". Herald-Journal. November 17, 1971.
9. "Senate Votes To Grant Nixon Import Authority". Herald-Journal. November 17, 1971.
10. "Connally Calls Freeze A Resounding Success". Herald-Journal. November 17, 1951.
11. "Senate Confirms Butz's Nomination". Herald-Journal. December 3, 1971.
12. "President Vetoes Child-Care Program". Herald-Journal. December 10, 1971.
13. "Congress Passes Tax Cut Bill, Sends It to Nixon". Herald-Journal. December 10, 1971.
14. "Nixon Signs Tax Bill Into Law". Herald-Journal. December 11, 1971.
15. Rehnquist Wins Senate Approval (December 11, 1971)
16. Packard Resigns Post As Deputy Secretary of Defense (December 12, 1971)
17. U.N. Would Be Branded 'Failure' Explains Rogers (December 13, 1971)
18. Starr, Frank (January 3, 1972). "Infiltration is Blamed". Chicago Tribune.
19. "Reports Nixon's Fury on India". Chicago Tribune. January 4, 1972.
20. Beckman, Aldo (January 5, 1970). "U.S. Will Regain Leading Maritime Role, Nixon Says". Chicago Tribune.
21. "Order Raises for U.S. Workers". Chicago Tribune. January 12, 1972.
22. Beckman, Aldo (January 14, 1972). "70,000 More GIs to Quit Viet by May 1, Nixon Says". Chicago Tribune.
23. "Nixon Unveils Vast U.S. Drug Program to Stamp Out Pushers". Chicago Tribune. January 29, 1972.
24. "Nixon Sends in His 'Plays' to Kissinger". Chicago Tribune. January 30, 1972.
25. "No Draft Before April, Laird Says". Chicago Tribune. January 31, 1972.
26. "Richard Nixon  – A Timeline » Richard Nixon Foundation". Richard Nixon Foundation. Retrieved 2017-02-04.
27. "Schultz to Get Expanded Cabinet Room". Chicago Tribune. December 2, 1972.
28. "Three Aides Fired at Indian Bureau". Chicago Tribune. December 3, 1972.
29. "State Face U.S. Welfare Aid Cut for Failure to Check Recipients". Chicago Tribune. December 5, 1972.
30. "U.S. raises poverty level guidelines". Chicago Tribune. January 2, 1973.
31. Farrar, Fred (January 3, 1973). "May have bombed hospital: U.S." Chicago Tribune.
32. Beckman, Aldo (January 4, 1973). "Congress warned it may prolong war by opposition". Chicago Tribune.
33. "Nixon and top aides discuss war, peace". Chicago Tribune. January 5, 1973.
34. Beckman, Aldo (January 6, 1973). "Nixon briefs Congress leaders on peace talks". Chicago Tribune.
35. "Senate, House count electoral vote: it's Nixon". Chicago Tribune. January 7, 1973.
36. Farrar, Fred (January 9, 1973). "Only 5,000 more needed in draft, Laird claims". Chicago Tribune.
37. Farrar, Fred (January 10, 1973). "U.S. denies new bombing". Chicago Tribune.
38. Beckman, Aldo. "Nixon OKs FTC chief's quitting". Chicago Tribune.
39. Rohrbach, Edward (January 12, 1973). "Phase 3 lifts most controls". Chicago Tribune.
40. Beckman, Aldo (January 13, 1973). "FIght between Congress and White House heats up".
41. Beckman, Aldo (January 15, 1973). "Haig is sent to brief Thieu". Chicago Tribune.
42. Beckman, Aldo. "No Kissinger trips this week: Ziegler". Chicago Tribune.
43. "S. Viets expect Nixon truce declaration by Friday". Chicago Tribune. January 17, 1973.
44. Beckman, Aldo (January 18, 1973). "Reports of truce tomorrow denied". Chicago Tribune.
45. Beckman, Aldo. "Kissinger set 'to complete' peace pact". Chicago Tribune.
46. "Viet Nam cease-fire no guarantee of peace: Laird". Chicago Tribune.
47. Beckman, Aldo. "Nixon plans to increase press meetings". Chicago Tribune.
48. George Lenczowski, American Presidents and the Middle East, (Duke University Press: 1990), p. 131
49. 351 – Joint Statement on Economic, Industrial, and Technological Cooperation Between the United States and Romania. (December 5, 1973)
50. 347 – Remarks Announcing Establishment of the Federal Energy Office. (December 4, 1973)
51. 352 – Statement on Signing a Veterans Disability and Death Pension Bill. (December 6, 1973)

External links

• Miller Center Nixon Presidential Timeline