August 8, 1974 was a very good day.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

I was working on a letter sorting machine at the Post Office in North Hollywood, CA. The crew on the machine stopped it and, literally, danced in the aisles when the news came in over the radio.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nixon-resigns-presidency

Aug 8, 1974:
Nixon resigns

On this day in 1974, President Richard M. Nixon resigns in the wake of the Watergate burglary scandal. He was the first president in American history to resign.

In a televised address, Nixon, flanked by his family, announced to the American public that he would step down rather than endure a Senate impeachment trial for obstruction of justice. Since 1972, Nixon had battled increasing vociferous allegations that he knew of, and may have authorized, a botched burglary in which several men were arrested for attempting to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Between 1972 and 1974, the press, and later a Senate investigation committee, revealed disturbing details that revealed that Nixon had indeed attempted to cover up the crime committed by key members of his administration and re-election committee. The most damning evidence came from subpoenaed tape recordings of Nixon's White House conversations. Nixon fought the release of the tapes, which led the House of Representatives in 1973 to initiate impeachment charges against the president for obstruction of justice.

During the televised address, Nixon stated that he had never been a "quitter" and that choosing to resign went against his instincts. He refused to confess to committing the alleged high crimes and misdemeanors of which he was accused. He claimed his decision was encouraged by his political base and was in the best interests of the country and said that he hoped it would heal the political and social division caused by the Watergate scandal.

A report by the Washington Post on August 9 revealed the drama that had unfolded in the White House cabinet room an hour before Nixon's resignation speech. After saying goodbye to 46 members of Congress, including his staunchest supporters, the president told them that the "country could not operate with a half-time President," broke into tears and left the room.

[kestrel91316]

1. That was the day my mom had her psychotic break and was diagnosed

paranoid schizophrenic after having just sort of kidnapped me. It was a day I'll never forget, for multiple reasons, lol.

[barbtries]

10. eek kestrel

my memory of the day involves my mother as well but nothing nearly so traumatic.

[kestrel91316]

19. ROFL, eeeekkkkk was about right. I had a pretty wild couple of days there,

before we got help for her.........

[BumRushDaShow]

2. I remember watching that on TV. n/t

[hifiguy]

3. I watched the Trickster resign.

I was sitting in our living room, watching with my dad. I was a 17-year-old, longhaired dope-smoking freak at the time. Dad was a union man for years and hated Nixon. His only comment was "Good riddance." I laughed. My first real exposure to the inside info of Watergate was the brilliant rantings of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in Rolling Stone, to which I quickly became addicted. Yes, it was a very good day.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. I remember it well. Told my boss we should get the day off.

He didn't agree, though. Still, it was a day of celebration.

Slogans of the time:

"Don't change Dicks in the middle of a screw, vote for Nixon in '72."

"The only dope worth shooting is Nixon."

[rsdsharp]

6. If Nixon was "The one" in '68

He'll be a bigger one in '72

[barbtries]

11. re-elect the dike bomber?

[slackmaster]

5. My mom said on that day that we wouldn't seen another Republican President for a whole generation

Which turned out to be true only for very small definitions of "generation."

[Scuba]

7. Too bad your mom was wrong, eh? Eh?

[amandabeech]

8. I remember seeing him resign on TV.

I was working the evening shift, and one of my bosses (they were married) let me take a break and watch.

The other was so pissed that Nixon had been forced out that she couldn't watch at all. She was a B***h, and I don't say that often. He was a decent guy, an R, but could see why Nixon had to go. He thought that Ford would be much better for the country, and he was.

[barbtries]

9. i'll never forget it.

i drove to my mother's house to gloat, and she wouldn't let me. she was crying and insisting he was the best president we ever had. it was kind of a let down.
RIP mom, i'll always love you but our politics were never in sync.

[spanone]

12. i was living in hollywood at the time also....we danced in the streets

[Auggie]

13. I was working late and listened on radio

Actually, I was listening to the Cleveland baseball game when play-by-play announcer Joe Tait said they had to break away for a "special announcement." After the speech Tait resumed with the game as if nothing happened.

[Rowdyboy]

14. I went to work singing loudly "California Here I come, right back where I started from!"

It was a summer job at a factory in rural Mississippi but even there people thought it was pretty funny. Or so I remember. In retrospect I'm probably lucky I didn't get beat up!

[Tikki]

15. My August 8th, 1974 story...

Went to sleep the night before under heavy sedation...Woke up the 8th after gall bladder surgery..
(the old fashion surgery, rip it out)...and as my eyes focused on the TV in the room the nurse
noticed I seemed distressed. She asked if I was alright. I saw a banner under Gerald Ford that said
President Gerald Ford and I cried out.. "How long have I been out?" Everyone in the hospital ward laughed
and told me Nixon resigned.....then I cheered...


Tikki

[pinboy3niner]

16. Tikki Van Winkle, LOL!

Great story!

[Auggie]

18. Funny

[Jim Lane]

23. You're lucky I wasn't there. I would've been tempted to goof on you.

"Yes, Ford was elected to succeed Nixon in 1976. He beat Ted Kennedy in the general election. He was inaugurated seven months ago. The invasion of Cuba is going well...."

[Tikki]

28. Every time that nurse came in the room she chuckled after me.....

Nixon was gone and so was my nasty gall bladder....win/win...




Tikki

[mrs_p]

17. five days before i entered the world

little wonder why my blood runs blue...

[bongbong]

20. It was Nixon Day

I taped his shameful resignation speech off the TV. Still have it.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. You taped it? Really?

With one of these?

[Le Taz Hot]

21. And what's really sad?

A president could do the same thing today and the MSM wouldn't even blink. We're so used to wholesale corruption we've forgotten what it was like when we had a REAL Congress and a REAL Supreme Court who did their duty.

I remember Sam Ervin, "I'm just an old country lawyer." Like hell he was! Steely as hell. NOTHING got by him.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. I wish we still had some "Old country lawyers" like Sam still around.

Now, we're stuck with 3rd Way placeholders jam-packed full of ambition and strangers to principles and ethics.

[dogknob]

24. The day the conservative takeover of our media began in earnest.

As a whole, we have been fed a steady diet of the "everyone does it" and "that's just the way things are" lines for so long that despite everything we know about Mitt Romney, he could still win.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Yep. I remember it, too.

[pinboy3niner]

27. I remember

Not in the sense of remembering when I heard, or remembering where I was--as in the case of the JFK assassination. But I remember.

I was a VN vet, wounded and discharged for partial disability after 18 months in an Army hospital. I followed the news, and glommed onto WaPo's Woodward and Bernstein reports. This was personal.

I was so happy to see Nixon go down. At the same time, it was a huge disillusionment to have to acknowlege that kind of corruption reaching that high.

But Watergate and Nixon weren't the half of it. When Saigon fell in '75, it was like getting the double whammy for our generation, and especially for vets.

To this day, in vet circles, we keep an eye on each other around the anniversary of the fall of Saigon. That tends to be a rough time because it was that, more than anything, that showed us that all we did--all the blood, and losses, and sacrifice, and grief--accomplished nothing.

And what makes it harder is that it wasn't just Nixon's legacy. It was our leaders from both parties, through a succession of D and R Administrations, that did that. Thus leaving us with no discrete persons or places on which to focus our anger and our rage.

Nixon? Yeah, we remember. We have a few expletives reserved for him. Among many others.