The oath of office for the president of the United States is 35 words long. Richard Nixon quit in only 11: "I hereby resign the Office of President of the United States."
The typewritten letter, initialed by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in green ink at 11:35 a.m. on Aug. 9, 1974, is on display at the National Archives in a humidified, air-purified case, close to the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence.The only resignation of a president, it is part of a new exhibit, "American Originals," opening Friday for a three-year run.
Down the line is the Washington police blotter for April 14, 1865. It records that at 7:30 p.m., a saddle cover, halter and three fishing lines arrived at the precinct.
The stuff of history? No. But the next notation, at 11 p.m., was.
"At this hour, the melancholy intelligence of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, President of the United States, at Ford's Theater was brought to this office and the information obtained from the following persons goes to show the assassin is a man named J. Wilks Booth."
Threads like these, woven in with blockbuster events such as the Louisiana Purchase, the purchase of Alaska and the recognition of the state of Israel, are the fabric of American history. And they also are part of the display opening Friday.
Along with the historic, visitors can see the cover of a Superman comic book the Navy developed as a literacy training tool in 1945. Another aid to literacy - the phonetic spelling of "Ich bin ein Berliner," (Ish bin ein Bearleener) on a card used by President John F. Kennedy for making his famous 1963 speech in Berlin - is also on display.
The forgotten police officer in Washington misspelled John Wilkes Booth's middle name but he recorded Lincoln's shooting less than an hour after it occurred. The 16th president died the next day.