June 17, 1972
Five men are arrested at 2:30 a.m. trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex.
June 19, 1972
The Washington Post reports a GOP security aide was among the Watergate burglars. Former attorney general John Mitchell, head of President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign, denies any link to the operation.
Oct. 10, 1972
The Washington Post reports FBI agents established that the Watergate break-in stemmed from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of the Nixon re-election effort.
Nov. 7, 1972
Nixon is re-elected in one of the largest landslides in American political history.
Jan. 30, 1973
Former Nixon aides G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident. Five other men plead guilty, but mysteries remain.
April 30, 1973
Nixon's top White House staffers, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General
Richard Kleindienst resign over the scandal. White House counsel John Dean is fired.
May 18, 1973
The Senate Watergate Committee begins its nationally televised hearings. Attorney General-designate Elliot Richardson taps former solicitor general Archibald Cox as the Justice Department's special prosecutor for Watergate.
June 3, 1973
The Washington Post reports John Dean has told investigators that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least 35 times.
July 23, 1973
Nixon refuses to turn over presidential tape recordings to the Senate Watergate Committee or the special prosecutor.
Oct. 20, 1973
Saturday Night Massacre: Nixon fires Archibald Cox and abolishes the office of the special prosecutor. Attorney General
Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus resign. Pressure for impeachment mounts in Congress.
Nov. 17, 1973
Nixon declares, "I'm not a crook," maintaining his innocence in the Watergate case.
Dec. 7, 1973
The White House can't explain an 18 1/2-minute gap in one of the subpoenaed tapes.
July 24, 1974
The Supreme Court rules unanimously that Nixon must turn over the tape recordings of 64 White House conversations, rejecting the president's claims of executive privilege.
July 27, 1974
The House Judiciary Committee passes the first of three articles of impeachment, charging obstruction of justice.
Aug. 8, 1974
Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to resign. Vice President Gerald Ford becomes president and later pardons Nixon of all charges related to the Watergate case.
May 31, 2005
The Washington Post confirms that W. Mark Felt, a former Utah FBI agent and a former No. 2 official at the FBI, was "Deep Throat," after Vanity Fair magazine identified the 91-year-old Felt, now a retiree in California, as the long-anonymous source.
SOURCE: The Washington Post