August 9, 1974
U.S. President Richard Nixon resigns. Four days earlier, he had admitted his complicity in the Watergate cover-up. Vice President Gerald Ford is then appointed President, with Ford giving Nixon a full pardon the following month. This is the first and only time in U.S. history that someone became President without having been elected either President or Vice President. Ford had become Vice President after Spiro T. Agnew resigned.