Watch a news clip from the evening of 'the Saturday Night Massacre'

Watch the breaking news report of the revelation that brought down the Nixon presidency

In August 1974, following a unanimous Supreme Court ruling, the White House released the "smoking gun" tape—revealing Nixon's role in the cover-up. Watch the CBS News report from Aug. 5, 1974, detailing the fallout from the release of the tapes.

Watch President Nixon's resignation speech

With impeachment looming, President Richard Nixon gave a televised Oval Office address. Watch this famous address in which Nixon announced his resignation due to the Watergate scandal—becoming the first and only president to resign from office.

Nixon's landslide in the 1972 presidential election

Despite the Watergate break-in becoming public in June 1972, voters largely shrugged it off. On Nov. 7, 1972, Richard Nixon still achieved a historic landslide—winning 520 out of 538 electoral votes, carrying 49 states—making it one of the largest Electoral College victories in US history.

Views on the Nixon pardon softened over time

Americans initially rejected Ford's September 1974 pardon of Nixon—38% approved it versus 53% disapproved—but by 1986, a slim majority (54%) believed it was the right call, showing that public sentiment softened over more than a decade after the controversy.

Experience Watergate through photographs

The Watergate scandal produced some of the most iconic images in American political history—especially the candid shot of Nixon boarding a helicopter while leaving the White House for the final time on Aug. 9, 1974.

The wife of Nixon's attorney general was forcibly held to silence her Watergate revelations

While vacationing in June 1972, Martha Mitchell was held captive, sedated, and physically abused by operatives connected to Nixon, intent on keeping her from speaking to reporters.

Journalism's real drama made 'All the President's Men' irresistible for Robert Redford

Robert Redford was drawn to Watergate not by Nixon, but by the partnership of two contrasting journalists—Woodward and Bernstein. In the interview, he explains how he shaped the film's documentary style to spotlight the story rather than the scandal.

See some of the most controversial pardons in presidential history

From Lincoln's selective commutations of Dakota men after an 1862 uprising, to Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon after Watergate, and Bill Clinton's final-day clemency decisions, pardons have long sparked fierce debate over justice, political favoritism, and presidential power.

The environmental crises of the late 1960s led to the founding of the EPA

Disasters such as the Cuyahoga River fire and the Santa Barbara oil spill prompted Congress and President Nixon to establish the Environmental Protection Agency in December 1970, with the goal of unifying federal efforts to control pollution.

Some Watergate reforms may have fueled today's partisan, confrontational Congress

The newly elected officials after the Watergate scandal dismantled seniority norms, opened committee votes, and televised proceedings—efforts aimed at increasing transparency that, unintentionally, may have fueled the polarized and combative tone of today's Congress.

The Kent State massacre sparked a nationwide student strike

In 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on Kent State University students—peacefully protesting the Vietnam War—and killed four. The tragedy led to more widespread nationwide protests, shutting down more than 200 colleges and universities. The event led to a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a slain and grieving student.

Abraham Lincoln's missing bodyguard

The night President Abraham Lincoln was shot, his bodyguard John Frederick Parker was late for his shift—and reportedly left his post to drink at the bar. Infamous assassin John Wilkes Booth entered the booth at Ford's Theater where the president sat while Parker was absent, leading to one of the United States' greatest political tragedies. Read more about the troubled history of Parker here.

The War Powers Act of 1973 was passed over Nixon's veto to limit the president's ability to wage war unilaterally

Passed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the War Powers Resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying forces and to end military operations within 60 days without congressional approval. Nixon vetoed the bill, arguing it was unconstitutional, but Congress overrode his veto.

The most controversial moments in ‘Saturday Night Live’ history

This list ranks the show’s biggest controversies over five decades, including Sinead O’Connor’s infamous shredding of the Pope, Elvis Costello’s abrupt set change, and Fear trashing Studio 8H.

Rockwell's 'Murder in Mississippi (Southern Justice)' was a response to real events

The 1965 painting was inspired by the 1964 murders of three men—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. The men were affiliated with the Council on Racial Equity and killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The painting accompanied an article about the inequities of the justice system, which is why its title often includes the parenthetical "(Southern Justice)."

The opposition party to the president first delivered a televised response in 1966

Television networks first granted airtime to the out-of-power party in 1966, with Republicans Everett Dirksen and then-Representative Gerald R. Ford delivering the inaugural response. See a list of each opposition response to the State of the Union since then.

Hear about the violent week after Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination

This podcast from The Atlantic revisits the seven days after Dr. King was killed in 1968, when widespread violent unrest swept the country and reshaped the direction and legacy of the Civil Rights movement.

33 images that became central to huge scandals

Conspiracy theories come from distrust in government, media, and institutions

Some believe JFK's assassination was orchestrated by larger networks rather than a lone shooter. Skeptics wondered how one unknown man could kill the most powerful person in America, and believed the CIA, FBI, or Soviet government played a role in the murder.

Oil nationalization triggered the CIA‑backed 1953 coup in Iran

NPR's Four Days in August podcast recounts the four days of covert CIA‑UK operations in Iran that toppled Prime Minister Mossadegh in August 1953. Threats of Iranian oil nationalization were a major driver of the decision to facilitate regime change.

What happened during the Fall of Saigon?

After the U.S. pulled out of the conflict in 1975, North Vietnam quickly subsumed the South, renaming its then-capital of Saigon into Ho Chi Minh City. What happened during the city's fall? Take the next 17 minutes to watch this 1975 footage from the Associated Press to learn more.

The unsolved murder case of Martha Moxley and the overturned conviction of a Kennedy cousin

Moxley was murdered in 1975, and the case went cold for a quarter of a century until Michael Skakel—a young relative of the Kennedy clan—was convicted of the murder. Eleven years into his sentence, Skakel's conviction was overturned, prompting a new set of questions.

Take a multimedia journey through the thirteen days that nearly ended the world

In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war. This interactive archive from the JFK Library reconstructs those tense days through documents, photos, and secretly recorded conversations from the Kennedy White House.

Nixon's 1971 decision to untether the dollar from gold ended the Bretton Woods exchange rate system

The Bretton Woods system initially pegged all major currencies to the US dollar, which could be exchanged for gold at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. Growing deficits and decreasing gold reserves prompted Nixon to end that guarantee in 1971, marking the end of the fixed exchange rate era.

Hollywood’s best scandals

With all the money, power, and beautiful people in Hollywood, it’s no wonder there’s no shortage of scandals. This list highlights 10 of the most salacious ones, from Marilyn Monroe’s affair with then-president John F. Kennedy, to the mysterious death of starlet Natalie Wood in 1981.

Prelude to the Tiananmen Square crackdown

On June 2, 1989, two days before the military-led massacre that would come to be known as the Tiananmen Square crackdown, nine of China's top leaders discussed how to stop pro-democracy protesters. During this meeting, leader Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech that has shaped the country ever since, in which he advocated for a forceful end to the protests while supporting China's economic "opening-up" featured in protesters' demands.

Carlin's 'Seven Words' led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling

The original recording of Carlin's bit aired on a New York radio station in 1973, leading to an FCC complaint. The case went up to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the FCC had the right to penalize broadcasters that aired obscene content during the daytime.

Revelations about quiz show ‘Dotto’ led to a larger scandal across the industry

The show, which aired on both CBS and NBC in slightly different iterations in 1958, followed a fairly standard question-and-answer format, with correct answers slowly revealing an image that contestants needed to solve. Despite its popularity, the show was canceled after it was revealed that one contestant had been provided with answers to the questions. That revelation led to similar scandals with four more shows over the next few months.

Who was behind the fatal 1982 Tylenol poisonings?

In 1982, an unknown suspect laced Tylenol packages with potassium cyanide in a Chicago pharmacy. Seven people were killed, and the case led to a nationwide panic, as well as the development of tamper-resistant packaging. No one was ever charged with the deaths, and the lead suspect died in 2023 after serving time in prison for trying to extort $1 million from a manufacturer to "stop the killing."

The Punch: Tomjanovich and Washington both still feel the pain from that terrible moment

In the NBA of the 1970s, cocaine use was prevalent and fights were a regular occurrence. On one early December in 1977, a fight broke out between the Lakers and the Rockets. Read this gripping LA Times story from 1985 that recounts a near-fatal punch thrown by Laker forward Kermit Washington and the devastating consequences paid by Houston Rocket forward Rudy Tomjanovich.

Hear about the Supreme Court case so divisive that it caused a justice's breakdown

This podcast episode examines Baker v. Carr, a landmark redistricting ruling that Earl Warren called the most important of his tenure. The case was so divisive it triggered a justice's breakdown and permanently reshaped American democracy.

The 1979 murder trial of Ted Bundy was the first nationally televised trial

Most of the world's known serial killers are made in America, a country with a seemingly bottomless appetite for true crime. Masses of viewers watched the trial of Ted Bundy, who admitted to killing 30 girls and women. "It was the first time serial murder and serial rape was made into live entertainment," says Joe Berlinger, director and "godfather of true crime."

Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for perjury and obstruction of justice

The House impeached President Bill Clinton over charges related to his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The Senate acquitted him on both counts in 1999, allowing him to finish his second term in office.

Watch a 1986 television special about the discovery of the ozone hole

The groundbreaking discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole in the mid-1980s marked a critical turning point, galvanizing international action to address the ozone-depleting properties of chlorofluorocarbons, which had been identified about a decade earlier. This environmental crisis was brought vividly to public attention through media pieces like this one.

The night before the disaster, not everyone signed the Challenger's launch authorization form

Allan McDonald, director of the booster rocket program at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol, refused to sign, believing ice on the spacecraft could damage the orbiter's heat tiles and that cold temperatures could cause O-ring failure. He later testified that management had overruled objections from engineers.

A psychedelic hamburger led one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, to testify against the group's leader.

Watch one of the greatest live TV shots ever

While James Burke was filming the 1978 docuseries "Connections" at the site of a rocket launch, he pulled off a perfectly-timed gesture without use of a green screen. Some say its the greatest live shot ever in TV history.

Soap operas were especially popular in the '70s and '80s

Shows like "As the World Turns" and "Love of Life" attracted tens of millions of viewers and had many high-profile fans, including Andy Warhol, Sammy Davis Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. This Time cover story from 1976 explores the pop culture phenomenon.

An in-depth account of the image of 'The Falling Man' whose final seconds capture the visceral horrors of 9/11

Do you remember the photograph above? In the US, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of Sept. 11, 2001. Here's a detailed account of the story behind it, the search for the man pictured in it, and its impact on those who lived through the tragic day.

'Bonnie and Clyde,' the 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was the first major American movie to feature graphic violence.

Director Arthur Penn used the then-new Squibb technology, which triggered realistic and bloody bullet wounds, to portray graphic violence, at the time a taboo in American cinema.

See how DOJ prosecutors took down a pharmaceutical company's executives over the opioid crisis

This FRONTLINE documentary follows federal prosecutors as they used anti-racketeering laws to convict executives at Insys Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company that bribed doctors to overprescribe a fentanyl painkiller.

The FBI's most famous cases

From the D.B. Cooper plane hijacking to the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. to the details about the first FBI agent killed in the line of duty, this FBI archive overviews the agency's most famous cases. Cases are organized by investigative priorities, according to the agency. Clicking any of the linked investigations takes readers to detailed articles about the cases, some of which remain unsolved.

The term ‘McCarthyism’ was coined by a political cartoonist

In February 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy infamously proclaimed that he had a list of communist State Department employees. The next month, cartoonist Herbert Block published a cartoon in the Washington Post featuring a reluctant elephant (the mascot of the Republican Party) being pushed to stand on a wobbly tower labeled “McCarthyism.”

Jacqueline Kennedy's 1962 White House tour drew 80 million viewers worldwide

Broadcast simultaneously on CBS and NBC, and a few days later on ABC, the first lady's televised tour introduced the restored White House to an audience of between 50 million and 80 million. The program elevated public appreciation of American history and the significance of the White House.

The Pete Rose scandal was exposed by Sports Illustrated

In the spring of 1984, a reporter at Sports Illustrated answered a call on the newsroom tip line claiming player/manager Pete Rose was gambling on baseball games. That March, the magazine published the bombshell report that led Major League Baseball to investigate and then ban Rose for life.

Was the Mỹ Lai massacre an outlier?

Hundreds of Vietnamese civilians, including children, were tortured and slaughtered during an attack by American troops in what came to be known as the Mỹ Lai massacre. Was such violence as much of an outlier as we’d like to believe? Not according to this researcher’s findings. Author and researcher Nick Turse explains the evidence behind the realization in this 31-minute interview.

A 1983 NATO war simulation provoked the Soviets to prepare for war

The "SNAFU" podcast, hosted by actor and comedian Ed Helms, explores some of the biggest blunders in history. Season one focuses on the 1983 NATO Able Archer military exercise, a war game that simulated nuclear attacks on the Soviet Union. The USSR mistook the exercise for a genuine threat and prepared its forces for war. Helms recounts this almost catastrophic event in world history with his signature humor.

How the Trump administration explained the firing of the NSF's National Science Board

The White House argued that the April 24, 2026, decision resulted from the 2021 US v. Arthrex Supreme Court ruling, which "set limits on the powers of executive branch officials who are not Senate-confirmed" and therefore conflicts with the law that created the NSB. As of May 2026, the administration has yet to explain its next steps for the advisory arm of the National Science Foundation, which has lost about a third of its staff since the start of 2025.

In 1996, 'The Curtain Call' changed fans' understanding of wrestling

Maintaining kayfabe, or the fiction of the professional wrestling universe, was a long-held tradition in the industry. That changed in 1996, when four WWE wrestlers broke character after a match at Madison Square Garden in an event later dubbed "The Curtain Call." This podcast breaks down the historical aftershocks.

The inside story of the 1969 murder of coal union leader Jock Yablonski

In 1969, Jock Yablonski challenged the longtime president of the United Mine Workers, Tony Boyle. On New Year's Eve of that year, Yablonski, his wife, and their daughter were brutally murdered in their beds.