interesting facts  
President Richard Nixon was the first President to resign from office. 

quote  
"Only in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is on the highest mountain" 

Richard M. Nixon's 1969 Inaugural Address -- Excerpt (1:46). (AU) (WAV)
Richard Nixon Introduces Himself (AVI)
Nixon Introduces his wife's coat (AVI)
Nixon says he'll keep his pet dog 'Checkers' - a gift from his supporters (AVI)
Nixon, "I am not a crook" (AVI)
Nixon's Resignation Speech (AVI)
The End for Nixon? (AVI)

inaugural address
First Inaugural Address / Second Inaugural Address

biography  
Born in California in 1913, Nixon had a brilliant record at Whittier College and Duke University Law School before beginning the practice of law. In 1940, he married Patricia Ryan; they had two daughters, Patricia (Tricia) and Julie. During World War II, Nixon served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific. 

In the Whittier little theater group Nixon met "Pat" Ryan, a new teacher in the town high school. Pat was intelligent and attractive, with red hair and brown eyes. On June 21, 1940, two years after their first meeting, they were married. 

Thelma Catherine Patricia Ryan was born March 16, 1912, in Ely, Nev. Her father, a silver miner, nicknamed her Pat. When she was a year old, the family moved to a ten-acre truck farm in California, where she grew up. She was 13 at the time of her mother's death and 17 when her father died. 

After a year at Fullerton Junior College, Pat drove an elderly couple to New York City, intending to stay only briefly. Instead, in 1931-32 she worked in a New York hospital, first as a secretary, then as an X-ray technician. She used her savings to enter the University of Southern California. While in college she played bit parts in movies. She was graduated in 1937 and began her teaching career. After the Nixons were married, Pat continued to teach. 

A few weeks after the United States entered World War II Nixon went to Washington, D.C. In January 1942 he took a job with the Office of Price Administration. Two months later he applied for a Navy commission, and in September 1942 he was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade. During much of the war he served as an operations officer with the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander. 

After the war Nixon returned to the United States, where he was assigned to work on Navy contracts while awaiting discharge. He was working in Baltimore, Md., when he received a telephone call that changed his life. A Republican citizen's committee in Whittier was considering Nixon as a candidate for Congress in the 12th Congressional District. In December 1945 Nixon accepted the candidacy with the promise that he would "wage a fighting, rocking, socking campaign." 

Jerry Voorhis, a Democrat who had represented the 12th District since 1936, was running for reelection. Earlier in his career Voorhis had been an active Socialist. He had become more conservative over the years and was now an outspoken anti-Communist. Despite Voorhis' anti-Communist stand the Los Angeles chapter of the left-wing Political Action Committee (PAC) endorsed him, apparently without his knowledge or approval. 

The theme of Nixon's campaign was "a vote for Nixon is a vote against the Communist-dominated PAC." The approach was successful. On Nov. 5, 1946, Richard Nixon won his first political election. 

The Nixons' daughter Patricia (called Tricia) was born during the campaign, on Feb. 21, 1946. Their second daughter, Julie, was born July 5, 1948. 

Nixon then decided to run for the Senate. In his senatorial campaign he attacked the Harry S. Truman Administration and his opponent, Helen Gahagan Douglas, for being "soft" toward the Communists. 

Nixon won the election, held on Nov. 7, 1950, by 680,000 votes, and at 38 he became the youngest member of the Senate. His Senate career was uneventful, and he was able to concentrate all his efforts on the upcoming 1952 presidential election. 

Two years later, General Eisenhower selected Nixon, age 39, to be his running mate. 

As Vice President, Nixon took on major duties in the Eisenhower Administration. Nominated for President by acclamation in 1960, he lost by a narrow margin to John F. Kennedy. In 1968, he again won his party's nomination, and went on to defeat Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace. 

His accomplishments while in office included revenue sharing, the end of the draft, new anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program. As he had promised, he appointed Justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. One of the most dramatic events of his first term occurred in 1969, when American astronauts made the first moon landing. 

Some of his most acclaimed achievements came in his quest for world stability. During visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced tensions with China and the U.S.S.R. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. In January 1973, he announced an accord with North Viet Nam to end American involvement in Indochina. In 1974, his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria. 

In his 1972 bid for office, Nixon defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern by one of the widest margins on record. 

Within a few months, his administration was embattled over the so-called "Watergate" scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign. The break-in was traced to officials of the Committee to Re-elect the President. A number of administration officials resigned; some were later convicted of offenses connected with efforts to cover up the affair. Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings which indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation. 

As a result of unrelated scandals in Maryland, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973. Nixon nominated, and Congress approved, House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as Vice President. 

Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin "that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America." 

In his last years, Nixon gained praise as an elder statesman. By the time of his death on April 22, 1994, he had written numerous books on his experiences in public life and on foreign policy.