President Richard Nixon resigns, the first U.S. chief executive to do so. The House Judiciary Committee approves three articles of impeachment, on July 27, 29 and 30, 1974, and Senate leaders from his party, the GOP, tell Nixon that they will vote to convict. If convicted, Nixon would have lost retirement pay, benefits and expenses for a small staff. At the center of the controversy were two break-ins in spring 1972 at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate complex. Audiotapes, which the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release, revealed his complicity in a cover-up of the break-in.