The House of Representatives began determining grounds for the impeachment of Richard Nixon in 1974.

Prompted by Nixon's attempts to cover up the White House's involvement in an illegal breaking-and-entering and wiretapping of the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate Hotel, the House of Representatives began impeachment proceedings against Nixon in 1974. Nixon was named by the grand jury as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Watergate cover-up.

A House committee found financial irregularities in the campaign records, and a set of tapes made secretly by Nixon were about to be made public. Embattled legally and realizing that he would be impeached, Nixon resigned from office on August 8, 1974. 

EDSITEment 
Learn more about our government's system of checks and balances, such as impeachment, in the EDSITEment lesson Balancing Three Branches at Once: Our System of Checks and Balances (3-5).

ARTSEDGE 
Nixon and the Watergate scandal were common topics of political cartoons. In the lesson Political Cartoons as Part of the Election Process (5-8), students examine historical political cartoons and create cartoons of their own.

Smithsonian's History Explorer
The Limits of Presidential Power (6-12) is part of the online exhibition The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden.  Students explore the importance of the system of checks and balances, Congress, the Supreme Court, impeachment, public opinion and the press in restricting the power of the president.