Richard M. Nixon was elected president on January 20,1969. Nixon set his first goal on reconciliation. Nixon was successful in ending American fighting in Vietnam and improving relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. But The Watergate scandal that occurred in 1972 had brought fresh divisions to the country and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974.

Neil Alden Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. This all happened on the 20th of July 1969, people watched on National live television. Armstrong's return came in safe with his mission to be successful. Neil Armstrong was a part of one of the 20th century's greatest accomplishment in America. Armstrong was a U.S. Navy pilot as well, fighter pilot to be exact, in the Korean War where he flew 78 combat missions. 43 years later, Armstrong died at the age of 82, on August 25, 2012.

Kent, Ohio, May 4, 1970, Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded.

The loudness of the gunfire came about 15 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus gathering spot, by lobbing tear gas at a crowd of about 1,000 young people.

In Washington, President Nixon deplored the deaths of the four students in the following statement:

"This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy. It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident will strengthen the determination of all the nation's campuses, administrators, faculty and students alike to stand firmly for the right which exists in this country of peaceful dissent and just as strong against the resort to violence as a means of such expression."

The Watergate Scandal is a series of events that occured between 1972 and 1974. The scandal got its name from the burglary at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel Complex in Washington, D.C.

Bilateral ratified treaty of "unlimited duration" between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. limiting each side's anti-ballistic missile or ABM systems in order to prevent the deployment of nationwide ABM defenses, or a base for such a system. Each country is restricted to a single deployment area of 100 ABM launchers and missiles. The treaty prohibits the development, testing and deployment of space-based, sea-based, air-based and mobile land-based systems and components. Compliance is monitored by national technical means of verification and overseen by a Standing Consultative Commission. The treaty entered into force on October 3, 1972.

The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) attempting to prevent the spread of communism. Engaged in a war that many viewed as having no way to win, U.S. leaders lost the American public's support for the war. Since the end of the war, the Vietnam War has become a benchmark for what not to do in all future U.S. foreign conflicts.

The scandal takes its name from the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., the site of a 17 June 1972 break-in into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Subsequently, five men were arrested for breaking and entering. On September 15, a grand jury indicted the burglars (Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis) and two other men (E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G. Gordon Liddy) for conspiracy, burglary and violation of federal wiretapping laws.

Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA and was the United States' first space station. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of 169,950 pounds (77 t). Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 using the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. On the last two manned missions, an additional Apollo / Saturn IB stood by ready to rescue the crew in orbit if it was needed.

On this day in 1974, President Richard M. Nixon resigns in the wake of the Watergate burglary scandal. He was the first president in American history to resign.

In a televised address, Nixon, flanked by his family, announced to the American public that he would step down rather than endure a Senate impeachment trial for obstruction of justice.

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr was the thirty-eighth President (1974-1977). He was the only President who was never elected as either Vice President or President. He became President after the resignation of Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal. He was born Leslie Lynch King Jr on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother married Gerald Ford, who adopted the boy and gave him his name.