August 8 · This Day in America
At nine o'clock on the evening of August 8, 1974, Richard Nixon sits at the desk in the Oval Office, looks into the cameras, and tells the country he will resign the presidency at noon the next day. The Watergate cover-up has unraveled; the tapes have spoken in his own voice; impeachment is certain. No American president had ever resigned. For two years the system had been tested — by burglary, by lies, by the use of the office to escape the law — and the test had been close. But the courts ruled, the Senate held hearings, the press dug, and a president discovered the office was not above the law after all. The transfer of power the next day takes minutes and not a single soldier. That, in the end, is the point. The Constitution worked.
Source: millercenter.org
Also on this day · 1945
On August 8, 1945, President Harry Truman signs the instrument of ratification for the United Nations Charter, making the United States the first country to formally join. A generation earlier, the Senate had refused the League of Nations and the world drifted toward catastrophe. This time, with the war's last fires still burning, America chose to stay in the room.
Source: history.state.gov
“By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.”President Richard Nixon, resignation address, August 8, 1974