Richard M. Nixon Facts

Introduction - Richard Nixon

President Richard Nixon Quick Facts

• Nixon, who was a member of the Republican Party, served as President from 1969 to 1974.
• Nixon was the 37th President of the United States. He won the presidential election against Hubert Humphrey the U.S. Vice President at the time under President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• He was the 36th Vice President of the U.S. serving from 1953 to 1961.
• Nixon was born into a Quaker family in a farmhouse in Yorba Linda, California in 1913.
• He and his wife, Pat, had two daughters together.
• Nixon died in NYC following a stroke on April 22, 1994, at the age of 81.

President Richard Nixon Interesting Facts

• He is the only President of the United States to resign.
• Richard Nixon was one of four kids and all but one was named after a king?
• During the Cold War, Nixon participated in a heated debate with then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev which boiled down to whether capitalism or communism was the superior system. It became known as the "kitchen debate" because it took place in the kitchen of a model home at the American National Exhibition in Moscow.
• When Nixon attended the Moscow Summit in 1972, he became the first President to make an official visit to Moscow.
• On September 26th of 1960 the first televised presidential debate took place against Vice President Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy.
• In 1960, Nixon lost the Presidential election to JFK by such a slim margin that it became the closest presidential election in the history of the U.S.
• On June 17th of 1972 five men were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington DC. They were caught wire-tapping and trying to steal secret documents. Whether Nixon knew about this plan or not, he became entangled in an attempted cover-up that took place. This would eventually result in one of the biggest scandals to hit the American presidency and culminate with Nixon's resignation.
• President Richard Nixon gave his resignation speech on August 8th of 1974 and officially resigned the presidency the next day when Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th President of the United States.
• If Nixon had not resigned the House of Representatives would most likely have impeached him; which is a formal accusation of wrong doing. This would most likely have been followed by a trial by the U.S. Senate.
• Nixon was pardoned by President Ford, his successor, for any crimes he may have been involved in during his presidency.

Facts about Richard Nixon's Accomplishments

• Nixon completed both college (Whittier College) and law school (Duke) at the top of his class.
• Nixon was elected to congress for two terms in 1946 and 1948 and then elected to the Senate in 1950.
• Nixon ran as the Vice-President to Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 Presidential election and they won with ease. They were re-elected in 1956 for a second term.
• Nixon was committed to public service actions to benefit minorities. He helped institute "The Philadelphia Plan" to eradicate racism in labor unions, he increased funding for sickle cell research, he began the Office of Minority Business Enterprise in 1969, and he fought to end school segregation.
• Nixon was responsible for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970.

Additional List of Nixon Accomplishments

• Added to the Voting Rights Act abolishing voter literacy tests
• Worked with Native American Indians to return land
• Signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 which is considered by many as the beginning of the war on cancer
• In 1972 Nixon signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
• Made first Presidential visit to Peoples Republic of China