I
have something to add to the end of this edition of the Tuesday Timeline, and it is something very important and personal. It sort of goes back to what I wrote about
yesterday.
In a way, I suppose it can be loosely linked to today's subject that I've picked for today. Very loosely. But, I suppose it will be a challenge to tie up some loose ends.
In a way, I suppose it can be loosely linked to today's subject that I've picked for today. Very loosely. But, I suppose it will be a challenge to tie up some loose ends.
So,
let's close out this month by seeing what happened throughout history this
thirty-first day of May!
526 - A quarter of a million people lose their
lives in a devastating earthquake that strikes Antioch
1854 - France abolishes the civil death procedure
1859 - The clock tower at the Houses of
Parliament - the same tower that is the home of Big Ben - begins keeping time
1879 - Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square
Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt
1908 - Actor Don Ameche (d. 1993) is born in
Kenosha, Wisconsin
1909 - The National Negro Committee (which would
later become the NAACP) convenes for the first time
1911 - The hull of the doomed ocean liner HMS
Titanic is launched
1921 - Riots break out in Tulsa, Oklahoma over
civil unrest; at least thirty-nine die in the melee
1927 - The final Ford Model T is rolled off the
assembly line
1929 - "The Karnival Kid" - Mickey
Mouse's first speaking appearance in a film - is released
1938 - Singer-songwriter Johnny Paycheck (d.
2003) is born in Greenfield, Ohio
1941 - During World War II, a Luftwaffe air raid
over Dublin, Ireland claims thirty-eight lives
1942 - Sydney, Australia is subjected to attacks
by Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines
1948 - Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham (d. 1980)
is born in Redditch, Worcestershire, England
1954 - Disco singer Vicki Sue Robinson (d. 2000)
is born in Harlem, New York
1971 - Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in
May for the first time - previously the date was fixed as May 30
1977 - The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is
completed
1981 - Jaffna Library - located in Sri Lanka -
burns to the ground during the Sri Lankan Civil War
1985 - Canada and the United States are subjected
to no less than forty-one different tornadoes striking on the same day
2000 - The reality show "Survivor" debuts on CBS
2000 - The reality show "Survivor" debuts on CBS
2013 - Actress Jean Stapleton dies at the age of
90
I
would also like to take the time to wish the following famous faces a very
happy birthday; Clint Eastwood, Peter Yarrow, Sharon Gless, Joe Namath, Bernard Goldberg, Tom Berenger, Jean Chalopin, Gregory Harrison, Ben de Lisi, Susie Essman, Roma Maffia, Chris Elliott, Lea Thompson, Corey Hart, Hugh Dillon, Scotti Hill, Darryl McDaniels, Brooke Shields, Jeremy Hotz, Nick Scotti, Phil Keoghan, Sarah Murdoch, Archie Panjabi, Colin Farrell, Eric Christian Olsen, Joel Ross, Reggie Yates, Jason Smith, and Azealia Banks.
Now,
while I can't promise you that the date I've selected will be quite a while
back - the event in which this date is linked with certainly is.
So, let's set our time machine back eleven years to May 31, 2005. But before we go and see what
happened on this particular date, we have to go off course just a bit and go
back further in time to the year 1972.
Otherwise
known as what could be one of the worst years of Richard Nixon's life.
Those
of you who were around and are old enough to remember what happened in
1972...it could very well be summed up in one word.
Watergate.
The
political scandal which saw Nixon resign as President in the summer of 1974,
kicked off in June 1972 when five men were arrested on charges of breaking and
entering the Watergate office complex in Washington D.C. Specifically, the area in which the men
targeted was the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. At that time, the reasoning behind the
break-in was not known, but when the Federal Bureau of Investigations got
involved, their lengthy investigation found some very troubling information.
The
investigation proved that there was definitely a link between the money that
was found with the belongings of one of the men involved with the break-in, as
well as money that was being stored in a slush fund used by CREEP (The
Committee for the Re-Election of the President). Keep in mind that 1972 was an election year and Nixon was about to
conclude his first term as President of the United States.
A
few months passed, and Nixon was re-elected as President in November 1972. But as the calendar changed years to 1973,
the investigation intensified, and by June of 1973, more damning evidence came
to light against Nixon and his administration.
Between the testimony of former staff members at the Senate Watergate
Committee, and the realization that there was a tape recorder in Nixon's
possession that may have recorded some valuable conversations, it seemed as
though Nixon's world was about to come crashing down around him.
And
it did.
After
a legal battle between the United States Supreme Court and Nixon - who refused
to submit any of the recordings taped between 1972 and 1973 - the Supreme Court
ruled that Nixon was obligated to release the tapes and its contents as
evidence. And when the tapes were
listened it, they confirmed what many had suspected. That Richard Nixon had tried to cover up some activities had
taken place after the break-in, and that he used federal officials to delay and
deflect the investigation.
Nixon
formally resigned his presidency on August 9, 1974, and Gerald Ford was sworn
in one month later. Although Ford would
later pardon Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal, the damage was done,
and Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon's legacy as President was
forever tarnished.
But how did this whole scandal get tipped off? Surely if Nixon knew that what he was doing was wrong, you would think that he would have taken all the necessary steps to make sure that no information leaked out drawing suspicion towards him and his administration. After all, if the general public got word of what was going on, it would surely mean impeachment, or even prison time.
See, this is where we go back to our original timeline date of May 31, 2005.
You see, back in 1972, it was long suspected that somebody who was either part of Nixon's administration or was involved in the Watergate break-in investigation was secretly feeding information to two reporters from the Washington Post - Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The two men had covered the whole investigation and scandal in the newspaper for the two year duration, and the Post was known for publishing inside information about the case before any other media source.
It was later revealed after the scandal had ended that Bernstein and Woodward had a secret informant who went by the name of "Deep Throat". And it was the information that Deep Throat revealed that helped the investigation continue onward, leading to the biggest political scandal of the 20th century - well, until the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky story broke in the late 1990s anyway.
But how did this whole scandal get tipped off? Surely if Nixon knew that what he was doing was wrong, you would think that he would have taken all the necessary steps to make sure that no information leaked out drawing suspicion towards him and his administration. After all, if the general public got word of what was going on, it would surely mean impeachment, or even prison time.
See, this is where we go back to our original timeline date of May 31, 2005.
You see, back in 1972, it was long suspected that somebody who was either part of Nixon's administration or was involved in the Watergate break-in investigation was secretly feeding information to two reporters from the Washington Post - Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The two men had covered the whole investigation and scandal in the newspaper for the two year duration, and the Post was known for publishing inside information about the case before any other media source.
It was later revealed after the scandal had ended that Bernstein and Woodward had a secret informant who went by the name of "Deep Throat". And it was the information that Deep Throat revealed that helped the investigation continue onward, leading to the biggest political scandal of the 20th century - well, until the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky story broke in the late 1990s anyway.
But
nobody knew who Deep Throat was. And it
was a secret that was kept closely guarded for thirty-one years after Nixon's
resignation.
The list of suspects as to who could have been Deep Throat was long. Fred F. Fielding, Ron Ziegler, John Erlichman, L. Patrick Gray, William Rehnquist, Henry Kissinger, and even future Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush were suspected as being Deep Throat.
The list of suspects as to who could have been Deep Throat was long. Fred F. Fielding, Ron Ziegler, John Erlichman, L. Patrick Gray, William Rehnquist, Henry Kissinger, and even future Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush were suspected as being Deep Throat.
If
Richard Nixon knew who Deep Throat was, he certainly didn't talk. He mostly kept a low profile after his
resignation, and he passed away on April 22, 1994.
It
would be eleven years later, on May 31, 2005, that the identity of Deep Throat
would finally be revealed - in of all places, Vanity Fair Magazine!
And who was Deep Throat? Well, that
would be W. Mark Felt, who at that time was Associate Director for the FBI!
The
news was published in an article on the magazine's website, written by John D.
O'Connor - an attorney who was acting on behalf of Felt. At that time, Felt was suffering from the
effects of dementia, and initially even denied that he was Deep Throat. But once O'Connor had his article published
in which Felt admitted that he and Deep Throat were one in the same, it was
more or less confirmed by the two journalists who worked closely with him in
the Watergate investigation.
So, I suppose the one question that needs to still be answered is why did he come forward with the information at that particular time? Some might say that it was personally motivated, with Felt wanting to provide information to Bernstein and Woodward to satisfy his disappointment over L. Patrick Gray being named Director of the FBI over himself. According to Woodward and Bernstein, they say Felt had a loyalty to his country and felt he had to step up before Nixon damaged it beyond repair.
Or, it could just be that most of the key players in the Watergate scandal had passed on at the time Felt made his announcement and felt that he had nothing to lose. Felt himself would succumb to his disease just three years later in December 2008.
Whatever the case, the Deep Throat mystery saw its conclusion eleven years ago today.
So, I suppose the one question that needs to still be answered is why did he come forward with the information at that particular time? Some might say that it was personally motivated, with Felt wanting to provide information to Bernstein and Woodward to satisfy his disappointment over L. Patrick Gray being named Director of the FBI over himself. According to Woodward and Bernstein, they say Felt had a loyalty to his country and felt he had to step up before Nixon damaged it beyond repair.
Or, it could just be that most of the key players in the Watergate scandal had passed on at the time Felt made his announcement and felt that he had nothing to lose. Felt himself would succumb to his disease just three years later in December 2008.
Whatever the case, the Deep Throat mystery saw its conclusion eleven years ago today.
But I do know what it's like to have so much emotion eating away at you for so long. I get the impression that with most of the Watergate key figures deceased, Felt had no reason to fear any repercussions for speaking out.
And for me, being out of school for 16 years gave me the courage to speak out against something that really held me down and controlled me. Yesterday was the day I decided to take it back, and I feel so much better because of it.
I guess I just want to say thanks to everyone who might have taken something away from what I wrote yesterday. It's nice to know that there are people who understand and who are supportive, and I will never forget that.
So, that concludes 31 days of new entries. I'm going to take a break for a couple of days and will be back on Friday with a new entry. I reckon I've earned it!
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