This Day in History: , President Nixon <br />Refuses to Hand Over Tapes.<br />January 4, 1974.<br />The tapes were secret recordings that Nixon <br />had made of every conversation in the Oval Office.<br />Nixon aides, including White House counsel John Dean, <br />revealed knowledge of the tapes during grand jury <br />testimony about the Watergate break-in.<br />In 1972, members of Nixon's Committee to <br />Re-Elect the President broke into the <br />Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters.<br />After a security guard on patrol of the <br />offices called police, the burglars were arrested.<br />Their arrest led to the unraveling <br />of the Watergate scandal.<br />The Senate Watergate Committee soon <br />subpoenaed Nixon's White House tapes.<br />His refusal to hand them over is widely considered <br />the beginning of the end of his presidency.<br />Nixon resigned eight months later
