We have a special anniversary today. On this day, November 17th in 1973, as the Watergate scandal gathered force, the Republican President Richard Nixon held a televised question-and-answer session with some 400 Associated Press managing editors. who were attending their annual convention at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

“I have earned every cent. And in all my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.”

“I’m not a crook.” became a sound bite and a headline that would haunt Nixon for following  nine months, till the end of his presidency.  In the end, his support among Senate conservatives, including key Republicans, continued to erode. Faced with the eventual prospect of a Senate impeachment trial, he announced on August 8th, 1974 that he would resign as nation’s 37th president on the following day. Not long after also having said “I am never a quitter,” Nixon told the nation: “I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President [Gerald] Ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office.”