It was a public political scandal involved with ilicit activities during Nixon's presidency, it started in June 17th 1972, when five men were arrested in Washington D. C. acused of breaking and entering into the Democratic National Comitte headquarters in the Watergate complex. Investigations that were runed by the FBI, the Senate Watergate Committe and the House Judiciary Committe found plenty ilegal activities commited by President Nixon and his colaborators.
Illegal acivities discovered were covering a lot of crimes and abuses such as campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal breakins, evasion of taxes and a lot more crimes that were covered. Nixon and his staff conspired for covering the break-in before the people got out mad, and the President accepted parcial responsability for the events. After two years of recovering information including former staff members testimonies it came to light how President Nixon managed a tape recording system; some of this tapes revealed his obstruction to justice in the Watergate scandal and cover up the break-in. 
Some of the recorded tapes started being knowned as the Smoking Gun for all the precious information in it. After a series of court battlles, the USA Supreme Court decided to make a trial: United States of America Vs. Nixon, he didn't have an option but to hand over the tapes. Even though he thought there was an empeachment in the House of Representatives, Nixon resigned ten days later after the scandal, and was the first president of US to have resigned from office.
To watch or listen
- Nixon's resign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PNW2HBxW38&feature=related
- Smoking Gun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE1PyGzTr54
In the hole procces of Watergate Scandal in the Washington Post there was an anonymous informer who gave them a lot of clues and many significant facts to get in to the real story. His pseudonimous was "Deep throat" and until 2005 his identity remaind secret. In May 31, 2005 Vanity Fair Magazine revealed "Deep throat" as the former Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark Felt. For more than 30 years this informer was one of the biggest clueless in American politics and journalism history. Even a movie was made about this story called: "Deep throat: The lives of Bob Woodard and Carl Bernstein" 
