- "I am not a crook. I've earned everything I've got."
- — Nixon's most famous quote, from when he denounced the Watergate Scandal
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974, when he became the only president to resign the office. Nixon had previously served as a Republican U.S. representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961, under Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Nixon is credited to creating both the EPA and Amtrak. He slowly ended the Vietnam War, which had escalated under his predecessor Lyndon B. Johnson. Nixon eased relations with Communist countries by having reasonable conversations with their leaders, a policy known as detente. His second term was overshadowed by the resignation of his Vice President, Spiro Agnew in 1973 due to a bribery scandal, as well as the Watergate scandal, arguably the biggest scandal in American political history. The scandal stemmed from a 1972 break-in of the Watergate office complex, where the Democratic Party had its headquarters, and Nixon's cover-up of his involvement. The scandal cost Nixon much of his political support, and forced him to resign from office on August 9, 1974 as he faced inevetable impeachment. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford. In retirement, Nixon's work as an elder statesman, authoring several books and undertaking many foreign trips, helped to rehabilitate his public image. He suffered a debilitating stroke on April 18, 1994, and died four days later at the age of 81.
Although he had never been on Saturday Night Live, he has been impersonated by Dan Aykroyd 10 times from the February 14, 1976 episode to the May 26, 1979 episode. By Tony Rosato on January 23, 1982 during "The Nixon Mansion" sketch, Joe Piscopo on April 14, 1984 during the "60 Minutes" sketch, John Turturro on November 19, 1994 episode during the "It's A Wonderful Newt" sketch and by Darrell Hammond on January 10, 2009 during the "Frost/Other People" sketch.
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