51 years ago today, March 15, 1974 (February 22, 1974), Nixon was accused of participating in the Watergate Incident. Nixon defended himself On March 15, 1974, a federal grand jury found Nixon involved in a conspiracy to cover up the involvement of White House officials in the Watergate incident that illegally entered Democratic Party headquarters. The verdict was included in a verified grand jury report. Materials in the report allege that seven former members of the White House and Nixon's re-election campaign were guilty of conspiracy. The report submitted to John J. Sirica also included a recommendation that the report be referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which is currently considering impeaching President Nixon. In a speech to Chicago managers, Nixon announced that he would not resign because resigning would mean pleading guilty and reduce the president's prestige in people's eyes. He said: "This will cause the future president of the United States to no longer have authority and be no longer strong, and I will never be the person who undermines the authority of the president of the United States." This sensational incident was exposed through the unremitting efforts of two Washington Post reporters Carl Burns and Bob Woodward. Many doubts center on recordings of conversations recorded by the White House in the weeks after the Watergate break-in, in which the president and his advisers discussed the implications of the incident. When the tapes were finally handed over to investigators, it was discovered that parts of their content had been erased. Among those charged are John Ehrlichman, the president's former domestic affairs adviser, and Harrow Haldeman, former White House chief of staff. Washington Post reporter Carl Burns but Bob Woodward, accused former domestic affairs adviser Ehrlichman, reporters who uncovered the mystery of the Watergate scandal