The first and only presidential resignation belongs to Richard Nixon, whose failed attempt at spying on his political opponents led to one of the most elaborate cover-ups in American history.

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In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan’s administration secretly — and illegally — traded weapons of war to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages, then used the proceeds to fund a Nicaraguan rebel army known as the Contras.

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In 1995, 49-year-old president Bill Clinton began an affair with 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The affair would lead to impeachment hearings in Congress, nearly ruin Lewinsky's reputation, and instigate an atmosphere of inexorable Congressional partisanship that continues to this day. 

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On February 24, 1868, the United States House of Representatives initiated impeachment proceedings against Andrew Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors," eventually leading Johnson to become the first U.S. President to be impeached. 

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In the 1950s, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade polarized the nation. Convinced that officials had let Communists infiltrate the military, McCarthy zeroed in on his biggest target yet: the Army. It took a month of tense Senate hearings to uncover the truth… 

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The fight over Florida’s election results would become a fierce battle of wills between Al Gore and George W. Bush, with the clash over the presidency eventually boiling into the federal courts. 

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It began in 1956: A covert FBI operation that targeted so-called “subversives” suspected of having Communist ties. Later, the domestic spying program turned its focus toward the Civil Rights Movement. 

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In July 2003, Valerie Wilson was outed as a spy in The Washington Post. The man behind her unveiling? Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff, a man named Scooter Libby, who informed reporters about the undercover CIA agent in an act of retaliation against her husband.

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Without even completing the traditional one-year mourning period for his deceased first wife, Woodrow Wilson met, courted, and proposed to a younger woman who claimed she wanted nothing to do with politics. She had no idea that someday, she’d be called upon to secretly govern in his stead.

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After assuming the presidency in 1921, 55-year-old Warren G. Harding didn’t seem to take the job seriously. Not only did he spend most of his time playing poker and golf, he staffed his presidential cabinet with his best pals—some of whom turned out to be career criminals. 

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The intense feud between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams festered for years before the rivals went to head-to-head in a vicious rematch. Accusations of cannibalism and sex trafficking were just the beginning of their slanderous campaigns meant to tear the other down.

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