The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in August 1974 of that year. It revolved around members of a group associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, who broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972, where they planted listening devices, and Nixon's later attempts to conceal his administration's involvement in the burglary.

Source: Wikipedia