(CNN) Forty-six years ago this month, President Gerald Ford made one of the most controversial announcements in American political history: He pardoned Richard Nixon. Ford had been in the Oval Office for just a few weeks when he made his national address on September 8, 1974. One of the few men to become president without ever being elected to the job, Ford had been House Minority Leader when he took over for Nixon's disgraced vice president Spiro Agnew in 1973. When Nixon himself resigned the following year from the Watergate scandal , Ford ascended to the presidency. That left Ford with the challenge of not only rebuilding the nation's trust but also figuring out what to do about his predecessor: bring charges or grant a pardon.

Source: CNN September 13, 2020 09:56 UTC