Facing sure conviction in a Senate trial, Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign. Gerald Ford assumed the office and a month later gave Nixon a full pardon.
Busing. In the 1970s, the government began to enforce, more vigorously than before, the school desegregation order. The government pushed first in the South, which eventually complied, and then in the rest of the country. Desegregation of city school systems, generally achieved by busing students, became a controversial and violent issue. By the late 1970s, the federal government had backed away from busing as a means to achieve racial balance in schools.
Recession. The economy entered its deepest downturn since the Great Depression. Production declined by more than 10 percent, and nearly 9 percent of the workforce was unemployed.
Completion of the controversial 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. Environmental groups had waged a long legal fight to stop the pipeline.
