On August 9,1974 Gerald Rudolph Ford became the first vice president in American history to succeed to the nation’s highest office because of the resignation of a president. Ford was also the first man to occupy the White House without being elected either president or Vice President. Both events resulted from two of the worst scandals in a American political history: the forced resignation of Vice President Spiro T AGNEW after he pleaded nolo contendere to a charge of income tax evasion, and Watergate affair, which ultimately led to the r ....