Happy Birthday, Richard Nixon! Our 37th President was born on this day in 1913. Miss B. says he was her first President. She remembers some of the things that happened while he was President. She says he did a good job working with the leaders of other countries.
In 1972, he and his wife, Pat, traveled to China. According to a story Miss B. once heard, while they were there, they had dinner with the leader of China and his wife. As they sat down to talk after dinner, Mrs. Nixon saw a pack of cigarettes on the table. On the pack, was a picture of a panda. (Pandas live in the wild in China, but they are a vulnerable species.) Mrs. Nixon pointed to the pack and asked if she could have one, meaning a cigarette. The Chinese leader thought she wanted a panda! Soon after their visit, two pandas were sent to President and Mrs. Nixon to live in Washington, DC, at the National Zoo! Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing spent the rest of their lives in DC, and were loved by all. They had five babies, but none survived. After Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing both died of old age, China sent two more pandas to the Zoo. So far, they have had three baby pandas who have survived, Tai Shan, (Princess) Bao Bao, and Bei Bei. The older two babies are now grown up and live in China. Bei Bei still lives with his parents at the National Zoo.
Unfortunately, President Nixon got himself into some big trouble involving a break-in at the Watergate Building in DC and many lies that he told about it. (That’s a story for another day!) Because of this, President Nixon decided that it would be better for him and our country if he resigned. On August 9, 1974, he became the first, and so far only, President to resign from office.
Alfred’s History of America 