On this day in 1973, the nostalgic teenage coming-of-age movie
American Graffiti, directed and co-written by George Lucas,
opened in theaters across the U.S. Set in California in the
summer of 1962, American Graffiti was nominated for five
Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture,
and helped launch the big-screen careers of Richard Dreyfuss
and Harrison Ford, as well as the former child actor and future
Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard. The film’s success
enabled Lucas to get his next movie made, the mega-hit Star
Wars (1977).

Wolfman Jack (Robert Weston Smith) appears as the D.J. 

Harrison Ford

Police officials surround David Berkowitz, 24, of Yonkers outside Brooklyn’s 84th Precinct after his arrest as the "Son of Sam" killer.

On August 10, 1977, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz is arrested
and charged with being the “Son of Sam,” the serial killer who terrorized New
York City for more than a year, killing six young people and wounding seven
others with a .44-caliber revolver. Because Berkowitz generally targeted
attractive young women with long brown hair, hundreds of young women
had their hair cut short and dyed blonde during the time he terrorized the
city. Thousands more simply stayed home at night.

After his arrest, Berkowitz claimed that demons and a black Labrador
retriever owned by a neighbor named Sam had ordered him to commit
the killings.

David Richard Berkowitz turned 66 on June 1.

Berkowitz now says he is a born-again Christian and is "very
sorry for what happened."

The swearing in of President Gerald Ford (left) by Supreme Court
Chief Justice Warren Burger. First Lady Betty Ford looks on.

In accordance with his statement of resignation the previous evening, Richard
M. Nixon officially ended his term as the 37th president of the United States at
noon on this day in 1974. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from
the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in
a victory or peace salute (below). The helicopter door was then closed, and the 
Nixon family began their journey home to San Clemente, California. Nixon was 
the first U.S. president to resign from office. Vice President Gerald R. Ford 
was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of 
the White House. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the
nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long 
national nightmare is over.”

Pres. Gerald R. Ford addresses an audience in the East Room of
the White House after being sworn in as the 38th president of the
United States.

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr.(Leslie Lynch King Jr.)
(July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006)

Dustin Lee Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman is a renowned method actor who won the Academy
Award for Best Actor for Kramer vs. Kramer in 1979 and Rain Man
in 1988. He had his breakthrough role as Benjamin Braddock in the
1967 classic The Graduate and also played leading roles in the films
Midnight Cowboy (1969), Tootsie (1982) and Outbreak (1996).  

In an evening televised address, President Richard M. Nixon announces
his intention to become the first president in American history to resign.

With impeachment proceedings underway against him for his involvement
in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public
and Congress to leave the White House. 

“By taking this action,” he said in a solemn address from the Oval Office,
“I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which
is so desperately needed in America.”

Just before noon the next day, Nixon officially ended his term as the 37th
president of the United States.