Former President Gerald Ford Dies

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday December 26, 2006 · 9:02 PM PST

2006/12/26 · 21:02

AP:

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93.

AP again, different story:

Ford was House minority leader when President Nixon chose him to replace Spiro Agnew, who resigned, as vice president in 1973. Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974, when Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal.

When Gerald R. Ford took the presidential oath of office, he famously declared, "My fellow Americans, our long, national nightmare is over."

Ford had been the first vice president chosen under the terms of the 25th Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.

Former President Gerald Ford Dies

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