Gerald Ford was the 40th Vice President and the 38th President of the United States. He was elected House Minority Leader in 1963 and served in the House until 1973. When Spiro Agnew resigned, Ford was appointed Vice President of the United States during the height of the Watergate scandal. Following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Ford ascended to the presidency on August 9, 1974. The Ford administration saw the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam, the execution of the Helsinki Accords and the continuing specter of inflation and recession. Faced with an overwhelmingly Democratic majority in Congress, the administration was hampered in its ability to pass major legislation and Ford's vetoes were frequently overridden. After Ford was criticized by many for granting a pardon to Nixon, Democrat Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential race. Ford is the only U.S. President never elected to either the Presidency or Vice Presidency. Along with his own Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, he is one of two people appointed Vice President rather than elected.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1682: King Louis XIV of France took up residence in the Château de Versailles. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles)

1863: American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson scored a decisive Confederate victory in the Battle of Chancellorsville. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chancellorsville)

1937: The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster)

1954: Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bannister)

1994: The Channel Tunnel, a 50-km long rail tunnel beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover, was officially opened. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"Thinking is an experimental dealing with small quantities of energy, just as a general moves miniature figures over a map before setting his troops in action." -- Sigmund Freud (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud)