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Today in History, October 10th

On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned and pleaded no contest to tax evasion. Plus China's Wuchang uprising and the Naval Academy.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published October 10, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

October 10 is best known for 1973, when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned and pleaded no contest to a federal tax evasion charge. The date also saw the Wuchang uprising that began China’s 1911 revolution and the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1845.

The big story: Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns (1973)

In the fall of 1973 the Nixon White House was already sinking under Watergate when a separate scandal took out the vice president. Federal prosecutors had gathered evidence that Spiro Agnew took bribes, and that the payments kept coming even after he became vice president. On October 10, 1973, Agnew resigned. The same day he pleaded no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion, and the corruption charges were dropped as part of the deal. His punishment was a $10,000 fine and three years’ probation, and Maryland’s court of appeals disbarred him. Agnew was only the second vice president to resign, after John C. Calhoun in 1832. His exit set up a constitutional first. Under the 25th Amendment, President Richard Nixon nominated Michigan Rep. Gerald Ford to fill the job, and Congress confirmed him. Ford was sworn in that December. Less than a year later, on August 9, 1974, Nixon resigned over Watergate and Ford became the 38th president.

More events on October 10

Year	What happened
1767	Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon finished surveying the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, the line that would carry their names.
1845	The U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Maryland, with 50 midshipmen.
1911	Revolutionaries rose up in Wuchang, China, starting the revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty.
1935	George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess premiered on Broadway.
1940	During the Battle of Britain, a German bomb pierced the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
1957	President Dwight Eisenhower apologized to Ghana’s finance minister, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, who had been refused service in Dover, Delaware.
1963	From Russia with Love, the second James Bond film, premiered in London.
1971	London Bridge reopened in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, after being taken apart and rebuilt there.
1979	Wayne Gretzky played his first NHL game, for the Edmonton Oilers.
1985	U.S. Navy fighter jets intercepted the Achille Lauro hijackers, ending the hijacking saga.
2004	Christopher Reeve, the actor famous for playing Superman, died at 52.
2014	Malala Yousafzai, 17, was named a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest laureate ever.

Born on October 10

1900: Helen Hayes, the “First Lady of the American Theater,” born in Washington, D.C.
1917: Thelonious Monk, jazz pianist and composer, born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
1930: Harold Pinter, playwright and 2005 Nobel laureate in literature, born in London.
1969: Brett Favre, record-setting NFL quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, born in Gulfport, Mississippi.