This Day in Presidential History (Birth of Richard Nixon)

Jan. 9, 1913 – Richard M. Nixon, was born in Yorba Linda, Calif. He grew up in a house his father would build and, nine years later, lose after the failure of his lemon ranch. His childhood would also be marked by the deaths of two of his four brothers.

The 37th President of the United States, Nixon was a mere four years older than John F. Kennedy, born in comfortable circumstances unimaginable to Nixon. 

The two became the most successful young politicians of their generation – joining the House of Representatives in the same term, winning election to the U.S. Senate only two years apart, and contending for the Presidency for their respective parties, Republican and Democrat, in 1960. Kennedy would take that contest, while Nixon would ascend to the Presidency eight years later.

Among 20th-century Presidents, the two seem the most Shakespearean. 

JFK appears as the American Prince Hal, a wild, reckless youth who was often the despair of his powerful father, only to become a warrior and disciplined (at least to some extent) by the realities of power as the leader of his country. 

In his dark, glowering presence, thrusting at opponents on the way to the top, Nixon comes to resemble Richard III – and, in one of the funniest pieces of his 40-plus-year career, the satirist Art Buchwald makes the parallels explicit at the height of the Watergate scandal, even including careers named “The Duke of Haldeman” and “The Duke of Ehlichman,” after Nixon’s two most powerful staff members. 

Nixon’s fall will even be tragic, as he becomes the first American President to resign, forced out by his role in the Watergate coverup.