This was one of those turning points during the Nixon Watergate scandal where you had the feeling Nixon had lost the plot and the tide was against him and he was doomed. On this day in 1973 President Nixon ordered U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Then the duty of firing Cox went to Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus refused and fired eventually Robert Bork did the firing. Nixon was out of control. He would survive another  9 1/2 months before finally calling it a day.