Today, August 9, in 1974, the nation and the world witnessed Richard Nixon resigning the Presidency.
The event also elevated Gerald Ford to become the 38th President, and the only one NOT elected Vice President or President, due to the 25th Amendment, which saved the nation after Vice President Spiro Agnew had earlier resigned in October 1973, due to corruption charges.
If there were no 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, Speaker of the House Carl Albert, a Democrat, with no desire to be President, and having a well known liquor problem, would have been the successor to the Oval Office.
Certainly, Albert would have been preferable to Spiro Agnew.
But despite controversy over Ford pardoning Nixon on September 8, 1974, which was a major factor in his defeat to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 Presidential election, Ford has been perceived in recent decades as the “right” person in a time of turmoil.
One can criticize President Ford, but also, one can see that Ford calmed the nation and in many ways, has been perceived in a better light over the decades.