Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

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All this week we're looking back at key moments in the history of the American presidency. In 1973 a US Senate committee began hearing

evidence about a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters at the

Watergate building in Washington.

Ultimately the investigation would lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Louise Hidalgo spoke to Howard Baker, one of the senators who took part.

It's May 1973, and in Washington, the American Senate

is beginning to investigate allegations

that will eventually bring down a president.

The Democrat Senator Sam Mervyn is chairman of the Watergate committee.

I think it's the most important investigations that any congressional committee has ever been entrusted with,

because if the allegations which have been made prove to be true, we can only conclude that there's been a foul assault upon the integrity of the

process by which presidents of the United States are nominated and elected.

Six months earlier the Republican Richard Nixon had won a

landslide second presidential term. But just before the election news had

emerged of a break-in at the Democrats political headquarters in Washington.

The plan was to tap the Democrats' phones.

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