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This Day in Black History: June 17, 1972

Frank Wills foils the Watergate break-in.

President Richard M. Nixon and Washington Post star reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are the names most closely associated with the infamous Watergate break-in that ended Nixon's presidency. But Frank Wills, a security guard at the complex where the Democratic National Committee was headquartered is the scandal's forgotten hero. After observing that the basement door had been taped open during his nightly rounds, Wills alerted his supervisor and the police, who discovered five men who'd broken in. While Woodward and Bernstein earned great fame, Wills buckled under the pressure of the attention he received and died both bitter and poor.

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(Photo: Courtesy wikicommons)

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