Question

What took place during the Saturday Night Massacre?

• A. A mob of Bostonians threw stones at British troops, who retaliated by firing on them.
• B. General George Armstrong Custer and all his troops were killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
• C. Attorney General Eliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than obey President Nixon's order to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.
• D. George Washington and his troops captured and imprisoned the entire Hessian force at Trenton, New Jersey.
• E. The stock market crashed on October 24, 1929, and some prominent people who had lost their fortunes committed suicide.

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

Attorney General Eliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than obey President Nixon's order to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.

The Saturday Night Massacre was the term used by political commentators to refer to U.S. President Richard Nixon's dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and as a result the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus on October 20, 1973, during the Watergate scandal.