What We Knew And When We Knew It Watergate Broke Into America's Consciousness On June 17, 1972, With A Bungled Burglary. It Stayed There Through Aug. 9, 1974, When The President Resigned. In Between, It Became A National Pastime.

June 17, 1972, 1:52 a.m., sixth floor, the Watergate office complex, five men, in the middle of the night, bungling a burglary and bugging.

And so began the end of Nixonian America.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Watergate, which was long and messy, mind-boggling at times, and a national obsession.

For Richard Nixon supporters, it was a tragedy, an agonizing and slow death. For Nixon haters - and the country seemed bifurcated on the subject - it was unbelievable sport. Like the national pastime, Watergate was played out during three consecutive summers: '72 was the break-in; '73 hosted the hearings; '74, The End.

More than 30 administration and campaign officials, as well as contributors, were convicted of or pleaded guilty to such crimes as burglary, perjury, wiretapping and obstruction of justice; 19 of them served prison terms. A month after his resignation, Nixon was pardoned by President Gerald Ford.

After Aug. 9, 1974, some of the protagonists went on to greater glory. Some disappeared from view. Or, as in the case of break-in strategist G. Gordon Liddy, served time and played Captain Real Estate on Miami Vice.

People got on with their lives. They found new careers. They wrote books.

Boy, did they write books.

Proving the adage that courtesans and politicians gain dignity with age, Nixon staged a comeback. His former speechwriter Pat Buchanan made a run for the presidency. Probable candidate H. Ross Perot sought two hours of Nixon's counsel last week. Even the press, his old nemesis, grew a little dewy-eyed over him. Nixon, now more than ever.

For many reasons, the imbroglio receded from the nation's consciousness. But Watergate is like high school: You can't remember all of it, but little things tend to jump-start our memories.

Little things like phrases birthed in the era, most of them menacing, that now lace our language.

Plumbers. Smoking gun. Laundering. At that point in time. Saturday Night Massacre. Twisting slowly in the wind. Sinister force. The big enchilada. Enemies list. Hush money. Expletive deleted.

And the creation and seemingly endless use of the suffix -gate.

There were the quotes.

"The statement is inoperative," said Nixon press secretary Ron Ziegler. He dismissed Watergate as "a third-rate burglary attempt."

"I'm just a country lawyer," said Senate Watergate Committee Chairman Sam Ervin (D., N.C.)

Counsel to the president John Dean spoke of the "cancer on the presidency."