Before this incident, sex scandals were generally hushed up to avoid embarrassment...

Wilbur D Mills, 65, a Democrat from Arkansas, was involved in what is now regarded as the first public sex scandal. Mills was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and it was on this day that he resigned this post during the sex scandal.

He had been stopped on October 7 1974, at 2 am, driving with his lights off. Mills was visibly intoxicated and with him in the car was 38-year-old Annabell Battistella a well known stripper. Battistella tried to escape by jumping into the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial and was pulled out by police.

Ms Battistella's professional names included "Fanne Foxe" and the "Argentine Firecracker".

Mills at first denied everything, but later admitted he had joined a party at which Battistella was present..