It was May 28, 1972, and Hunter Thompson was having drinks at the bar at the Watergate Hotel. Unbeknownst to him, nearby, the offices of the Democratic National Committee were being infiltrated by the “plumbers.”

It had already been a landmark month in politics, as we remember reading the May chapter of “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72.” From the shooting of George Wallace to the anticipation of the national conventions, this is when American politics would be a irreparably changed—50 years ago this month.