Video: Nixon decides with Attorney General John Mitchell to appoint Rehnquist over Sen. Howard Baker (Oct. 21, 1971, 9:33 a.m. ET)

(Thursday, October 21, 1971, 7:30 p.m. ET) — President Richard M. Nixon nominated Lewis F. Powell Jr., 64, a former president of the American Bar Association, and William H. Rehnquist, 46, an Assistant Attorney General, to the Supreme Court tonight in an address to the nation.

If confirmed, Powell would replace Hugo Black (appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, Black had retired Sept. 17, 1971, and then died eight days later) and Rehnquist would replace John Marshall Harlan II (appointed by President Eisenhower in 1955, Harlan had retired Sept. 23, 1971).