1973 During the Watergate affair, an eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap was discovered during a subpoenaed recording of an official White House conversation between President Richard M. Nixon and White House staff member H.R. Haldeman. Two months later, an expert testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the gap was caused by deliberate and repeated erasures

That was such a huge scandal. Lame compared to some of the stuff going on today.