74 years ago this week, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Bob Woodward was born in Geneva, Illinois. Woodward grew up in Wheaton, Illinois and was the son of an Illinois judge. As a teenager, Woodward worked in his father’s law office. It was here that he first began investigating. He snooped through his father’s legal files and discovered private information about many local residents.

After graduating from high school in 1961, Woodward headed to Yale University where he studied journalism. After college, he served as a communications officer in the United States Navy for five years. In 1970, Woodward was hired by the Washington Post for a two-week trial run. After two weeks, he was let go from the Post. Woodward was disappointed, but he refused to give up on journalism. Soon he began working as a reporter at the Montgomery Sentinel, which was located in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He worked there for one year before the Washington Post gave him another chance.

In 1973, when he was just 30 years old, Woodward won his first Pulitzer Prize for his stories that broke the Watergate Scandal, which ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Woodward’s successful reporting on Watergate made him a household name and one of the most influential figures in the history of American media.

In 2002, Woodward won his second Pulitzer Prize for his work reporting on the September 11th terrorist attacks. Aside from his reporting for the Post, Woodward has authored more than fifteen books on American politics, twelve of them best sellers. Today, Woodward works as an associate editor for the Post.