History of the Democratic National Convention

1832 (Baltimore)

Representatives from 23 states attend the first Democratic convention. They do not formally nominate President Jackson for a second term. Instead, they pass a resolution stating that "we most cordially concur in the repeated nominations which he has received in various parts of the union...." The delegates do, however, nominate Martin Van Buren, Jackson's choice for vice president, on the first ballot.

The Democratic Party adopts the so-called "two-thirds rule," which remains in place until 1936. Under the rule, candidates needed two-thirds of the delegates - not just a simple majority vote -- to win the Democratic nomination. According to several political experts, Jackson instituted it to ensure the South would not be forced to support a nominee it didn't like.

The Democratic Party establishes the now famous tradition of the presidential roll call vote, passing a resolution requiring that "the majority of the delegates from each state designate the person by whom the votes for that state shall be given."

1835 (Baltimore)

President Jackson decides to have the Democratic convention a year early in order to ensure the nomination of his chosen successor, Vice President Martin Van Buren. Van Buren becomes the first Democratic vice president to win his party's presidential nomination. He wins 100 percent of the votes on the first ballot.

Delegations from 22 states and 2 territories attend the convention, but their size generally depends upon their physical proximity to the convention site in Baltimore. For example, 188 individuals from Maryland attend to cast 10 convention votes. Only one individual from Tennessee, however, is present to cast his state's 15 votes. Alabama, Illinois and South Carolina send no delegations to the 1835 convention.

1840 (Baltimore)

The Democrats approve the first party platform in American political history. Fewer than 1,000 words long, the platform defends states' rights and supports a limited role for the federal government. It also criticizes the efforts of abolitionists to involve Congress in the issue of slavery.

Incumbent Vice President Richard M. Johnson is denied renomination to a second term as the convention accepts a committee recommendation that no candidate be nominated for the vice presidency. Individual state Democratic leaders are left to decide who will run as the vice presidential nominee in their own states.

1844 (Baltimore)

James K. Polk-the first successful dark horse candidate in presidential politics- wins the nomination on the ninth ballot. (A "dark horse" is a candidate who is initially not viewed as a serious contender for his party's nomination. Dark horse nominees have traditionally been the result of compromises designed to break convention deadlocks.)

Sen. Silas Wright of New York, the party's choice for vice president, becomes the first person to refuse a major party's nomination. Wright is both informed of and refuses the delegates' offer via Samuel Morse's new invention-the telegraph.

1848 (Baltimore)

New York casts no presidential ballots after two rival state factions reject a closely contested convention recommendation to seat them both and have them split their state's vote. The "Barnburners," a more liberal anti-slavery faction, walk out of the convention; the more conservative "Hunkers" stay, but refuse to vote.

The Democrats establish the Democratic National Committee, consisting of one party member from each state tasked with guiding the party during the four years between national conventions.

1852 (Baltimore)

There are no notable moments or disputes at the Democratic Convention.

1856 (Cincinnati)

Democrats for the first time hold their convention outside of Baltimore.

1860 (Charleston / Baltimore)

The Democrats meet in April and open their eighth national convention under the dark cloud of an increasingly bitter and unbridgeable sectional divide over slavery. Any pretense of party unity quickly crumbles as 27 roll calls are taken on platform and procedural issues before presidential nominations are even considered. Crippled by a delegate walk-out (45 delegates from 9 southern states) that leaves delegates unable to meet a required two-thirds nomination vote, the deadlocked convention is forced to adjourn after 10 days and 57 presidential roll calls.

The Democrats reconvene in Baltimore in June and nominate Illinois Sen. Stephen A. Douglas for president. This marks the only time that a major party has adjourned its convention and later reconvened in another city.

In June, Alabama Sen. Benjamin Fitzpatrick declines the Democratic nomination for vice president after the convention has already adjourned. For the first time in U.S. history, a national committee is forced to fill a ticket's vacancy. The committee unanimously selects former Georgia Gov. Herschel V. Johnson to serve as Douglas' running mate. Johnson accepts the nomination.

As in Charleston, the Baltimore convention is disrupted by a delegate walkout. (This time, the delegates who bolt decide to meet separately to nominate their own presidential candidate-Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky-who runs as a Southern Democrat. Breckinridge goes on to win 18 percent of the vote and carry 11 states. Douglas, while winning 29 percent of the vote, carries only one state.)

1864 (Chicago)

The Democrats nominate General George B. McClellan of New Jersey for president. McClellan had commanded the Army of the Potomac until President Lincoln fired him in November of 1862. Unlike 1860, there are few disruptions and little turmoil at the Democratic convention. While the Republican convention has delegates from several Southern states, there are no delegates present from the seceded Southern states at the Democratic convention.

The party platform, a short document with only six resolutions, is sharply critical of the Lincoln Administration's prosecution of the war. Unlike the GOP platform, which calls for a full prosecution of the war and the unconditional surrender of the South, the Democratic platform calls for peace through a negotiated settlement "at the earliest practicable moment."

1868 (New York)

Susan B. Anthony walks into the convention hall and requests permission to address the delegates on the cause of women's suffrage. Her request is denied. According to Alma Lutz's book, Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian, Anthony "and several other women walked into the convention when it was well under way and sent a memorial up to Governor Seymour who was presiding. He received it graciously...and then turned it over to the secretary to be read while the audience shouted and cheered...She was not allowed to speak to the convention as she had requested, and shouts and jeers continued as her memorial was hurriedly referred to the Resolutions committee where it could be conveniently overlooked."

1872 (Baltimore)

The Democrats meet for a total of six hours and endorse the creation of a coalition of the Democratic Party with the Liberal Republican Party. Delegates affirm their support for the presidential ticket nominated at the Liberal Republican convention and adopt the Liberal Republican platform as well.

1876 (St. Louis)

The Democrats hold the first national political convention west of the Mississippi River.

1880 (Cincinnati)

There are no notable moments or disputes at the Democratic convention.

1884 (Chicago)

For the first time, the party allows delegates from the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories to vote at the convention.

1888 (St. Louis)

After former Ohio Sen. Allen G. Thurman wins his party's vice presidential nomination, red bandannas are hung around the convention hall. According to Congressional Quarterly's National Party Conventions, Thurman frequently used a red bandanna, which was his political symbol, in his public habit of pinching snuff.

1896 (Chicago)

Like their Republican counterparts, the Democrats are consumed with the coinage issue. At the Democratic convention, however, the supporters of silver come out on top, winning passage of the same plank (calling for unlimited coinage of silver and gold at a 16-1 ratio) that was defeated by the Republicans. William Jennings Bryan delivers his famous declaration: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!" Bryan is backed by Southern and Western delegations supporting the unlimited coinage of silver. Most Eastern delegations, in contrast, favor maintenance of the existing gold standard.

The Democrats openly repudiate their own incumbent president, defeating a resolution which stated: "We commend the honesty, economy, courage, and fidelity of the present Democratic Administration." Cleveland was a supporter of the gold standard.

1900 (Kansas City)

Despite losing to William McKinley in 1896, William Jennings Bryan is unanimously renominated, receiving all 936 votes.

1904 (St. Louis)

Eighty-year-old Henry Davis becomes (and still remains) the oldest individual ever to serve on a major party's national ticket. The Democrats choose Davis, a former West Virginia senator, to be their vice presidential nominee largely because of his wealth.

1908 (Denver)

William Jennings Bryan becomes the only individual to win a major party's presidential nomination after twice losing a general election as that party's presidential candidate.

1912 (Baltimore)

U.S. House Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri becomes a victim of the famous "two-thirds" rule, losing the nomination despite the fact that he surpassed a simple majority from the 10th to the 16th ballots.

1916 (St. Louis)

President Wilson is renominated by a vote of 1,092 to 1, with the lone dissenting vote cast by an Illinois delegate who refused to support a motion to nominate Wilson by acclamation.

The Democratic platform supports the extension of women's suffrage. A minority plank that advocated leaving the decision to individual states is defeated on a 888 1/2 to 181 1/2 vote. (The GOP platform, by contrast, proposes allowing individual states to decide the suffrage issue.)

1920 (San Francisco)

The Democrats hold their 1920 convention in San Francisco. This is the first time a major party's national convention is held west of the Rocky Mountains. Laura Clay becomes the first woman to receive any votes for either president or vice president at either major party's national convention. She receives one vote for president on the 34th ballot.

1924 (New York)

John W. Davis is nominated for president after a record 103 ballots. A platform plank calling for the condemnation of the Ku Klux Klan is defeated 543 3/20 to 543 7/20-the closest vote in convention history. Most rural delegates oppose condemnation of the Klan; most urban delegates vote in support of the plank. The convention is the longest in American history, running from June 24 through a final adjournment on July 10-a total of 17 days.

1928 (Houston)

New York Gov. Al Smith becomes the first Roman Catholic to be nominated by a major political party. The Democrats hold the first national convention in a southern city since convening in Charleston in 1860. Senate Minority Leader Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas is nominated for the vice presidency, thereby becoming the first Southerner to join a major party's national ticket since the Civil War.

1932 (Chicago)

New York Gov. Franklin Roosevelt, nominated for president on the fourth ballot at the Democratic convention, becomes the first person to accept a major party's presidential nomination in person. (Previously, a major party candidate would be formally notified of his nomination in a formal ceremony held several weeks after the convention.) Roosevelt flies from Albany to Chicago to deliver his acceptance speech, telling the assembled delegates, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a New Deal for the American people." Oklahoma's delegation causes a stir by casting its 22 votes for humorist Will Rogers on the second ballot.

1936 (Philadelphia)

The convention eliminates the controversial two-thirds rule, which had first been instituted in 1832. The rule, which required any candidate to win two-thirds of the convention vote in order to secure the nomination, was primarily used by the South to block candidacies viewed as unacceptable to its own interests. The rule twice blocked the nominations of candidates who actually gained a majority of delegate votes. (In 1844, Martin Van Buren won a majority of votes for seven ballots before the convention settled on James K. Polk. In 1912, U.S. House Speaker Champ Clark lost the nomination despite the fact that he obtained a majority from the 10th to the 16th ballots.)

1940 (Chicago)

Convention delegates reluctantly select Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Wallace as FDR's running mate only after Eleanor Roosevelt makes a personal appearance at the convention, and Franklin Roosevelt threatens to refuse the presidential nomination without Wallace's selection.

Eleanor Roosevelt becomes the first First Lady to address a national political convention. She tells the delegates, "We cannot tell from day to day what may come. This is no ordinary time, no time for thinking about anything except what we can best do for the country as a whole...."

1944 (Chicago)

Twenty-seven-year old Dorothy Bush is elected secretary of the Democratic National Committee, the youngest person and first woman to be elected as an officer of either major political party. Bush goes on to serve as party secretary until 1989, calling the roll at every Democratic Convention for 40 years.

1948 (Philadelphia)

The inclusion of a pro-civil rights plank in the Democratic Party platform exacerbates tensions between the Northern and Southern wings of the party. When the presidential balloting begins, the entire Mississippi delegation and 13 members of the Alabama delegation withdraw in opposition to the platform.

Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey delivers a memorable speech on the issue of civil rights, saying, "For those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them, we are 172 years late...The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights."

Pigeons intended to be released as "doves of peace" instead become a menace to Democratic delegates as they are released from their cage on the podium and fly directly toward large pedestal fans surrounding the stage. One pigeon lands on an agitated Speaker Sam Rayburn's head while others pelt the delegates with droppings.

On July 17, three days after the conclusion of the Democratic convention, disaffected Southern Democrats meet in Birmingham, Alabama, and nominate South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond to run for president under the States' Rights ("Dixiecrat") label.

1952 (Chicago)

Illinois Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson wins his party's presidential nomination in one of the few genuine "drafts" in American political history. (Stevenson, a reluctant candidate, was initially only interested in running for re-election as governor. A "Draft Stevenson" movement developed, however, and quickly gained strength as the convention progressed.) Stevenson remains the last Democratic candidate to require more than one ballot to win his party's nomination. (He won on the third ballot.)

1956 (Chicago)

Presidential nominating speeches are delivered by both a past and a future president. Sen. John F. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, nominates former Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, while former President Truman, who characterized Stevenson as "defeatist," seconds the nomination of New York Gov. W. Averell Harriman. Stevenson surprises the convention by announcing that he will allow it to choose his running mate. Kennedy, Sen. Albert Gore of Tennessee and Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota are among those who contest the vice presidential nomination. However, Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) wins it on the second ballot.

1960 (Los Angeles)

At the first national political convention held in Los Angeles, Democrats nominate Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for president. Texas Sen. Lyndon Johnson, also seeking the party's nomination, debates Kennedy before a joint gathering of the Massachusetts and Texas delegations.In his acceptance speech, Kennedy says that the United States is "on the edge of a new frontier-the frontier of the 1960s-a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils-a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats."

1964 (Atlantic City)

A credentials controversy is sparked when the integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges an all-white delegation sent by the regular Mississippi Democratic Party. The convention approves a compromise crafted by Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey which seats the Mississippi regulars in exchange for a written pledge to back the national ticket and a decision that, in all future conventions, delegations from states that allow racial discrimination in voting will not be recognized. All but four members of the regular Mississippi delegation refuse to sign the pledge and leave the convention; the Freedom Democrats reject the compromise as well.

The most stirring moment of the convention comes when Robert F. Kennedy introduces a film about his late brother's presidency.

1968 (Chicago)

Meeting in Chicago, the Democratic convention disintegrates into violence as anti-war riots explode outside the convention hall and emotional outbursts nearly unravel any sense of order inside the hall as well. Vice President Hubert Humphrey wins the nomination on the first ballot despite a series of protests and challenges from an anti-war faction that had splintered in the wake of the Robert Kennedy assassination.

An anti-war platform plank drafted by Sens. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern is defeated by a 1,041 1/4 to 1,567 3/4 vote. The plank called for an immediate bombing halt, a reduction of offensive military operations in South Vietnam, a negotiated troop withdrawal and negotiations to establish a coalition government in Vietnam. After the result is announced, members of the New York delegation put on black armbands and sing "We Shall Overcome."

In a historic moment, the convention unseats the segregationist regular Mississippi delegation and seats a new loyalist, integrated faction in its place.

Trying to cover a walkout by the segregated Georgia delegation, CBS correspondent Dan Rather is punched in the stomach and pushed to the ground. As fights broke out and complaints about security "thugs" increased, NBC's Chet Huntley declares that the "news profession in this city is now under assault by the Chicago police."

Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff is booed and verbally assaulted by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's contingent when, as part of a speech nominating McGovern for president, he denounces "Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago."

Rev. Channing E. Phillips of Washington becomes the first African-American ever nominated for the presidency at a major party's national convention.

The convention abolishes the unit rule, which had been in place since 1836. The rule allowed a state delegation's majority to cast all of the delegation's votes.

1972 (Miami Beach)

Due to a long vice presidential roll call, Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern is unable to deliver his acceptance speech until almost 3 a.m. ET.

The National Women's Political Caucus challenges the South Carolina delegation on the grounds that women were underrepresented. The challenge, designed to increase the number of women in the delegation, is defeated by a 1,555.75 to 1,429.05 vote.

The McGovern campaign regains control of the entire California delegation by a 1,618.28 to 1,238.22 floor vote that overturns an earlier decision by the credentials committee to strip McGovern of 151 of the state's 271 delegates. The committee's decision had been issued in response to a challenge to California's winner-take-all primary law. McGovern's victory on the California credentials challenge helps ensure his nomination.

A report recommending the seating of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's delegates is defeated, 1,486.04 to 1,371.56. Daley and 58 other Illinois delegates had been unseated prior to the convention by a 71-61 credentials committee vote.

Martha Mitchell, the wife of Republican Attorney General John Mitchell, receives 0.84 votes for vice president.

1976 (New York)

Barbara Jordan becomes the first African-American to deliver a major party's keynote address. (She shares the honor with Ohio Senator John Glenn.) Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, a Southern moderate, gets the Democratic nomination; he picks Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota as his running mate.

1980 (New York)

After a bitter primary season struggle, President Carter receives the nomination over Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. The primary fight, unusual for an incumbent president in the modern era, is later listed as a factor in some quarters for the fall presidential victory by the GOP nominee, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan. Kennedy's stirring address becomes one of the convention's most noteworthy moments.

1984 (San Francisco)

Riding the support of traditional Democratic constituencies, former Vice President Walter Mondale gains the nomination over Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado. Mondale picks Sen. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as the vice presidential nominee, making her the first woman to receive the nomination. Rev. Jesse Jackson's address creates some of the convention's most stirring moments.

1988 (Atlanta)

Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, touting what he calls a "Massachusetts miracle" of economic growth in his state, becomes the Democratic nominee. He picks Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as his running mate. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton gives a nominating speech for Dukakis that is noteworthy mainly for its length; occasional boos drift through the hall until he uses the phrase "... in conclusion," which brings a round of cheers. Rev. Jesse Jackson, who finished second to Dukakis in delegate votes, again speaks to the convention; his speech draws even greater accolades than his well-received 1984 address.

1992 (New York)

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, helped by the pre-convention (and temporary) withdrawal of Ross Perot's third-party presidential bid and some very careful scripting, gets the largest convention support "bounce" in the history of polling. Against conventional wisdom, Clinton picks a senator from the adjacent state of Tennessee, Al Gore Jr., as his vice presidential nominee.

1996 (Chicago)

The Democrats hold the first Chicago convention by either party since the riot-stricken 1968 Democratic session. Clinton and Gore are renominated. For the first time, live video of the convention is shown on the World Wide Web, while broadcast networks continue a trend of cutting back on convention coverage.