Jan. 13, 1978:
Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.), a former vice president and the Democratic nominee for president in 1968, died of cancer at age 66.
In 1948, as mayor of Minneapolis and a candidate for the Senate, he gave an electrifying speech at the Democratic National Convention on civil rights that caused Southerners, including South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond, to walk out and form their own party. That year he unseated GOP Sen. Joseph Ball; he was re-elected in '54 and '60. Humphrey also sought his party's presidential nomination in 1960, losing out to Sen. John F. Kennedy.
He became President Lyndon Johnson's running mate in the 1964 election, and the ticket went on to win in a landslide. When LBJ decided in late March of 1968 against seeking re-election, Humphrey declared his own candidacy. He entered no primaries but won the nomination at a riotous convention that summer in Chicago. With his party split in two over the Vietnam War, he lost the 1968 presidential election to Republican Richard Nixon.
Humphrey came back to the Senate in 1970, winning the seat vacated by fellow Democrat Eugene McCarthy. He again tried for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, losing out to Sen. George McGovern. After his death at his Waverly, Minn., home, his body was flown to Washington, where an estimated 60,000 people came to pay their respects.
Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.
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