POLITICS
Historic Political Conventions -- PICTURES
Updated: July 31, 2012 | 6:15 p.m.
July 31, 2012 | 10:53 a.m.
Every four years both parties hold a national convention, historically called to nominate a presidential and vice presidential candidate. Since the mid-20th century, the parties have largely chosen their nominee before the conventions, making them ceremonial affairs staged for publicity.
The Wigwam was a wooden structure built in Chicago for the 1860 Republican National Convention where Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate. Chicago has hosted 14 republican and 11 democratic national conventions, more than any other city. (Creative Commons)
William Jennings Bryan gives his famous "Cross of Gold" address about abandoning the gold standard during the 1896 Democratic National Convention. To this day, Bryan is the youngest nominee of any party at the age of 36. (Creative Commons)
California delegates in a horse-drawn covered wagon at the 1912 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Ill. where President William Howard Taft was nominated for re-election. (Creative Commons)
New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, arriving on July 2, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois for Democratic national convention. The governor's son James Roosevelt stands beside him at right. Roosevelt won the presidency for four consecutive terms, 1932 to 1944. (AP Photo)
Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower, beaming and happy, wears an "I Like Everybody," pin on his coat lapel before leaving his hotel for the convention hall in Chicago, July 11, 1952, where the Republican National Convention is being held. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo)
Sen. John F. Kennedy makes his way through a crowd of supporters and journalists as he arrives in Los Angeles, July 9, 1960 for the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo)
Confetti rains on a seething mass of delegates demonstrating for Pres. Johnson after he was nominated for president during the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J., Aug. 26, 1964. (AP Photo)
Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee for President in 1964, mounted a losing battle to beat incumbent Democratic president Lyndon Baines Johnson. He is shown here waving to delegates at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, July 16, 1964. (AP Photo)
National Guardsmen line the street in front of Chicago's Hilton Hotel as they were confronted by hippies and anti-war protesters in this Aug. 28, 1968 photo. (AP Photo)
Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., grabs U.S. President Richard Nixon from behind and squeezes his arms at a youth rally at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla., Tuesday night, Aug. 22, 1972. Davis is reacting to the nomination of Nixon for re-election by the RNC. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer)
This White House file photograph, provided courtesy of the Gerald R. Ford Library, shows President Gerald Ford, right center, as he thanks former Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, left center, for his remarks on the closing night of the Republican National Convention, in Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 19, 1976. Ford, who declared "Our long national nightmare is over" as he replaced Richard Nixon but may have doomed his own chances of election by pardoning his disgraced predecessor, died Tuesday Dec. 26, 2006. He was 93. (AP Photo/White House,Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library, William Fitz-Patrick)
** FILE ** In this July 17, 1980 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan stands before a cheering Republican National Convention in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. Three decades after Ronald Reagan launched a determined campaign to ease government regulations on business, the pendulum is swinging the other way. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy, File)
Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale and his running mate Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to grace a presidential ticket, wave from the podium at the conclusion of the final session of the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, July 19, 1984. In background are Mondale's children, from left are Eleanor, Ted and William. (AP Photo)
H. Ross Perot, left, and country singer Willie Nelson share the stage on Saturday, May 30, 1992 at the nominating convention for Perot in Little Rock. Perot won 18.9 percent of the popular vote, the best third party showing since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008 at Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver, on the final day of the Democratic National Convention. Obama formally accepted the party nomination for president, and will face Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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