Winning one of the closest elections in U.S. history, Republican challenger Richard Nixon defeated Vice President Hubert
Humphrey November 5, 1968. Because of the strong showing
of third-party candidate George Wallace, neither Nixon nor
Humphrey received more than 50 percent of the popular vote;
Nixon beat Humphrey by less than 500,000 votes. 

Nixon campaigned on a platform designed to reach the “silent
majority” of middle class and working class Americans. He
promised to “bring us together again,” and many Americans,
weary after years of antiwar and civil rights protests, were
happy to hear of peace returning to their streets. Foreign
policy was also a major factor in the election.

In one of the most crushing victories in the history of U.S.
presidential elections, incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson
defeated Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr.

With over 60 percent of the popular vote, Johnson turned
back the  conservative senator from Arizona to secure his
first full term in office after succeeding to the presidency
after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November
1963.  

During the 1964 campaign, Goldwater was decidedly critical
of Johnson’s liberal domestic agenda, railing against welfare
programs and defending his own decision to vote against the
Civil Rights Act passed by Congress earlier that year.

However, some of the most dramatic differences between the
two candidates appeared over the issue of Cold War foreign
policy. 

Topps 1964 Johnson VS. Goldwater 5-Cent Display Box.

    
    
   
Theodore Roosevelt, a titan of political progressivism, war
hero, champion of American exceptionalism, Nobel Peace
Prize recipient and 26th president of the United States from
1901 to 1909, was born in New York City on this day in
history, Oct. 27, 1858.

1904

Albert Bacon Fall (November 26, 1861 – November 30, 1944)

During the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s, Albert B. Fall,
who served as secretary of the interior in President Warren G.
Harding’s cabinet, was found guilty of accepting a bribe while
in office.

Fall was the first individual to be convicted of a crime committed
while a presidential cabinet member.

Senate committee investigating the Teapot Dome oil leases, 1924.

Warren Gamaliel Harding
(November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923)

In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F.
Kennedy announced on October 22, 1962 that U.S. spy planes
had discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile
sites—under construction but nearing completion—housed
medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major
cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C.

Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval “quarantine”
of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more
offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United
States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites
currently in place. The president made it clear that America
would not stop short of military action to end what he called a “clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.”

What is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis actually began on
October 14, 1962—the day that U.S. intelligence personnel
analyzing U-2 spy plane data discovered that the Soviets were
building medium-range missile sites in Cuba.