This NBC Nightly New Report looks at the 1968 Presidential race, in which three Democratic candidates vied for the nomination. When Robert F. Kennedy won the California Primary, he emerged as the party's front-runner; but his victory was suddenly cut short by tragedy.
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Historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Carl Sferrazza Anthony discuss little-known facts about past presidents like Harding, Cleveland, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Reagan.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces President Theodore Roosevelt's selection of his good friend William Howard Taft as his successor. However, Taft turned out to be a disappointment to Roosevelt Progressives.
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On the eve of the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin describes the intense deliberations that went into two historic Court decisions: Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and the Dred Scot decision of 1857.
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During modern presidential campaigns and elections, red-and-blue maps dominate reporting on politics, tracking the success of candidates and their parties state by state. Check out these older maps, drawn from 19th-century presidential elections. The colors indicate Electoral College results for each state then in existence. Figure out what year each election occurred.
1. 
1848
Blue: Democrat
Orange: Whig
Whig Zachary Taylor beat Democratic candidate Lewis Cass. Third party Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren did not get one electoral vote.
2. 
1856
Blue: Democrat
Red: Republican
Yellow: Know Nothing
Democrat James Buchanan won with 174 electoral votes over Republican John C. Fremont's 114 and Whig-American Millard Filmore's 8.
3. 
1852
Blue: Democrat
Orange: Whig
Democrat Franklin Pierce beat out Whig candidate Winfield Scott. The popular vote was much closer than the electoral vote: 50.8% to 43.9%.
4. 
1860
Red: Republican
Blue: Democrat (Southern)
Yellow: Constitutional Union
Green: Democrat
Sectional divide split the nation prior to the Civil War when Republican Abraham Lincoln won the election. John Breckinridge led the Southern Democrats, John Bell ran for the Constitutional Union party, and the northern Democratic candidate was Stephen Douglas.
5. 
1844
Blue: Democrat
Orange: Whig
Democrat James K. Polk won over Whig candidate Henry Clay.
6. 
1840
Blue: Democrat
Orange: Whig
Whig candidate William Henry Harrison beat Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren with 234 electoral votes to 60.
7. 
1864
Red: Republican
Blue: Democrat
This mid-Civil War election map reflects the separation between North and South. Republican Lincoln beat Democrat George McClellan.
This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, a reaction against the spoils system, which rewarded political support with jobs.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes one of the nastiest presidential elections in American history—the 1824 election, when a highly contested three-way race led to a scandal in Congress.
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An intricate political cartoon about the depressed state of the American economy during the financial panic of 1837 is illuminated by Professor Matthew Warshauer.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces the Compromise of 1877, the hotly disputed presidential run-off between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces General Zachary Taylor, whose reputation during the Mexican-American War propelled him to the presidency.
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