It was March 31st, 1968, when the President of the United States made an announcement that changed the course of history.

I shall not see and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

President Lyndon Johnson decided not to seek re-election in late March of an election year just months before the Democratic Party's nominating convention.

Though outside observers believed at the time that President Johnson exited the race

largely over the quagmire in Vietnam, sources in the White House would later reveal

that it was concerned about his health that drove President Johnson to withdraw.

At the time, Johnson was already facing challenges from Eugene McCarthy, a liberal anti-war

candidate, and from Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a political scion and a senator and a

former U.S. Attorney General. But President Johnson's exit left a power vacuum

and that was filled by the entry of Johnson's vice president

Hubert Humphrey. The Democratic candidates were now hurtling toward a

contested convention but before that convention even began,

there was another shock to the race.

On June 5th of that year, Robert F. Kennedy

was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in California.

The next day he was pronounced dead.

Two weeks before the convention began,

South Dakota Senator George McGovern

announced that he would throw his hat into the ring as a stand-in

candidate for voters who supported RFK. And when the Democratic delegates

eventually gathered in Chicago nearly 10,000 anti-war protesters swept into the windy city.

They were met by more than twice as many members of the National Guard.

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