1 / 10

1860 Republican National Convention - BET.com takes a look back at past moments from the Republican and Democratic national conventions that caused controversy and changed America's course over the years. —Britt Middleton In only its second national meeting, Republican delegates nominated then-Illinois Rep. Abraham Lincoln as president and Sen. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for vice president. After winning the presidency, Lincoln would go on to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed some three million slaves in the Confederate states. (Photos from left: Courtesy of WikiCommons, WikiCommons)

2 / 10

1876 Republican National Convention - Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a featured speaker at the RNC in Cincinnati, decried the insufficiencies of the Emancipation Proclamation in proving political and financial freedom to newly freed slaves. Of those delegates in attendance, 24 were African-American. (Photo: Courtesy of WikiCommos)

Photo By Courtesy of WikiCommos

3 / 10

1964 Republican National Convention - Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine became the first woman to be placed in nomination pool for president by a major party at the 1964 RNC in San Francisco. In the end, the nomination would go to Sen. Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona.  (Photo: Smith Library/Associated Press)

4 / 10

1988 Republican National Convention - "Read my lips: no new taxes." George H.W. Bush's infamous words after accepting the GOP presidential nomination in New Orleans would actually be used against him by Democrats four years later, when he ran for his second presidential term. (Photo: Courtesy of WikiCommons)

5 / 10

1992 Republican National Convention - Conservative author and commentator Pat Buchanan drew the ire of Democrats and human rights groups alike in his now infamous keynote address, dubbed "Culture Wars," at the RNC in Houston. The political pundit expressed his opposition to same-sex marriage, women in combat and said there was "a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America." (Photo: RON EDMONDS / AP)

6 / 10

1964 Democratic National Convention - Controversy arose in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after the integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) claimed that the official Mississippi delegation had systematically blocked Blacks from voting in the primaries. Party leaders worked out a much-contested deal that allowed two of the 68 MFDP members to be at-large delegates and later ruled that the DNC would ban accepting a delegation formed through discriminatory means. (Photo: Courtesy of Currents)

7 / 10

1980 Democratic National Convention - Sen. Ted Kennedy challenged the party's nomination of Jimmy Carter at the DNC in New York City, a bid that he would ultimately lose. His now legendary concession speech wrapped up his presidential aspirations and made way for an influential career in the U.S. Senate that lasted until his death in 2009. (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)

8 / 10

1984 Democratic National Convention - Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York became a trailblazer in several ways when she accepted the party's nomination for vice president at the DNC in San Francisco. She was the first woman and first Italian-American to ever run on a major party ticket, two feats she paid tribute to in her stirring acceptance speech: "The daughter of an immigrant from Italy has been chosen to run for vice president in the new land my father came to love," she told an energized crowd.  (Photo: AP File)

9 / 10

2000 Democratic National Convention - The acceptance stage is the place where memorable speeches are made, and in the case of the 2000 DNC in Los Angeles, it was a place for old fashioned love as well. Former Vice President Al Gore laid a sweet smooch on his wife Tipper upon accepting his party's nomination for president. The presidential election would be marred by a massive ballot recounting measure, after which Republican George W. Bush was declared the winner. (Photo: AP Photo/ David J. Phillip)

10 / 10

2004 Democratic National Convention - U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama of Illinois delivers the keynote address to delegates on the floor of the FleetCenter on the second day of the Democratic National Convention on July 27, 2004 in Boston, Massachusetts.(Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)