Video: 'DNC (July 19th 1940)'

(Friday, July 19, 1940, 12:14 a.m. EDT; during the 1940 Democratic National Convention) — From the White House in Washington, D.C., President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York accepted the Democratic presidential nomination tonight in a radio address to delegates attending the 1940 Democratic National Convention at Chicago Stadium (where it was July 18, 1940, 11:14 p.m. CDT), becoming the first president in the history of the United States to gain or accept a third-term nomination for the high office.

Roosevelt was nominated July 18, 1940, after defeating Postmaster General James A. Farley of New York 946 to 72 votes.

Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace of Iowa was nominated vice president, defeating Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives William B. Bankhead of Alabama 626 to 329 votes.

Video: 'FDR Nominated For 3rd Term - 1940 | Today in History | 18 July 16'

Incumbent Vice President John Nance Garner opposed Roosevelt’s nomination for a third term, so the party had to choose a new vice presidential nominee.

Earlier in the day (July 18, 1940), Eleanor Roosevelt spoke to the convention, becoming the first presidential spouse to address such a gathering.

The Roosevelt-Wallace ticket would oppose the Republican ticket of Wendell Willkie of New York for president and Senator Charles McNary of Oregon for vice president (nominated last month) in the 1940 United States presidential election.