born May 27, 1911, Wallace, S.D., U.S.
died Jan. 13, 1978, Waverly, Minn.
U.S. politician.
He worked as a pharmacist and a teacher before becoming Minnesota campaign manager for Pres. Farmer-Labor parties. His public career began when he was elected mayor of Minneapolis (1945–48). In the U.S. Senate (1949–64), he proved to be a skilled parliamentary leader who helped forge bipartisan support for the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (1963) and the Civil Rights Act (1964). As vice president under Lyndon B. Johnson (1965–69), he was vilified by left-wing opponents for his defense of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War . He won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 but narrowly lost the election to {{link=Nixon, Richard Milhous">Richard Nixon . He served again in the Senate from 1971 to 1978.