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Thomas E. Dewey was an attorney who became famous after his 1935 appointment as a special prosecutor to look into corruption in New York City. Dewey targeted organized criminal enterprises, prosecuting Mafia members and corrupt bankers. Dewey was elected as governor of New York in 1942, and was regarded as honest and efficient. He was the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 1944, and is still the youngest Republican nominee at age 42, but lost the election to incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt. The party nominated Dewey for President again in 1948, and he was strongly favored in the general election, leading to the infamously erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" printed by the Chicago Daily Tribune, before returns showed that the winner was incumbent president Harry S. Truman. 

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After the untimely death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, Harry S. Truman became the 33rd President of the United States. During his time in office, he made tremendous steps in aiding the economic growth of Western Europe with the launch of the Marshall Plan, sought the U.S. through the Korean War to regulate communism, and authorized the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski to end World War II. These accomplishments are what sparked his reelection to presidency in 1948 when he defeated former New York State Governor Thomas Dewey.

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Thomas Francis "Tom" Eagleton, a Missouri native, was a U.S. Senator from 1968 to 1987. While in office, Eagleton was actively involved in foreign relations, education, health care, and environmental matters. He was integral to the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act being passed and sponsored the bill that would end American involvement in the Vietnam War.

When George McGovern became the Democratic nominee for President in 1972, Eagleton was his chosen vice-president. Shortly after the announcement, word got out that Eagleton had been hospitalized and received electric shock therapy for his depression. McGovern did defend Eagleton in the beginning, but party pressure led to Eagleton being dropped from the campaign after only 18 days. Eagleton went on to practice law and had a major role in bringing the Rams to St. Louis.

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The American Party is a monniker that has been used by a variety of different parties in American political history, often campaigning on nativist, anti-immigration platforms. The most famous American Party was a mid-1850s populist movement commonly referred to as the Know Nothings. 

The current iteration of the American Party grew out of George Wallace's independent campaign for president in 1968. The Party is extremely conservative and maintains the Know Nothing populist nativist ideologies, including a distaste for big government and for the two major parties.

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One fifth of the Beatles, Ringo Starr who was born Richard Starkey is an international performer from England who's a vocalist, drummer, and songwriter. He has provided his vocals to Beatles' classics such as Yellow Submarine (1966) and With a Little Help from My Friends (1967). Along with his vocals, Starr also lent his songwriting skills to the following group albums: The Beatles (1968) and Abbey Road (1969).

This button is part of a set of 9. The buttons were circulated in vending machines in the US in the 1960s. 

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Douglas Corrigan was a notorious aviator made famous for his “mistaken” flight from Brooklyn to Dublin Ireland in 1938 for which he was later dubbed “Wrong-Way Corrigan.”  Corrigan had filed a flight plan from New York to California, and claimed when he landed in Ireland sometime later that he had gotten lost in the fog.  It is believed that Corrigan became increasingly frustrated with aviation authorities who continually denied requests for such a flight because they deemed his 1929 Curtiss-Robin monoplane unworthy of the trip. They were not too far off the mark.  During the flight, the fuel began to leak at such an alarming rate, that Corrigan had to use a screwdriver to punch a hole in the cockpit floor so the fuel would drain. 

As a result of the wrong-way flight, Corrigan’s pilot license was suspended, but only briefly.  Tales of his exploits became front page news and upon his return to America, Corrigan was treated to a ticker tape parade in New York more extravagant than the one given for Lindbergh after his 1927 trans-Atlantic flight.  Lindbergh was a source of inspiration for Corrigan, and in fact Corrigan helped build the Spirit of St. Louis and pulled the chucks away from the wheels for Lindbergh’s famous flight.

Pat placed on the face of this button likely refers to a patent on the design or image.

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The United Retail Workers Union was largely concentrated in the states of Illinois and Indiana. It had roughly 22,000 members and dealt largely with those who worked in food chains. Because of its small size and concentrated area it often had difficulties being successful. It merged with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union in November of 1981.

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Americans were divided in the 1960's and 1970's over the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, leading to widespread anti-war protests all over the country."Tell it to Hanoi" was a slogan used by supporters of American efforts in the Vietnam War, in response to protesters' complaints against Washington, the implication being that the outrage should instead be directed towards the communist government in the North Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi. Following the end of the war, Hanoi became the capital of a reunified Vietnam in 1976. 

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The slogan, "Don't Cook Dinner - Starve a Rat Today," emerged from the Women’s Strike for Equality March in New York City held on August 26, 1970, sponsored by National Organization for Women (NOW). The march was inspired by Betty Friedan’s original idea for August 26 as a national work stoppage, in which women would cease cooking and cleaning to set out on a strike in order to draw attention to the unequal distribution of domestic labor between men and women.