Potential White House hopefuls from both parties often swing by Iowa’s legendary state fair during a midterm election year.

2015: Actor, lawyer and politician Fred Thompson dies of lymphoma at age 73 in Nashville, Tennessee. A Republican, he represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1994 to 2003 and ran for U.S. president in 2008. Toward the end of his time in Senate, he joined the TV series "Law & Order" in 2002. He also appeared in movie such as "No Way Out," "The Hunt for Red October," "Days of Thunder," "Die Hard 2," "Cape Fear," "In the Line of Fire" and "Secretariat." Hide Caption