The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that if no presidential candidate receives a majority of the total electoral votes in the election, Congress must turn the election over to the House of Representatives.

In the election of 1824, there were four presidential candidates, and none of them received the majority vote. The two leading candidates were Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, who got 99 electoral votes, and John Quincy Adams, who won 84 electoral votes. The decision was forwarded to the House of Representatives. Henry Clay, a former presidential candidate convinced the House of Representatives in favor of Adams, who became the sixth President of United States of America.

Source: 1824: Presidential election goes to the House
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