Daily Archives: August 17, 2012

Reagan offers Bush as ‘steady hand’ during GOP convention speech 20 years ago tonight (1992)


Video: 'Republican National Convention: President Reagan's Address at the 1992 RNC - 8/17/92'

(Monday, August 17, 1992) — Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, 81, trying to boost the troubled re-election presidential campaign of his former vice president, told the 1992 Republican National Convention at the Astrodome in Houston tonight that America needs George H.W. Bush, “a steady hand on the tiller through the chopper waters of the 90s.”

Buchanan delivers ‘culture war’ speech at Republican Convention 20 years ago tonight (1992)


Video: 'Pat Buchanan culture war (full speech)'

(Monday, August 17, 1992) — Conservative pundit and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan told the 1992 Republican National Convention tonight that “there is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself. For this war is for the soul of America.”

Teen killed by border guards while trying to flee East Germany 50 years ago today (1962)


Video: 'Peter Fechter verblutet in Berlin: 17. August 1962 - Er ruhe jetzt in Frieden'

(Friday, August 17, 1962) — Peter Fechter, 18, was killed by East German border guards today as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin. Continue reading Teen killed by border guards while trying to flee East Germany 50 years ago today (1962)

Dakota uprising begins in Minnesota 150 years ago today (1862)


Video: 'Minnesota Massacre of 1862' (Aug. 17, 1862, at 2:22)

(Sunday, August 17, 1862, part of Sioux Wars and the American Indian Wars) — The Dakota War of 1862, an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux (also known as eastern Dakota), began today along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota. Continue reading Dakota uprising begins in Minnesota 150 years ago today (1862)