By: HISTORY.com Editors

1989

Romanian government falls

Published: February 09, 2010Last Updated: January 24, 2025

The Romanian army defects to the cause of anti-communist demonstrators, and the government of Nicolae Ceausescu is overthrown. The end of 42 years of communist rule came three days after Ceausescu’s security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Timisoara. After the army’s defection, Ceausescu and his wife fled from Bucharest in a helicopter but were captured and convicted of mass murder in a hasty military trial. On December 25, they were executed by a firing squad.

Ceausescu, ruler of Romania since 1965, had resisted the liberalization of the USSR and other Soviet bloc countries in the late 1980s. By the time of his government’s downfall in 1989, Romania was the most repressive and economically backward country in Europe.

Timeline

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1849

Fyodor Dostoevsky spared from execution

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1864

General Sherman presents President Lincoln with a Christmas gift

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1884

Cattleman John Chisum dies in Arkansas

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1894

Albert Dreyfus found guilty, sparking French scandal

French officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason by a military court-martial and sentenced to life in prison for his alleged crime of passing military secrets to the Germans. The Jewish artillery captain, convicted on flimsy evidence in a highly irregular trial, began his life sentence on the notorious Devil’s Island Prison in French Guyana […]

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1894

Governing body for U.S. golf is founded

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1917

Russian-German peace talks begin at Brest-Litovsk

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1941

Churchill and Roosevelt discuss war and peace

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1956

First gorilla born in captivity

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1968

Julie Nixon marries David Eisenhower

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1971

Soviet Union attacks Chinese policy toward Vietnam

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1978

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1984

Bernhard Goetz shoots four youths on the subway

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1988

Chico Mendes, leading Brazilian conservationist, is assassinated

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1993

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2001

“Shoe bomber” Richard Reid attempts to detonate bombs on Paris-Miami flight

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Citation Information

Article Title: Romanian government falls
Author: HISTORY.com Editors
Website Name: History
URL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/december-22/romanian-government-falls

Date Accessed: October 21, 2026
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: January 24, 2025
Original Published Date: February 09, 2010

Romanian government falls

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