Ceauşescu was the Communist leader of Romania from 1965-1989, when he was ousted and killed during a revolution.
Dictator of Romania (1965-1989).
His execution was announced by a newscaster on (recently liberated) Romanian television with the following words: "We have wonderful news for you this Christmas day! The Anti-Christ is dead!"
He and his wife were captured by the army after an ill-fated attempt to flee Romania (their helicopter pilot abandoned them on a country road at gunpoint), tried for crimes against the state, found guilty and executed by an army officer with a submachine gun. When they were offered legal defense, they refused, insisting that they were exempt from the authority of a military court.
President of Romania 1972-1989.
His trial was shown on Austrian and Romanian television. His and his wifes wrists were bound by string, and soon after, there was a tape showing the corpse of Ceausescu (but not his execution). According to The King of Communism: The Pomp & Pageantry of Nicolae Ceausescu , people who watched it on television applauded.
In 1966, he officially banned all contraception and abortion on demand in Romania, and made divorce increasingly difficult to obtain (it was permitted only under "exceptional cases"). Abortion was permitted only if the woman was over 42 or was the mother of at least four (later five) children. Because of this, the population rose sharply, child abandonment became commonplace and a considerable number of women either died or were maimed from clandestine abortions. In the 1980s AIDS rose into epidemic proportions in Romania, mostly because Ceausescus regime refused to admit that AIDS existed, and forbade any HIV testing for it.
After his daughter Zoia, a mathematics student, ran away from home trying to flee from her parents, Ceausescu closed the Bucharest Mathematical Institute.
Father of Zoia Ceausescu , Nicu Ceausescu and Valentin Ceausescu.
