Timeline Romania
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Dacia was an ancient kingdom and later a Roman
province in southern Europe between the Carpathian Mountains and the
Danube corresponding generally to modern Rumania and adjacent
regions.
(WUD, 1994, p.363)
104Mil BC In
1914 Romanian Baron Franz Nopcsa (1877-1933) found fossils of small
dinosaurs in Romania that dated to about this time in the Cretaceous
period.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A7)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC A dinosaur the size of a
gigantic turkey lived in Europe during the late Cretaceous. In 2010
Romanian fossil hunters unearthed the remains of the velociraptor
and named it Balaur Bondoc (stocky dragon). Europe at this time was
an archipelago of islands.
(SFC, 8/31/10, p.A4)
36-34k BCE In 2002 the jawbone of a cave-man
living in what is now Romania was found in Pestera cu Oase. It was
reported as the oldest fossil from an early modern human to be found
in Europe and was carbon-dated to this time.
(AP, 9/22/03)
650 BC The Transylvanian Dacians are first known
from their contacts with the Greeks about this time.
(WSJ, 6/18/97, p.A20)
103-105AD Apolodorus of Damascus built a bridge
over the Danube for Emperor Trajan. It connected the Roman provinces
of Moesia Superior and Dacia (the Yugoslavian and Romanian banks
respectively).
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.26)
105AD Flavius Cerialis, prefect
of Cohort IX of Batavians at Vindolanda in northern England, was
transferred to the Danube to join Trajan’s forces gathering for the
Second Dacian War.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.17)
700-800 Invading Slavs assimilated the Thracians
in the area of modern Bulgaria and parts of Greece, Romania,
Macedonia and Turkey.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A2)
1300-1400 The Sihastra Monastery was founded in
the 14th century.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1382 In Romania Brasov Saxons
built a castle at Bran, Transylvania.
(SSFC, 10/23/11, p.H6)
1431-1476 In Romania Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the
Impaler, the son of Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Dragon), was a 15th
century gruesome Wallachian nobleman. Dracula means son of the
dragon. He punished disobedient subjects and “unchaste” women by
impaling them on sharpened logs, often dining amid the victims as
they died. The family name changed to Kretzulesco and grew in
stature with members upgraded to princes and princesses.
(WSJ, 10/30/97,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler)
1437 Sep 18, Farmers revolted
in Transylvania.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1459 Vlad Tepes used Turkish
prisoners to haul stones brick and mortar for his Poienari Citadel
in Romania’s Transylvania region. Much of it fell down the mountain
during a landslide in 1888.
(SSFC, 10/23/11, p.H6)
1660 May 29, Gyorgy Rakosi II
prince of Transylvania, died in battle.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1691 In northwest Romania an
icon was painted at a monastery in Nicula. According to legend, the
icon of the Weeping Virgin, wept for 26 days in 1699. The first
recorded miracle occurred in 1701 when it is said to have cured an
army officer's wife who was going blind. The church attached to the
monastery is named after St. Mary and pilgrimages there are made
every year on Aug. 15, Mary's name day. In 1977, the church burned
down, but the icon was unharmed. In 2005 low water level revealed
its skeleton.
(AP, 8/15/05)
1723 Dimitrie Cantemir
(b.1673), 2-time Prince of Moldavia (1693 & 1710-1711), died
near Kharkov, Ukraine. He was born in what is now Romania and became
a prolific man of letters with talents as a philosopher, historian,
composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer.
Between 1687 and 1710 he lived in forced exile in Istanbul, where he
learned Turkish and studied the history of the Ottoman Empire at the
Patriarchate's Greek Academy, where he also composed music.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitrie_Cantemir)(Econ, 9/15/07,
p.104)
1801 Apr 8, Soldiers rioted in
Bucharest and killed 128 Jews.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1812 Russia acquired
Bessarabia, the north eastern part of the original principality of
Moldavia, in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812).
(Econ, 1/6/07,
p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessarabia)
1821 Jun 2, Ion Bratianu (Lib),
premier of Romania (1876-88), was born.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1840-1860 Slavery existed on the territory of
present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities
of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was
abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves
were of Roma (Gypsy) ethnicity.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Romania)
1853 Jul, Supported by Britain,
the Turks took a firm stand against the Russians, who occupied the
Danubian principalities (modern Romania) on the Russo-Turkish
border. The Crimean War got under way in October. It was fought
mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and the
British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with support, from January
1855, by the army of Sardinia-Piedmont. The war aligned Anglican
England and Roman Catholic France with Islam’s sultan-caliphs
against the tsars, who saw themselves as the world’s last truly
Christian emperors.
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143040/Crimean-War)(Econ,
10/2/10, p.89)
1856 Mar 30, Russia signed the
Treaty of Paris ending the Crimean War. It guaranteed the integrity
of Ottoman Turkey and obliged Russia to surrender southern
Bessarabia, at the mouth of the Danube. The Black Sea was
neutralized, and the Danube River was opened to the shipping of all
nations. In 2010 Allen Lane authored “Crimea: The Last Crusade.”
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143040/Crimean-War)
1856 Feb 20, Romania abolished
the slavery of Gypsies, or Roma, but discrimination persisted
against the group.
(AP, 3/11/11)
1864 Dec 4, Romanian Jews were
forbidden to practice law.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1876 Feb 21, Constantin
Brancusi (d.1957), Romanian-French sculptor (Princesse X), was born
in Hobitza, Romania. he made it to Paris in 1902. His works include
“The Kiss” (1908) and the “Sleeping Muse” (1910).
(WSJ, 10/19/95, A-18)(WSJ, 11/30/01, p.W12)(MC,
2/21/02)
1878 Mar 3, Russia and the
Ottomans signed the Treaty of San Stefano, granting independence to
Serbia. With the Treaty of San Stefano (and subsequent negotiations
in Berlin) in the wake of the last Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman
Empire lost its possession of numerous territories including
Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia. The Russo-Turkish wars
dated to the 17th century, the Russians generally gaining territory
and influence over the declining Ottoman Empire. In the last war,
Russia and Serbia supported rebellions in the Balkans. In concluding
the Treaty of San Stefano, the Ottomans released control of
Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, granted autonomy to Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and allowed an autonomous state of Bulgaria to be
placed under Russian control.
(HN, 3/3/99)(HNQ, 2/23/01)
1881 Aug 19, Georges Enescu,
composer (Romanian Dances), was born in Romania.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1882 May 15, May Laws: Czar
Alexander III banned Jews from living in rural Romania.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1887 Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum
(1887-1979) founder of the Satmar Hassids in Satu Mare, Romania, was
born. The ultra-orthodox sect of Judaism later established itself in
NYC.
(Econ, 4/29/06,
p.37)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Teitelbaum)
1889 Jun 15, Mihai Eminescu,
born in 1850 as Mihail Eminovici, died in Bucharest. He was a
Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, and often regarded as the
most famous and influential Romanian poet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihai_Eminescu)
1895 Oct 1, Romanians in
Constantinople were massacred.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1902 Sep 17, The US protested
anti-Semitism in Romania.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1902 Sep 22, John Houseman,
director, producer and actor, was born in Bucharest, Romania.
(HN, 9/22/00)(MC, 9/22/01)
1906 Mar 3, Vuia I aircraft,
built by Romanian Traja Vuia, was tested in France.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1907 Mar 31, Romanian Army put
down a Moldavian farmers' revolt.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1909 Nov 13, Eugene Ionesco,
Romanian-born dramatist, was born. His work included “The Bald
Soprano” and “Rhinoceros.” [see Nov 26, 1909 and Nov 26, 1912]
(HN, 11/13/00)
1909 Nov 26, Eugene Ionesco
(d.1994), Romanian-born French dramatist, was born. [see Nov 13,
1909 and Nov 26, 1912]
(AP, 11/26/02)
1912 Jun 28, Sergiu
Celibidache, Romanian conductor, was born.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1912 Nov 26, Eugene Ionesco,
dramatist (Rhinoceros), was born in Slatina, Romania. [see Nov 13
and Nov 26, 1909]
(WUD, 1994 p.750)(MC, 11/26/01)
1913 Jun 1, Serbia and Greece
concluded a secret treaty for joint action against Bulgaria; joined
by Romania. Dissatisfied with their share of the spoils, Serbia,
denied its proposed outlet to the Adriatic Sea, sought compensation
in Macedonia along the Vardar River which the Bulgarians rejected
while Greece asked for control of Thessaloniki and "a certain part"
of the eastern Macedonian territories, which Bulgaria rejected as
well.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Jul 10, Rumania entered
the Second Balkan War and four days later the Ottoman Empire joined
the general assault on Bulgaria. Faced with four fronts, Bulgarian
armies were defeated piecemeal and the government at Sofia was
forced to seek peace. Atrocities were widespread. For example, in
pursuing the Bulgarian army Greek forces systematically burnt to the
ground all Macedonian villages they encountered, mass-murdering
their entire populations. Likewise, when the Greek army entered
Kukush (Kilkis) and occupied surrounding villages, about 400 old
people and children were imprisoned and killed. Nor did the Serbian
"liberators" lag behind in destruction and wanton slaughter
throughout Macedonia. In Bitola, Skopje, Shtip and Gevgelija, the
Serbian army, police and chetniks (guerrillas) committed their own
atrocities.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Aug 10, The Treaty of
Bucharest ended the Second Balkan War. It was concluded by the
delegates of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. The
entire "disputed zone" was taken by Serbia, Greece secured its
position in Thessaloniki and southeastern Macedonia, the Ottomans
regained all the territories lost in the First Balkan War to
Bulgaria with the exception of eastern (Pirin) Macedonia, and the
Romanians seized Southern Dobruja.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1914 Jun 15, Saul Steinberg,
American cartoonist (New Yorker), was born in Romania.
(HN, 6/15/01)
1914 Baron Franz Nopcsa
(1877-1933) found fossils of small dinosaurs in Romania that dated
to the Cretaceous period.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A7)
1915 Marie, the queen of
Romania, visited San Francisco.
(SFC, 3/8/08, p.F2)
1916 Aug 28, Germany declared
war on Romania.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1916 Sep 1, Bulgaria declared
war on Romania as the First World War expanded.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1917 Jan 5, Bulgarian and
German troops occupied the Port of Braila in East Romania.
(HN, 1/5/99)(WUD, 1994, p.178)
1918 Jan 26, Nicolae Ceausescu,
Romanian president (1967-90), was born.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1918 The heir to Romania's
throne, Prince Carol, secretly married Zizi Lambrino, a Romanian
aristocrat. The marriage was later annulled because by law Romania's
heir to the throne was obliged to marry a foreign princess. Their
child, Mircea Grigore, was then regarded as an illegitimate son.
Mircea, filed a request in a Lisbon court in 1955, demanding to be
recognized as Carol's legitimate son. His request was granted.
(AP, 2/15/12)
1918 An attempt to establish a
Moldovan Soviet failed and Romanian troops occupied the province.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1920 Jun 4, The Treaty of
Trianon, signed at Versailles, was forced upon Hungary by the
victorious Allies after WWII and resulted in Hungary giving up
nearly three-fourths of its territory to Romania, Czechoslovakia and
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croat and Slovenes. Hungary lost more than
half its population, including some 3 million Hungarians. Hungary
ceded the hills of Transylvania to Romania.
(HNQ, 7/5/98)(WSJ, 1/2/97,
p.1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon)
1920 Aug 10, Allies recognized
Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1920 Paul Celan, Romanian poet
(d.1970), was born.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1922 May 29, Iannis Xenakis,
Greek mathematician, architect and composer, was born in Romania. In
2004 James Harley authored “Xenakis: His Life in Music.”
(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.M4)
1924 The Bolsheviks formed the
Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), aka
Transdniestria, as a basis for later taking over a chunk of Romania.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)(http://tinyurl.com/b7m4b)
1925 Miron Cristea (1868-1939)
was enthroned as the first Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox
Church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miron_Cristea)
1925 Brother Cleopa entered the
Sihastra Monastery at age 25.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1926 Queen Marie of Romania
spoke at the dedication ceremony of the unfinished Maryhill Museum
in Washington state. Sam Hill, railroad magnate, built a replica of
Stonehenge as a monument to Klickitat County soldiers who lost their
lives in the World War on the premises. His nearby mansion later
became the Maryhill Museum of Art.
(AM, 9/01, p.10)
1927 The Legion of the
Archangel Michael was formed and later became the Iron Guard. It was
committed to the “Christian and racial” renovation. The Fascist
organization fed on anti-Semitism and mystical nationalism and was a
major social and political force in Romania between 1930 and 1941.
It was finally destroyed when in 1941 when it staged a revolt
against the government of General Ion Antonescu.
(HNQ, 11/27/01)
1928 Sep 30, Elie Wiesel,
Holocaust survivor, writer (Souls on Fire), best known for his first
book “Night” about his own experiences in concentration camps, was
born in Romania. He won the Nobel Prize in 1986.
(HN, 9/30/98)(MC, 9/30/01)
1933 Apr 25, Romanian Baron
Franz Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvas (b.1877) killed his long time
companion and secretary, an Albanian named Bajazid Elmas Doda, and
committed suicide.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A7)(http://tinyurl.com/jffdw)
1934 The wife of PM Gheorghe
Tatarascu asked Constantin Brancusi to commemorate the citizens of
Targu Jiu, who died trying to hold back the WW I Austro-German
invasion. Brancusi agreed and created sculptures titled: “Endless
Column,” “Gate of the Kiss” and “Table of Silence.” The 97-foot
Endless Column was taken down for restoration in 1996. A 2nd
restoration was completed in 2001.
(WSJ, 11/30/01, p.W12)
1935-1944 In 2000 the memoir of Mihail Sebastian,
a Jewish Romanian playwright, was published: “Journal, 1935-1944:
The Fascist Years.” Sebastian died soon after the war in a traffic
accident.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, Par p.19)
1938 Feb 11, In Romania Carol
II, who had banned political parties and established a royal
dictatorship, chose Miron Cristea (1868-1939) to be the Prime
Minister, a position from which he served for about a year.
Patriarch Miron Cristea, who led the Romanian Orthodox Church from
1925 to 1939, was responsible for revising the citizenship law,
stripping about 225,000 Jews, or 37% of the Jewish population, of
their Romanian citizenship.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miron_Cristea)(AP,
8/3/10)
1938 The documentary film “Tara
Motilor” by Paul Calinescu won the documentary section at the Venice
Film Festival.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.E2)
1938 In Romania Bran Castle,
owned by Queen Marie, was bequeathed to her daughter Princess
Ileana. In 1948 it was confiscated by the Communists. In 2006 the
fabled “Dracula’s Castle” was transferred to Dominic van Hapsburg, a
New York architect who inherited it from Princess Ileana.
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.A2)
1939 Mar 6, Miron Cristea, PM
of Romania (1938-1939), died. Cristea was also the first Patriarch
of the Romanian Orthodox Church (1925-1939).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miron_Cristea)
1939 Aug 13, Saul Steinberg,
American artist (The Art of Living, New Yorker Magazine), was born
in Romania.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1940 Jun 26, The Soviet Union
delivered an ultimatum to Romania and 2 days later occupied
Bessarabia and North Bukovina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Bessarabia_by_the_Soviet_Union)
1940 Oct 8, German troops
occupied Romania.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1940 Nov 27, Astonescu's Iron
Guard massacred over sixty aides of the exiled king, including
Nicolae Iorga, a former minister and acclaimed historian. Two months
prior General Ion Antonescu seized power in Romania and forced King
Carol II to abdicate.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1940 King Carol II abdicated
for the 2nd time and Michael became king for a 2nd time.
(SFC, 10/20/00, p.A16)
1941 Jan 9, Some 6,000 Jews
were exterminated in a pogrom in Bucharest, Romania. [see Jan 22]
(MC, 1/9/02)
1941 Jan 22, The 1st mass
killing of Jews took place in Romania. [see Jan 9]
(MC, 1/22/02)
1941 Feb 10, London severed
diplomatic relations with Romania. Romania's indigenous fighter, the
IAR 80, saw service in defense of its homeland and against the
Soviets.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1941 Jun 19, Romania ordered
Jews to evacuate Darabani.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1941 Jun 28, German and
Romanian soldiers killed 11,000 Jews in Kishinev.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1941 Jun, In the northeastern
city of Iasi, Romania, up to 12,000 people are believed to have died
as Romanian and German soldiers swept from house to house to killing
Jews. Those who did not die were systematically beaten, put in
cattle wagons in stifling heat and taken to a small town, where what
happened to them would be concealed. Of the 120 people on the train,
just 24 survived. In 2010 a mass grave was found containing the
bodies of an estimated 100 Jews killed by Romanian troops in a
forest near the town of Popricani, about 350 km northeast of
Bucharest. It contained the bodies of men, women and children who
were shot in 1941.
(AP, 6/14/03)(AP, 11/5/10)
1941 Jul 23, German and
Romanian troops reoccupied Moldova as part of Operation Barbarossa.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1941 Jul, The 16,000 sq. mile
area of the Ukraine named Transnistria was granted by Hitler to the
Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu for Romania’s participation in the
war against the soviet Union. Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina and
Moldova were transferred here and many thousands were murdered from
1941-1944 by the Romanian Gendarmeric, the Einsatrzgruppe D,
Ukrainian police and Sonderkommando R.
(WSJ, 7/30/97, p.A15)
1941 Aug 7, In Romania 551 Jews
were shot in the Kishinev ghetto.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1941 Oct 8, The Romanian
government gave the order to deport 11,000 Jews remaining in
Kishinev across the Dniester to Rybnitsa and into Nazi hands.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1941 Oct 22-23, Some 39,000
Jews were killed by Romanian troops over 2 days in Odessa. Many of
them were burned to death in a public square or in warehouses that
were locked shut. Some 90,000 Jews were killed in Odessa altogether.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A11)
1941 Dec, In Romania
authorities ordered the dissolution of all Jewish organizations.
Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran (1910-2006) helped set up the Jewish
Council, an underground organization comprising all sectors of the
Jewish population. The council used its links with Romanian church
officials, the Vatican and the royal family in a bid to prevent the
mass deportation of Romania's Jews to the Nazi extermination camps.
(AP, 7/28/06)
1941-1945 Some 148,000 Bessarabian Jews were
killed in Rybnitsa and other ghettos and concentration camps on the
East bank of the Dniester during the Nazi occupation.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1941-1945 In 2000 Radu Ioanid authored "The
Holocaust In Romania," which described how 250,000 people died under
Ion Antonescu. 25,000 Gypsies were deported to Transnistria (later
in the Ukraine), of whom 1,500 died.
(WSJ, 1/19/00, p.A20)
1942 Jun 12, American bombers
struck the oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania for the first time.
(HN, 6/12/98)
1943 Aug 1, Over 177 B-24
Liberator bombers attacked the German oil fields in Ploesti,
Romania, for a second time. Of 1,762 airmen on the mission, 532 were
killed, captured, interned or listed as missing in action. In 2007
Duane Schultz authored “Into the Fire: Ploesti” The Most Fateful
Mission of World War II.
(HN, 8/1/98)(WSJ, 11/13/07, p.D5)
1943 Dec 11, U.S. Secretary of
State, Cordell Hull, demanded that Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria
withdraw from the war.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1943 Former King Michael I
purchased the Savarsin castle. It was later used as a hospital and
then a private residence for Ceausescu. A local court in 2000
awarded the castle back to Michael.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.C16)
1944 Mar 18, The Russians
reached the Rumanian border in the Balkans.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1944 Apr 2, Soviet forces
entered Romania, one of Germany's allied countries.
(HN, 4/2/01)
1944 Jun 23, In one of the
largest air strikes of the war, the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force sent
761 bombers against the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1944 Aug 23, Romanian PM Ion
Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael, paving the way for Romania
to abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies. King Michael organized a
coup against the pro-Nazi dictator, Marshal Ion Antonescu, but was
double-crossed by Joseph Stalin and betrayed by the Allies who ceded
the country to the Russians at the Yalta summit in 1945.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/97)
1944 Aug 25, Romania declared
war on Germany.
(AP, 8/25/99)
1944 Aug 30, Ploesti, the
center of the Rumanian oil industry, fell to Soviet troops.
(HN, 8/30/00)
1944 The Soviet army
re-conquered Bessarabia. Only then were the two parts of present-day
Moldova joined together to form the Moldavian SSR. At the same time,
about one-third of Bessarabia, including its entire Black Sea
coastline, was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. The
Transdniester region, having long been part of the Russian Empire
and then the Soviet Union, remained more Russified and Sovietized
than Right-Bank Moldavia.
(http://tinyurl.com/b7m4b)
1944 Some 350,000 Romanian Jews
survived WWII and many soon migrated to Israel.
(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.A11)
1945 Mar 2, King Michael of
Romania gave in to Communist government.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1945 Mar 12, USSR returned
Transylvania to Romania.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Nov 30, Radu Lupu, pianist
(Enesco 1st prize-1967), was born in Galati, Romania.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1946 The communist regime
imprisoned hundreds of thousands of priests, intellectuals, peasants
and politicians deemed dangerous and impossible to convert to
communist ideals.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1947 Dec 30, Rumania's King
Michael was exiled when the Soviet backed Communists took over. King
Michael of Romania agreed to abdicate, but charged he was being
forced off the throne by Communists.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A16)(AP, 12/30/97)(HN, 12/30/98)
1947 Chief Rabbi Alexander
Safran was dismissed from his post and forced to leave Romania,
making his home in Geneva. He had refused to cooperate with the new
Jewish Democratic Committee, saying it was a Communist body intent
on breaking up traditional Jewish organizations and bringing Jewish
life in Romania to a standstill.
(AP, 7/28/06)
1947 In Romania Ion Diaconescu
(1917-2011), an anti-communist activist, was arrested after
Communists came to power. He was released in 1964 under an amnesty
for political prisoners, and helped re-establish the center-right
Peasants' Party after communism ended in Romania in 1989.
(AP, 10/12/11)
1948 Jan 3, King Michael left
Romania. His Peles Castle in Sinaia was confiscated by the
Communists. In 2006 it was returned to the former king.
(SFC, 10/20/00, p.A16)(SFC, 5/24/06, p.A2)
1948 The communist state banned
the Eastern Rite Catholic Church.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1948-1951 Father Alexandru Todea escaped from
prison and went into hiding. During this time he was secretly made a
bishop.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1949 In Romania Ticu Dumitrescu
(1928-2000) was sentenced to 27 years prison for being an enemy of
the state. From 1949 to 1964, he was incarcerated in communist jails
or kept under house arrest.
(AP, 12/5/08)
1950
Dec 2, Dinu Lipatti (b.1917), Romania-born pianist, died of leukemia
in Geneva, Switz.
(www.inkpot.com/classical/lipatti.html)
c1950 Brother Cleopa under
pressure from the Communist party to stop receiving visitors, who
sought his guidance, left the Sihastra Monastery and became a hermit
in the mountain forests for 3 years. He ate 1 potato a day.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1951 Sep 17, Romanian bishop A.
Pacha of Timisoara was sentenced to 18 years.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1951 Bishop Alexandru Todea was
caught and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1954 Marin Sorescu published
his poetry “Alone Among Poets.”
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.A24)
1955 May 4, Georges Enescu
(73), Romanian-French violist, composer (Oedipe), died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1955 May 14, Representatives
from eight Communist bloc countries: Soviet Union, Albania,
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland &
Romania, signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland. Andras Hegedues signed
for Hungary.
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B4)(MC, 5/14/02)
1957 Mar 16, Constantin
Brancusi (b.1876), Romanian-born French sculptor, died. He willed
his studio and work to France.
(WSJ, 3/30/00,
p.A28)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Br%C3%A2ncu%C5%9Fi)
1957 May 29, George Bacovia
[Vasiliu] Romanian poet, composer (Plumb), died at 75.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1958 Jan 7, Petru Groza (74),
premier and president (Romania, 1945-58), died.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1958-1964 Col. Gheorghe Craciun (d.2001) commanded
the Aiud Prison. He was later charged with the deaths of 216
prisoners but died before the trial was completed.
(SFC, 6/16/01, p.A17)
1959 The first International
Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), a World Championship Mathematics
Competition for High School students, was held in Romania, with 7
countries participating. In 1978 Dr. George Lenchner (1917-2006
created the Mathematical Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools
(MOEMS, originally LIMOES).
(http://imo.math.ca/)(www.moems.org/memoriam.htm)
1961 Nov 12, Nadia Comaneci,
[Gheorghe], Romanian gymnast (1st 10/Olympic-gold-1976), was born.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1963 Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
gave amnesties to political prisoners and Bishop Alexandru Todea was
released from prison.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1964 A number of political
prisoners, including Alexandru Salca (d.2001 at 78), were released
in a general amnesty. Salca served 7 years for opposing the
pro-Moscow government and another 8 for opposing the 1956 Soviet
invasion of Hungary. He later authored 4 books on the horrors of
Communist prisons and the Black Sea Canal forced labor camps where
tens of thousands perished.
(SFC, 6/16/01, p.A17)
1965 Mar 19, In Romania State
Council Pres. Gheorghiu-Dej (b.1901) died. Gheorghe Apostol was
defeated in a contest for Communist Party leader by Ceausescu, who
ended up ruling Romania with an iron fist for 25 years.
(AP, 8/25/10)(http://tinyurl.com/37bdv5x)
1965 Mar 24, Chivu Stoica
(1908-1975), former Romanian prime minister (1955-1961), became
President of the Council State of Romania.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chivu_Stoica)
1966-1974 Ilie Verdet served as deputy prime
minister.
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A20)
1967 Dec 9, Nicolae Ceausescu
became president (dictator) of Romania.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1967 Soviet Gen. Sakharovsky
became chief intelligence adviser in Romania. He helped bring Yasser
Arafat to the Soviet Union via Romania for training and
indoctrination. The soviets maneuvered to have Arafat named chairman
of the PLO with help from Egypt’s ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Sakharovsky was later reported to be responsible for killing 50,000
Romanians.
(WSJ, 1/10/02, p.A12)
1969 Aug 2, Richard Nixon
visited Romania becoming the first president to visit a communist
nation since the start of the Cold War.
(HNQ,
11/20/01)(www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1464.html)
c1970s Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
was the Stalinist predecessor of Ceausescu.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A10)
1972 The jellyfish population
in the Black Sea exploded following the completion of a dam in a
section of the Danube that runs between Serbia and Romania.
(WSJ, 11/27/07, p.A14)
1974 Mar 28, In Romania the
position of President of the Republic was created especially for
Nicolae Ceausescu, who is then named President for life by Grand
National Assembly.
(www.ceausescu.org/ceausescu_texts/ceausescu_chronology.htm)
1976 Nadia Comaneci of Romania
scored 7 perfect 10s in gymnastics during the Olympic games in
Montreal.
(NG, 8/04, Geographica)
1977 Mar 4, A 7.4 earthquake in
Romania killed about 1,570 people and was felt across southern and
eastern Europe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Bucharest_Earthquake)(AP,
3/4/98)(SFC, 4/28/99, p.A15)
1977 In Romania Gen. Nicolae
Plesita helped stifle striking coal miners in the Jiu Valley whose
unrest posed a threat to Pres. Ceausescu.
(AP, 9/30/09)
1978 Romania’s Gen. Ion Pacepa,
a top ranking Securitate officer, defected to the United States.
Pres. Ceausescu hired Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos the
Jackal, to assassinate Pacepa but he failed.
(AP, 9/30/09)
1980 Ilie Verdet (d.2001 at 75)
was appointed prime minister and served for 2 years.
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A20)
1980-1989 In Romania a huge building spree by
Nicolae Ceausescu leveled entire neighborhoods in Bucharest and left
a large number of stray dogs roaming the streets. Their number
reached 100-200,000 in 1997.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.A20)
1981 Feb 21, A bombing in
Munich of Radio Free Europe injured 9 people. Romania’s Pres.
Ceausescu ordered Gen. Ion Pacepa to find temporary shelter for
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos the Jackal, in Romania after the
bombing. Ceausescu sold arms and explosives to Ramirez and enabled
him to produce counterfeit passports and driver's licenses.
(AP,
9/30/09)(www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3475896.html)
1982 Feb 9, Mihai Anton Prodea,
artist, was born in Sibiu, Romania.
(KMB, 2003)
1986 The church bishops
secretly elected Bishop Alexandru Todea leader of the church with
the rank of Metropolitan.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1986 Ion Cioaba, Gypsy leader,
was jailed and tortured on alleged charges of cheating the
government on a copper contract.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A24)
1989 Nov 24, Romanian leader
Nicolae Ceausescu was unanimously re-elected Communist Party chief.
Within a month, he was overthrown in a popular uprising and executed
along with his wife, Elena, on Christmas Day.
(AP, 11/24/04)
1989 Dec 15, A popular uprising
that resulted in the downfall of Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu began
as demonstrators gathered in Timisoara to prevent the arrest of the
Reverend Laszlo Tokes, a dissident clergyman.
(AP, 12/15/99)
1989 Dec 16, In Romania a
revolt began in Timisoara when authorities tried to forcibly move
ethnic Hungarian pastor Laszlo Toekes to a remote rural parish.
Supporters gathered outside his house and soon the site was teeming
with protesters. 6 days of fighting left 118 people killed.
(AP, 12/16/09)
1989 Dec 21, Romanian President
Nicolae Ceausescu delivered what turned out to be his final public
speech. The hard-line Communist ruler was visibly stunned as his
listeners began booing. Ceausescu fled from power and was executed
four days later.
(AP, 12/21/99)
1989 Dec 22, In Romania there
was a revolt and miners riots. Romania's hard-line Communist ruler,
Nicolae Ceausescu, was toppled in a popular uprising following 23
years of dictatorial rule. Ion Ileascu and other top Communist
functionaries of Ceausescu seized control. Ileascu ruled until Nov
1996.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.A10)(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C4)(AP,
12/22/97)(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A11)
1989 Dec 23, Ousted Romanian
President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were captured as
they were attempting to flee their country.
(AP, 12/23/99)
1989 Dec 25, Ousted Romanian
President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed
following a popular uprising. His regime had mobilized some 700,000
informants to keep tabs on the population of 23 million people.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B1)(AP, 12/25/97)(SSFC,
8/20/06, p.A20)
1989 Dec 26, Romanian
television broadcast videotape of ousted President Nicolae Ceausescu
and his wife, Elena, at their secret trial and footage of
Ceausescu's body after his execution. That same day, a provisional
government took control of Romania.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1989 Some 1,200 deaths occurred
during the revolution after the army officially changed sides.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A11)
1989 Orthodox Patriarch
Teoctist resigned after the fall of Ceausescu. He was accused of
collaborating with the Ceausescu regime. Church leaders pressed him
to return 3 months later.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A10)
1989 The church was recognized
by the state following the collapse of communism.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1989 The village of Copsa Mica
was exposed as one of the most polluted places in Europe. Despite
cleanup efforts heavy contamination persisted in 2002.
(WSJ, 1/9/02, p.A1)
1990 Jan 8, Military tribunals
in Romania began trials of the country's dreaded security forces who
stood accused of resisting the revolution that toppled Nicolae
Ceausescu.
(AP, 1/8/00)
1990 Jan 27, In Romania, four
top associates of executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu went on trial,
charged with abetting genocide.
(AP, 1/27/00)
1990 Mar 5, To the cheers of
onlookers, workers in Bucharest, Romania, finally succeeded in
removing a 25-foot, seven-ton bronze statue of Vladimir Lenin from
its foundation.
(AP, 3/5/00)
1990 Mar, Several people were
killed and hundreds injured in clashes between Romanians and ethnic
Hungarians in the Transylvanian city of Targu Mures. The Szeklers
make up about a third of Romania's 1.4 million Hungarian minority.
(AP, 10/8/06)
1990 May 20, Romania's ruling
National Salvation Front scored victories in the country's first
free elections in more than 50 years.
(AP, 5/20/00)
1990 Jun, Miners, transported
into Bucharest in government vehicles, destroyed hundreds of
Interior Ministry files. Over 2 years well organized mobs of rural
coal miners descended on Bucharest 4 times to knock the heads of
student leaders, opposition politicians and others.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A11)
1990 Sep, Transdniestria
declared its independence over fears that Moldova planned to reunite
with Romania. It was not recognized internationally.
(www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1803/Meier_Foster/Meier_Foster.html)(AP,
1/5/12)
1990 Dec 25, Romania’s former
monarch, King Michael, arrived on his first visit to his homeland
since Communist rulers forced him to abdicate four decades earlier.
He was deported by the new Bucharest government less than 12 hours
later.
(AP, 12/25/00)
1990 Ilie Verdet, former prime
minister, formed the Socialist Party.
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A20)
1990 Israelis began investing
in Romania and by 2006 had put in as much as $2 billion, much of it
routed through 3rd countries in order to take advantage of tax
deals.
(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.A1)
1991 Sep 24, Some 5,000 coal
miners led by Miron Cozma rampaged through Bucharest leaving 3 dead
and nearly 300 injured. This prompted the resignation of Prime
Minister Petre Roman.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A8)
1991 The Vatican raised
Metropolitan Alexandru Todea to the rank of Cardinal
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
1992 Sep, Ion Cioaba
(1935-1997), had himself crowned as King of the Gypsies with a
13-pound crown in front of 5,000 followers.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A24)
1992 Andrei Ivantoc, a member
of the Popular Moldovan Front, was arrested by separatist
authorities of Trans-Dniester. A year later he and the three
others were sentenced on charges of committing terrorist acts
against citizens of Trans-Dniester. The Popular Moldovan Front
called for the reunification of Moldova with neighboring Romania.
The group's members were seen as martyrs by some in Moldova and
Romania for their opposition to the separatists. Ivantoc was
released in 2007.
(AP, 6/2/07)
1992-1996 Nicolae Vacaroiu led Romania’s
authoritarian ex-communist government.
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.61)
1993 Nov, Marin Sorescu became
the minister of culture in the leftist government of Nicolae
Vacaroiu.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.A24)
1995 Mar 27, Bernard Cornfeld
(67), Romanian-US financier (Fund of Funds), died.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1995 The capital is Bucharest.
National Day is Dec 1. The average monthly wage is $150. Premier
Nicolae Vacaroiu says the government is prepared to adopt new taxes
to reduce imports and help support the national currency.
(WSJ, 11/6/95, p.B-8F)
1996 The government rejected
the Dec. 24, '95 results of an election in the Dnestr region of
neighboring Moldava, a former Soviet state. The region voted for
independence and closer ties to Russia.
(WSJ, 1/4/96, p.A-1)
1996 May, Ilie Alexandru, aka
the J.R. of Romania, opened his copy of the Southfork Ranch of the
TV “Dallas” series in Slobozia as part of his Hermes Vacation park.
(SFC, 6/16/96, Zone 1 p.5)
1996 Jun 2, Victor Ciorbia of
the Democratic Convention won over Ilie Nastase, int’l tennis star
representing the Party of social Democracy, in preliminary elections
for the mayorship of Bucharest.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A14)
1996 Sep 16, Romania and
Hungary signed a treaty over the status of 1.6 million Hungarians in
Romania and a guarantee of borders.
(SFC, 9/17/96, p.A12)
1996 Nov 3, The opposition
party won parliamentary elections ending control by ex-Communists.
(WSJ, 11/4/96, p.A1)
1996 Nov 17, Centrist reformer
Emil Constantinescu (57), professor of geology, defeated Ion Ileascu
in presidential elections.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.A11)
1996 Nov 19, In Romania Victor
Ciorbea, mayor of Bucharest, was named by the Peasant Party the next
prime minister.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C4)
1996 Nov 29, Emil
Constantinescu was sworn in as president.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A14)
1996 Dec 8, Marin Sorescu
(1936-1996), poet and former minister of culture, died.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.A24)
1996 Sergiu Celibidache
(b.1912), conductor, died. In 2001 Deutsche Grammophon released a
box set of his selected performances.
(WSJ, 4/24/01, p.A22)
1997 Feb, A new economic
package was introduced that would reduce state subsidies, deregulate
food and energy prices, close unprofitable state enterprises and
private others.
(SFC, 2/24/96, p.A10)
1997 May 1, Romania apologized
for deporting tens of thousands of ethnic Germans to labor camps
during Communist rule or “selling” them by demanding cash from the
Bonn government for emigration permits.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A17)
1997 Jul 11, President Clinton
was cheered by tens of thousands of people in Bucharest, Romania,
where he raised hopes for NATO membership.
(AP, 7/11/98)
1997 Aug 7, Prime Minister
Victor Ciorbea announced the closure of 17 factories at the urging
of the IMF. 30,000 jobs would be lost and the following day
thousands protested the closing of the essentially bankrupt
companies.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.C1)
1998 Jan, In Romania the IMF
froze the disbursement of a $530 million lending program.
(WSJ, 5/6/98, p.A18)
1998 Mar 30, Prime Minister
Victor Ciorbea resigned and stepped down from his role as mayor of
Bucharest.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B3)
1998 Apr 2, In Romania Radu
Vasile, an economist and leader of the national Peasant Party, was
named by Pres. Emil Constantinescu as the new prime minister. He
soon began reforms with an economic program to restore domestic and
foreign confidence.
(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B5)(WSJ, 5/6/98, p.A18)
1998 Apr 8, It was reported
that 22 Romanian ships carrying 500 sailors were stranded worldwide
due to economic problems of the state shipping firm, Navrom.
(SFC, 4/898, p.A12)
1998 Jun 25, The Senate voted
to keep some 125 million secret police files locked away.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.D2)
1998 Jun, Sorin Moisescu
(d.2000), independence leader, was appointed president of the
Supreme Court.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D5)
1998 Aug 4, A heat wave swept
over Eastern Europe and caused 20 deaths in Romania.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 23, An Arctic cold
wave was reported to have killed 71 people across Europe over the
last 3 days. 36 deaths were in Poland and 24 in Romania and
Bulgaria.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 3, Brother Cleopa, an
Orthodox monk, died at age 87 at the 14th century Sihastra
Monastery. He was renowned for his lectures and sermons, some of
which were published under the title “Talks with Brother Cleopa,” in
Sobornost, an ecumenical Orthodox and Anglican journal published in
Oxford.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1999 Jan 19, In Romania ten
thousand coal miners clashed with police on the 15th day of a strike
to protest low wages and possible layoffs.
(USAT, 1/20/99, p.8A)(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 21, In Romania
striking miners stormed through police lines, killed one officer and
took 50 captive. The interior minister was fired.
(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 22, In Romania miners
halted a violent strike after reaching a settlement with Prime
Minister Rady Vasile.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.C1)
1999 Feb 15, In Romania the
Supreme Court sentenced in absentia Miron Cozma, leader of the coal
miners, to an 18 year prison term.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 16, Romanian miners
began a fresh march on Bucharest.
(WSJ, 2/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 17, In Romania police
crushed a coal miners protest and arrested Miron Cozma. One person
was killed and a hundred were injured.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 24, Tens of thousands
of workers in Bucharest and other cities protested for lower taxes
and a cut in utility rates.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Apr 20, Bulgaria and
Romania offered to let NATO use their airspace to bomb Yugoslavia.
(WSJ, 4/21/99, A22)
1999 Apr 21, Romania and the
IMF reached a preliminary agreement for a $500 million loan.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.A15)
1999 May 7, In Romania the Pope
began a 3-day visit. This was his first visit to a country with an
Orthodox Christian majority. The Pope was greeted by Orthodox
Patriarch Teoctist (84).
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Sep, A plastic polymer
called Guardian replaced the paper 2,000 leu bank note.
(WSJ, 9/3/99, p.A9)
1999 Nov 2, In Bucharest dozens
of orphaned and homeless teenagers protested and urged the
government to provide jobs and housing.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.C5)
1999 Nov 7, Radu Teposu,
writer, died in a car crash at age 45. His work included a book on
postmodernism in Romania that was banned under the Communists.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C2)
1999 Nov 23, In Romania some
5,000 workers of the CNSLR-Fratia trade union gathered in Bucharest
to protest plummeting living standards.
(SFC, 11/24/99, p.C5)
1999 Dec 10, The EU granted
preliminary consideration for membership to Bulgaria, Latvia,
Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Malta.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 14, In Romania Pres.
Constantinescu fired Prime Minister Radu Vasile, though the
constitution did not grant him that power. Alexandru Athanasiu, the
Labor and Social Welfare minister, was named to replace Vasile. The
average monthly salary was down to $89.
(SFC, 12/14/99, p.B2)
1999 Dec 16, Mugur Isarescu,
the central bank chief, was appointed prime minister following a
revolt by Peasants party ministers.
(WSJ, 12/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec, In an effort to
exorcise some of its past the government began an auction of the
personal goods of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife
Elena.
(WSJ, 12/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Romania passed legislation
to allow the opening of files in the archive of Securitate,
Ceausescu’s hated security police. Disclosures began in 2006.
(SSFC, 8/20/06, p.A20)
1999 Renault of France spent
$50 million to acquire a controlling stake in Dacia, a sickly
Romanian car maker formerly owned by the state. The first
Renault-Dacia Logan was produced in 2004. The millionth Logan was
produced in mid 2008.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.14)
2000 Jan 30, In Romania a dam
at the Baia Mare gold mine overflowed and caused cyanide to pout
into the Lapus River and then into the Somes River. It flowed into
Hungary and within weeks into the Tisa (Tisza) River in Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A9)(SFC, 2/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 13, In Yugoslavia the
cyanide spill from Romania reached the Danube and weakened to
nonlethal levels. Life in the Tisa (Tisza) River in Hungary and
Serbia was devastated and Serbia threatened to demand compensation
at an int'l. court.
(SFC, 2/14/00, p.A16)
2000 Mar 10, In Romania some
20,000 tons of metal pollutants escaped into the Vaser River from
the state-owned Baia Borsa mine after a dam broke following heavy
rains and melting snow.
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A9)
2000 Mar 25, Paul Calinescu,
the father of Romanian cinema, died at age 98.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.E2)
2000 Apr 6, Sorin Moisescu
(61), president of the Supreme Court, died.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D5)
2000 Nov 26, Presidential
elections were held. A Dec 10 runoff was expected between Social
Democrat Ion Iliescu and ultranationalist Corneliu Vadim Tudor.
Annual inflation stood at 45%.
(SSFC, 11/26/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 10, In Romania Ion
Iliescu, former Communist turned social democrat, won the
presidential runoff elections over nationalist Corneliu Vadim Tudor
70-30%.
(SFC, 12/11/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 28, Parliament
approved Adrian Nastase, former foreign minister, as prime minister
of a new leftist minority government.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.B6)
2001 Jan 18, There was a
cyanide spill in the Siret River. 72 people were later hospitalized
after eating river fish.
(WSJ, 1/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb, Romania enacted Law
10 to govern restitution for properties confiscated between 1945 and
1989. In 2006 Romania passed legislation to return property that had
been confiscated under Communist rule, to former owners and to
establish a fund to pay damages for assets that could not be
returned.
(www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/64425.htm)(SFC,
5/24/06, p.A2)
2001 Mar 7, The Parliament
voted to require citizens to notify police if foreign guests stay
over 15 days. It also voted to make it a crime for anyone to divulge
state secrets.
(WSJ, 3/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 21, Ilie Verdet,
former prime minister, died at age 75.
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A20)
2001 Jun 5, Ten people were
killed In Constanta when workers set off an explosion while welding
the hull of a Maltese oil tanker.
(SFC, 6/6/01, p.C3)
2001 Aug 7, A gas explosion in
the Vulcan coal mine killed at least 14 miners.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Sep 27, Gellu Naum,
surrealist poet, playwright and translator, died at age 86. His work
included 20 poetry books, of which the 1st was “The Incendiary
Traveler” (1936) and the novel “Zenobia” (1985).
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A18)
2001 Oct, Mohammad F. Abdul
Razak, the 1st secretary at the Iraqi Embassy in Romania, was asked
to leave for unsavory practices.
(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A12)
2001 Nov, New bonds were to be
issued to finance the Sighisoara Tourism Development Fund and a
planned Dracula theme park to open in 2003.
(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 3, US Sec. of State
Powell met in Romania with officials from 55 nations in a conference
on fighting terrorism.
(WSJ, 12/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Daniel Morar (b.1966),
Chief Attorney of the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate,
began prosecuting corruption related offenses. His term ended in
2008.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Morar)(Econ,
8/2/08, p.53)
2002 May 21, Cardinal Alexandru
Todea (89), symbol of Catholic resistance to communism, died in
Targu Mures.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
2002 Jun 11, Thousands of
Romania state workers jammed a square in downtown Bucharest, blaming
the government for a decline in living standards and calling for its
resignation.
(AP, 6/12/02)
2002 Jul 14, A bus with 52
passengers, mostly Polish students, crashed in western Romania,
killing five people and injuring 26.
(AP, 7/14/02)
2002 Oct 9, The European
Union's executive Commission declared Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania,
Slovenia, and Slovakia nearly ready for EU membership and
recommended they be invited to join in 2004. Romania and Bulgaria
likely will be delayed until 2007 because of weak economies, the
Commission said, adding Turkey was the weakest link among
candidates.
(AP, 10/9/02)
2002 Nov 21, The Baltic nations
of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania joined former communist states
Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia as the next wave of NATO
states.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2002 Nov 23, President Bush
visited Vilnius, Lithuania, and Bucharest, Romania, where he vowed
to defend hard-won freedoms behind the former Iron Curtain.
(AP, 11/23/03)
2002 Nov 29, Romania urged the
EU on to reject a request by Hungarian producers for the exclusive
right to sell a regional brandy in EU countries under the generic
name "palinka." The Eastern European brandy, made from fermented
fruit pears, plums, apricots or grapes, has been produced in the
region under different names. In Hungary and in Romania's northwest
region of Transylvania, it is called "palinka," or "palinca," while
in southern Romania it is called "tuica," and in Moldova and
Bulgaria "rakiya."
(AP, 11/30/02)
2002 Dec, In Romania Kurt W.
Treptow of Miami Beach, Fl., was sentenced to the maximum of seven
years in for offenses involving two girls, ages 10 and 13, whom he
invited into his home in Iasi. A Romanian woman was also convicted
of being his accomplice. Treptow was released in 2007 after writing
a book entitled "The life and Times of Vlad Dracul" while in prison.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2002 In Romania almost 90% of
the country’s people at this time were Eastern Orthodox and 1%
Eastern Rite Catholics.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A27)
2003 Jan 1, Dumitru Tinu (62),
a leading Romanian journalist who covered the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia and steered his newspaper along independent lines
after communism ended, died in a car accident.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2003 Mar 8, In Romania 5
Iraqi diplomats were expelled for “activities incompatible with
their status.” Last week the US expelled two U.N.-based Iraqi
diplomats and identified 300 Iraqis in 60 countries, some operating
as diplomats out of Iraqi embassies, whom it wanted expelled.
(AP, 3/10/03)
2003 Mar 20, Some 600 US and
Romanian ground troops in Afghanistan began Operation Valiant
Strike, an intensified search for Taliban, al Qaeda and loyalists to
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
(SSFC, 3/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 17, Romania's
government acknowledged that its former leaders deported and
exterminated Romanian Jews during World War II.
(AP, 6/17/03)
2003 Sep 22, The jawbone of a
cave-man living in what is now Romania, found in 2002 in Pestera cu
Oase, was reported as the oldest fossil from an early modern human
to be found in Europe. It was carbon-dated to between 34,000 and
36,000 years ago.
(AP, 9/22/03)
2003 Oct 6, Elisabeta Rizea
(91), a Romanian anti-communist resistance fighter whose defiance of
the regime made her a symbol of the fight against tyranny, died.
(AP, 10/7/03)
2003 Oct 19, In Romania
government leaders held an emergency session as many voters avoided
the polls, throwing into doubt a referendum on a new constitution
aimed at helping the country join the European Union.
(AP, 10/19/03)
2003 Oct 21, Romanians
overwhelmingly approved a new constitution designed to prepare the
formerly communist country for membership in the EU.
(AP, 10/21/03)
2004 Mar 29, Pres. Bush hosted
a White House ceremony to welcome Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 2, In Brussels an
official ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Jun 2, Romania’s Pres. Ion
Iliescu unveiled the new Logan sedan, a joint venture between
Renault and Romania’s Dacia. Starting prices were around $6,100. In
2007 nearly 80,000 Logans were sold in western Europe.
(SFC, 6/3/04, C5)(Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.7)
2004 Aug 7, The Romanian sitcom
"The Winding Road to Europe" featured villagers in the fictional La
Europa pub and swapping stories about how joining the EU will change
their lives. The European Union's Romania office has funded 12
15-minute episodes of "Winding Road" at $16,800 each, 4 of which had
already aired.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Nov 28, Romanians voted
for a president to succeed Ion Iliescu and lead the former communist
country into the European Union. A run off was scheduled for Dec 12
when neither ruling Socialist’s Nastase nor Bucharest Mayor Basescu
received 50%.
(AP, 11/28/04)(WSJ, 11/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 4, A car accident in
Bucharest killed Teofil Peter of the rock band Compact. In 2006 US
Marine Sgt Christopher VanGoethem, a US embassy guard, was acquitted
of negligent homicide by a Marine court in Virginia.
(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A3)
2004 Dec 12, Romanians returned
to the polls for a presidential runoff between PM Adrian Nastase and
Bucharest Mayor Traian Basescu. Reformist opposition candidate
Traian Basescu won Romania's presidential runoff election.
(AP, 12/13/04)
2004 Dec 14, In Romania
Pres.-elect Traian Basescu opened talks to form a coalition
government with a party formerly allied with his opponent and one
representing ethnic Hungarians.
(AP, 12/14/04)
2004 Romania’s main political
parties formed the Coalition for a Clean Parliament, an
anti-corruption pact.
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.61)
2005 Jan 1, Romania enacted a
law forbidding int’l. adoptions except to biological grandparents in
an effort to help it win EU membership.
(WSJ, 1/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 1, Romania was
forecast for 5.2% annual GDP growth with a population at 21.7
million and GDP per head at $3,720.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.89)
2005 Jan 16, A 66-year-old
Romanian woman became the world's oldest woman recorded to give
birth when she delivered a daughter by cesarean section.
(AP, 1/17/05)
2005 Mar 28, In Iraq 3 Romanian
journalists were abducted near their Baghdad hotel.
(AP, 3/29/05)
2005 Apr 13, The European
Parliament approved the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the EU in
2007, but it said both countries still need to carry out necessary
reforms.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 18, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. Recipients
included Stephanie Daniel Roth of Romania for fighting an open-cast
gold mine.
(SFC, 4/18/05, p.B2)
2005 Apr 22, Al Jazeera
television reported that insurgents gave Romania 4 days to
withdraw its troops from Iraq in order to save the lives of 3
journalists kidnapped last month.
(Reuters, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 29, Heavy rains in
western Romania have flooded hundreds of villages, forcing 3,700
people to abandon their homes and disrupting rail and road traffic.
(Reuters, 4/29/05)
2005 May 6, Romania's foreign
minister said his government would keep its troops in Iraq
supporting postwar operations despite the kidnapping of three
Romanian journalists.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 12, Austrian
authorities reported the break up a major human trafficking ring led
by Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian criminals who smuggled more than
5,000 East Europeans to the West, many enduring horrific conditions
in tiny hiding spaces in cars, trucks and trailers.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 22, In Iraq 3 Romanian
journalists and their Iraqi-American guide were freed after nearly
two months in captivity. Mohammed Munaf, their Iraqi-American
translator, was later tried and convicted on charges that he
assisted in the kidnapping. In 2006 Munaf was sentenced to death.
(AP, 5/22/05)(SSFC, 10/15/06, p.A20)
2005 Jun 15, In Romania
Maricica Irina Cornici (23), an Orthodox nun, was found dead, gagged
and chained to a cross. Father Daniel (29), the superior of the Holy
Trinity monastery, had ordered the crucifixion of the young nun
because she was "possessed by the devil." The Orthodox priest
faced murder charges and was unrepentant as he celebrated a funeral
mass for his alleged victim. [see Jun 22]
(AFP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 22, A Romanian monk
and four nuns were charged with murder after a nun died during an
exorcism. Maricica Irina Cornici (23) was crucified and left without
food for three days. [see Jun 15] In 2007 the monk and 4 nuns were
given prison sentences from 5-14 years.
(AP, 6/23/05)(AP, 2/19/07)
2005 Jul 7, Romania's PM Calin
Popescu Tariceanu said his Cabinet would resign and early elections
would be called after a court blocked essential justice reforms
required by the EU.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 17, Officials said
heavy rains and flash floods have killed 20 people in the past week
and inundated tens of thousands of homes in Romania. Death for the
month reached 26.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 27, The UN started
evacuating more than 400 refugees from a camp in Kyrgyzstan and will
fly them to a third country to keep them from being sent home to
Uzbekistan where they fear prosecution. Uzbekistan has been
pressuring Kyrgyzstan to hand over the refugees, and Kyrgyz
officials relented in recent weeks, sending at least 87 of them
back.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Jul 29, A plane with 440
Uzbek refugees left Kyrgyzstan for Romania.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Aug 22, Romania’s PM Calin
Tariceanu reshuffled his center-right government, replacing four
ministers including those in charge of finance and European
integration after criticism of several cabinet members.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Oct 6, Romania said it has
deported five students accused of having ties to al-Qaida and trying
to recruit members of the country's Muslim community.
(AP, 10/6/05)
2005 Oct 8, Romania reported
new cases of avian flu in the Danube delta on the Black Sea and
started to cull hundreds of birds to prevent the disease from
spreading.
(AP, 10/8/05)
2005 Oct 9, The slaughter of
thousands of domestic fowl in Romania and Turkey began as a
precaution against the spread of bird flu after both countries
confirmed their first cases of the disease over the weekend.
(AP, 10/10/05)
2005 Oct 15, The European
Commission said tests have confirmed a link between the bird flu
found in Romania and the virus that has devastated flocks in Asia
and turned up in Turkey.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Nov 3, European Union
officials said they would investigate a report that the CIA set up
secret jails in Eastern Europe to interrogate top al-Qaida suspects.
The international Red Cross also said it asked the US to let a
representative visit detainees if such a facility exists. At least
10 nations denied that the prisons were in their territory. Human
Rights Watch in New York said it has evidence indicating the CIA
transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland
and Romania.
(AP, 11/3/05)
2005 Dec 6, US Sec. of State
Condoleeza Rice signed an agreement with Romania to open US military
bases there. One site was identified by Human Rights Watch as the
site for a clandestine prison.
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A16)
2005 Dec 22, Romania's prime
minister rejected US calls to allow adoptions by foreigners of about
1,000 Romanian children.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2005 Romania introduced a flat
tax of 16%.
(Econ, 3/5/05, p.54)
2005 Romania’s GDP per head was
$4,490.
(Econ, 1/6/07, p.43)
2006 Jan 14, In southwestern
Romania 7 miners were killed and five injured in a gas explosion at
a mine. Union leaders blamed it on a lack of investment in safety
measures.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 29, In Bucharest,
Romania, a stray dog killed a Japanese businessman. The mayor called
for a crash program of canine sterilization and euthanasia to
control the city’s 60,000 stray dogs.
(www.inyourpocket.com/romania/bucharest/en/)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.48)
2006 Feb 16, In Romania
authorities investigating the leak of secret military documents,
including details on coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan,
arrested Marian Garleanu, a Romanian journalist, for possession of
leaked material. Garleanu denied any wrongdoing and said he was
targeted because he has repeatedly exposed corruption in the
Ministry of Defense.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Apr 5, Home Secretary
Charles Clarke said London would press for Romania to be granted
membership of the European Union "as soon as possible" as he praised
the country's work against people trafficking.
(AFP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 13, The Danube reached
record-high levels in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, flooding fertile
farmland as authorities in southeastern Europe considered ordering
evacuations.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Jun 20, In southern
Afghanistan an explosion tore apart a coalition tank, killing one
Romanian soldier and wounding four others.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 29, Romania's PM Calin
Popescu Tariceanu proposed withdrawing 890 troops from Iraq because
of high casualty levels and the cost of the operation.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Aug 18, In Greece a
700-year-old icon, said to have the power to work miracles, was
discovered stolen from the cliff-side Elona Monastery. In September
police arrested a Romanian national in Crete and recovered the
Madonna and Child icon.
(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A26)(http://tinyurl.com/grxc8)
2006 Aug 22, The Orizont, a
leased Romanian oil rig off the coast of Iran, came under fire from
Iranian military vessels and was later occupied by Iranian troops. A
2nd Romanian rig had recently been towed from Iranian waters due to
unpaid bills.
(AP, 8/22/06)(WSJ, 10/14/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug, In Romania the heads
of the leading spy agencies quit along with the top prosecutor after
they failed to keep track of Omar Hayssam. The Syrian-born
businessman, arrested on terrorism charges, fled Romania after being
paroled for health reasons.
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.62)
2006 Sep 2, In Romania liberal
leaders expelled Mona Musca, one of the country's most popular
politicians, from the party after she admitted to having
collaborated with the Securitate secret police under the communist
dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 26, The European
Commission recommended that Bulgaria and Romania join the EU next
year, but under some of the harshest terms ever faced by new
members.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Oct 24, Britain said
Bulgarians and Romanians will have only limited rights to work in
Britain for at least a year after their countries join the European
Union on January 1.
(AP, 10/24/06)
2006 Dec 10, In Romania more
than 6,000 inmates at 24 prisons took part in hunger strikes and
other protests to demand amnesty and better living conditions.
(AP, 12/10/06)
2006 Romania handed over key
Securitate files and a master index to an independent institute. In
2008 the government issued an emergency decree to keep the institute
open after a court ruled its work unlawful.
(Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.13)
2006 At least 2 million of
Romania’s 22 million people worked abroad, mostly in farm jobs.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.48)
2007 Jan 1, Bulgaria and
Romania joined the EU. Some 30,000 Israelis gained EU citizenship
due to their dual registration in Romania.
(WSJ, 10/4/07, p.A11)(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Feb 1, Romanian President
Traian Basescu told Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that pirated
Microsoft software helped Romania to build a vibrant technology
industry.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 19, Daniel Petru
Corogeanu, a Romanian priest, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
In 2005 he had led a dayslong exorcism ritual with 4 nuns for
Maricica Irina Cornici (23), a young nun, that ended with the
woman's death. One of the nuns, Nicoleta Arcalianu, was sentenced to
eight years in prison, and the other three, Adina Cepraga, Elena
Otel and Simona Bardanas, received five-year sentences.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Romania's
parliament voted to suspend the popular president who ushered in
economic and social reforms to help the country join the European
Union, accusing him of abusing his constitutional powers. President
Traian Basescu had earlier vowed to resign "within five minutes" if
lawmakers voted to suspend him. His resignation would prompt a new
election within three months, and he has said he would run again for
office. Former president Nicolae Vacaroiu (1992-1996) became acting
president.
(AP, 4/19/07)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.61)
2007 May 2, Romania’s
Parliament approved an agreement allowing the US to use four
military bases and station up to 3,000 troops in the former
communist country.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 19, Romanians voted on
whether to impeach President Traian Basescu, who has been accused of
violating the constitution but remains popular among the public.
Basescu, suspended on grounds he abused power, easily survived a
referendum on his impeachment, with partial results indicating about
three-fourths of the votes supporting the leader.
(AP, 5/19/07)(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 23, Romania's
suspended President Traian Basescu was reinstated after he won a
referendum on his removal from office.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 27, Christian Mungiu,
a Romanian director, won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or for his
“3 Weeks and 2 Days,” which looked at abortion during the communist
era. Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” a film on the inequities of America’s
health system, also featured at Cannes.
(WSJ, 5/29/07, p.A1)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.32)
2007 Jun 8, A European
investigator issued a report saying the CIA ran secret prisons in
Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 to interrogate detainees in the
war on terror.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 9, In Romania police
used tear gas against protesters who hurled stones at the annual gay
rights parade in Bucharest.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 14, Romania's
government defended its decision to return "Dracula's Castle" to
members of the former royal family, denying allegations that the
decision was illegal.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 19, In Romania
hundreds of retirees took to the streets in Bucharest and about 20
other towns to demand that pensions be raised to at least 45% of the
average national salary and other benefits. Romania numbered 6
million retirees out of a population of 22 million.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 23, In Romania a bear
attacked a group of US tourists on a remote trail in the Carpathian
Mountains, killing a woman and injuring two other people.
(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 26, Sizzling
temperatures in Greece, Italy and Romania brought power cuts and
brush fires in a heat wave that has led to at least 38 deaths in
southeast Europe in recent days.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jul 22, The death toll
from Romania's heat wave rose to 15 after 6 more people died as
temperatures hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 27, Victor Frunza
(72), a Romanian anti-communist dissident and writer, died in
Denmark of a heart attack. He was forced to leave Romania in 1980
after writing a letter critical of the communist regime led by
dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. While in Romania, Frunza secretly wrote
a history of communism in the country that was published in Denmark
in 1984. He also wrote essays championing human rights and published
a political magazine.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Patriarch Teoctist
(b.1915), head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, died in Bucharest,
He made history when he invited the late John Paul II to his
Orthodox country in 1999 but was criticized for being too close to
former Communists.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 1, It was reported
that more than 100 Serbian Gypsies have crossed the border illegally
into neighboring Romania in recent days and filed applications for
asylum claiming they were subject to abuse and attacks in Serbia.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 5, Florian Pittis
(63), Romanian actor and folk musician, died of cancer. He helped
popularize Western rock bands in communist Romania.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 17, Romania and the US
started military training exercises to test installations that will
become the first US facilities in the former Soviet bloc, a plan
opposed by Russia.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Sep 15, It was reported
that nearly 90% of Romania’s 22 million people adhere to the
Romanian Orthodox Church. Its $4 billion fortune makes it the
country’s 6th biggest enterprise.
(Econ, 9/15/07, p.66)
2007 Oct 22,
Romania's President Traian Basescu apologized for the
deportation of thousands of Gypsies to Nazi death camps during World
War II, the first time a government official has done so publicly.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Italy Giovanna
Reggiani (47) was brutally attacked as she returned home in northern
Rome. She died 2 days later. Nicolae Mailat, a Romanian Gypsy,
admitted to snatching her bag but denied her murder. Her attack
triggered a public outcry.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.63)
2007 Nov 1, Italy's president
signed a decree allowing the expulsion of EU citizens "for reasons
of public safety" to fight "episodes of heavy violence and ferocious
crime." This followed the Oct 30 attack on a 47-year-old woman as
she walked along a road after dark toward barracks where she lived.
She was beaten, dragged through mud and left half naked in a ditch.
The woman died 2 days later. Police arrested Nicolae Mailat a
Romanian in his 20s, who lives in a shack in one of several
sprawling settlements on the outskirts of Rome.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, Italy began
deporting Romanians with criminal records in response to a streak of
violent crime blamed on immigrants. In Rome up to 10 people wearing
motorcycle helmets attacked a group of Romanians with knives, metal
bars and sticks in the parking lot of a supermarket. Three Romanians
were injured. As part of the crackdown, bulldozers in Rome for a
second day knocked down shantytowns where thousands of foreigners
lived without permits.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Dec 1, At the 20th annual
European Film Awards in Berlin Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's
"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" won the best film prize.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 New amendments to
Romania’s penal code prescribed jail sentences of up to 7 years for
journalists who publish material showing officials involved in
bribe-taking. The code also raised the financial threshold for
corruption charges.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.64)
2007 In Romania agriculture
ministers Decebal Traian Remes resigned his Cabinet post after
prosecutors accused him of taking a bribe of $21,000 (euro15,800)
and the promise of homemade sausages and plum brandy from Ioan
Muresan, a former agriculture minister who allegedly was acting on
behalf of businessman Gheorghe Ciorba.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2007 The population of Romania
numbered about 22 million people and counted 4.5 million farms and
smallholdings. This represented almost a third of all the farm
holdings in the EU.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.63)
2008 Jan 24, In Britain almost
two dozen Romanians were arrested after police swooped on a child
slave gang.
(Reuters, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 31, Romania’s
Constitutional Court struck down the 1999 law that opened Romania's
secret police archives. It effectively forced the Council for the
Study of the Securitate Archives to shut down, and makes its
previous decisions null.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 May 19, The US Justice
Department said international investigators have busted a vast
Internet fraud network and charged 38 suspects, most of them
Romanians living in the US.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 Jun 13, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber hit a NATO military convoy, causing
casualties. A Romanian soldier was killed and three others injured
in Qalat, the capital of southern Zabul province. In south-central
Uruzgan province, Afghan and NATO-led forces killed 17 Taliban. In
eastern Paktia province, an operation by US-led coalition forces
resulted in the deaths of a woman and a number of militants. In
Ghazni province a coalition air strike killed seven Taliban
militants.
(AFP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 30, Brahim Deby, the
eldest son of Chad’s President Idriss Deby, was found dead in the
basement of his apartment building in a Paris suburb. He was
asphyxiated by chemicals from a fire extinguisher that lay near his
body. In late November Romanian police arrested a French-Romanian
national identified as Marius C. after on a warrant from France.
(AP,
11/28/08)(www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02560147.htm)
2008 Jul 27, Floods in western
Ukraine killed 22 people, including 4 children, and 5 in neighboring
Romania after 5 days of nonstop rain. A senior government official
described them as the worst in a century. Heavy rain in the
southwestern Carpathian Mountains caused the Prut and Dniestr rivers
to overflow. The flooding affected more than 40,000 houses and led
to the evacuation of some 20,000 people.
(Reuters, 7/27/08)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Aug 5, The UN said heavy
rains and storms have led to some of the worst floods in 40 years in
parts of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania since July 22, causing great
damage to homes, infrastructure and farmland. In Ukraine, 34 people
have been killed in the west of the country along the Dnestr and
Prut rivers; in Moldova, three people are reported to have drowned
in the capital Chisinau; in Romania five people have been killed.
(AFP, 8/5/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Romania some
7,000 workers and trade unionists marched around the parliament in
Bucharest to demand higher salaries and better working conditions.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Romania vandals
rampaged through a sprawling Jewish cemetery in Bucharest, toppling
tombstones and smashing markers for as many as 200 graves.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Nov 6, Romania's defense
minister says the country's 501 peacekeepers in Iraq will all leave
by the end of the year.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, A Romanian computer
programmer who hacked into computers used by the U.S. Navy, the
Department of Energy and NASA was convicted on Romanian charges and
ordered to pay thousands in damages. Victor Faur (28) was also given
a 16-month suspended prison sentence. In 2006 Faur was indicted in
the United States on nine federal counts of computer intrusion and
one of conspiracy.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 15, In southwestern
Romania two explosions in a coal mine killed eight miners and four
emergency workers.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 23, In southern Brazil
weekend rains caused rivers to overflow their banks. The resulting
floods and mudslides left at least 99 people dead. In northeastern
Paragominas a mob of about 3,000 people, enraged by a crackdown on
illegal logging, trashed a government office, and tried to attack
environmental workers.
(AP, 11/25/08)(AP, 11/24/08)(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 30, Romanians trickled
to the polls to elect a new parliament, as the leftist Social
Democrats and right-wing Liberal Democrats battled it out ahead of
PM Calin Tariceanu's Liberals. The leftist Social Democrats won the
most votes, but failed to get enough support to take power outright.
(AP, 11/30/08)(SFC, 12/1/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 1, Romania's
parliamentary election results showed the centrist and leftist
parties less than a percentage point apart with more than 90 percent
of the vote counted, raising the prospect of tough negotiations to
form a coalition.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Romania
Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu (80), once jailed as a communist-era
"enemy of the state," died after years of fighting to reveal details
of the country's troubled past.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Romania Theodor
Stolojan (65), former World Bank economist, was chosen to become the
next prime minister. On Dec 15 Stolojan renounced the job and was
replaced by Emil Boc (42), the leader of the same centrist
Democratic Liberal Party.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.A4)(AP, 12/15/08)
2009 Jan 3, Russian gas flows
to four European Union countries fell normal levels after Moscow cut
off supplies to Ukraine in a pricing row with no talks in sight to
resolve the dispute. Bulgaria's Bulgargaz joined energy firms in
Poland, Romania and Hungary in saying they had noted falls in
supply.
(Reuters, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 6, A natural gas
crisis loomed over Europe, as a contract dispute between Russia and
Ukraine shut off Russian gas supplies to six countries and reduced
gas deliveries to several others. Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia,
Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Feb 4, Romania’s central
bank cut interest rates by a quarter point to 10%, still the highest
in the EU.
(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 8, Voters in
Switzerland approved an expanded labor deal with the European Union
that allows Romanians and Bulgarians to work in the Alpine republic.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Mar 25, Romania was given
a loan totaling 20 billion euros (27 billion dollars) by the IMF,
the EU, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD). An austerity program accompanied the loans.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Apr 23, Former King
Michael of Romania took the unusual step of endorsing his son-in-law
as a candidate in the country's next presidential election.
(AP, 4/23/09)
2009 Jun 8, Final results
showed a British far-right party won its first-ever parliamentary
seats in EU elections. The British National Party, which does not
accept nonwhite members and calls for the "voluntary repatriation"
of immigrants, won two of Britain's 72 seats in the European
Parliament. Austria's Freedom Party, which also campaigned on an
anti-Islam platform, more than doubled its share of the vote to
13.1%. Hungary's Jobbik party, which describes itself as
Euro-skeptic and anti-immigration and wants police to crack down on
what it calls "Gypsy crime," won three of the country's 22 seats and
almost 15% of the vote. The Greater Romania Party, which is, among
other things, pro-religion, anti-gay and anti-Hungarian, made
surprise gains, winning almost 9% of the vote and taking two of
Romania's 33 seats. A bloc of center-right parties remained the
largest group.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 23, Northern Ireland’s
government said more than 100 Romanian Gypsies who suffered racist
attacks and intimidation in Belfast are being flown back home at
taxpayer expense.
(AP, 6/24/09)
2009 Jul 13, Turkey and four EU
countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary) formally agreed
to route the Nabucco natural gas pipeline across their territories,
pushing ahead with a US- and EU-backed attempt to make Europe less
dependent on Russian gas.
(AP, 7/13/09)(Econ, 7/18/09, p.47)
2009 Aug 26, In Bucharest,
Romania, fans at first politely applauded the Roma performers
sharing a stage with Madonna. Then the pop star condemned widespread
discrimination against Roma, or Gypsies, and the cheers gave way to
jeers. Official Romanian data put the local Roma population at
500,000.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Romania Gen.
Nicolae Plesita (b.1929), a die-hard Communist and ruthless chief of
the Securitate secret police (1980-1984), died. He had arranged
shelter in Romania for terrorist Carlos the Jackal, and was tried
for the 1981 bombing in Munich of Radio Free Europe.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 1, Romania's coalition
government collapsed after nine ministers from the Social Democrats
quit to protest the firing of interior minister Dan Nica. Social
Democratic Party leader Mircea Geoana said the ministers resigned
"in solidarity" with Nica, who was fired by PM Emil Boc on Sep 28
over a statement about potential fraud in the upcoming Nov 22
election.
(AP, 10/1/09)
2009 Oct 8, Herta Mueller (56)
won the Nobel Prize in literature in an award seen as a nod to the
20th anniversary of communism's collapse. She was member of
Romania's ethnic German minority persecuted for her critical
depictions of life behind the Iron Curtain. She made her debut in
1982 with a collection of short stories titled "Niederungen," or
"Nadirs," depicting the harshness of life in a small,
German-speaking village in Romania. It was promptly censored by the
communist government. Some of her works have been translated into
English, French and Spanish, including "The Passport," "The Land of
Green Plums," "Traveling on One Leg" and "The Appointment."
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 8, Romania unveiled a
monument in memory of some 300,000 Jews and Gypsies killed during
the Holocaust in the country, which at times denied that the
extermination even happened.
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 13, Romania's
government fell in a confidence vote in Parliament. Lawmakers said
it failed to improve the economy after going into recession
following 3 years of growth. A total of 254 parliamentary deputies
and senators voted to oust PM Emil Boc, more than the 236 needed,
and 176 voted against. Under the constitution it was up to Pres.
Traian Basescu to name a new prime minister.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Nov 22, Romania held
elections. President Traian Basescu received 32.7% of the vote,
while Mircea Geoana won 30.1%, in first official results based on
around 85% of the vote counted in an election tainted by accusations
of fraud.
(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Dec 6, Romanians voted in
a presidential run-off hoping to put an end to a political standoff
holding up crucial international aid to the recession-wracked EU
member. Center-right President Traian Basescu, a former sea captain
promising tough state reforms, faced Social-Democrat Mircea Geoana,
an ex-diplomat who has pledged to maintain jobs and "reunite
Romania" after years of political squabbling. Basescu won with
50.33% of the vote. Supporters of Geoana charged that the election
was marred by fraud. The final result was determined by Romanians
abroad who favored Basescu by 78%.
(AFP, 12/6/09)(SFC, 12/8/09, p.A4)(Econ,
12/12/09, p.60)
2009 Dec 11, Romania's
Constitutional Court ordered a re-examination of ballots declared
void in the Dec 6 presidential election amid allegations of
widespread fraud.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2010 Feb 4, Romania’s Pres.
Traian Basescu says the country's top defense body has approved a US
proposal to place anti-ballistic interceptors in Romania as part of
a revamped US missile shield. The measure passed the Supreme Defense
Council and must be approved by Parliament.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Afghan Gen.
Stanley McChrystal apologized for the Feb 21 strike in central
Uruzgan province that Afghan officials say killed at least 21
people. The video was also posted on a NATO Web site. The civilian
deaths occurred as 15,000 NATO, US and Afghan soldiers were in their
10th day of fighting insurgents in Marjah, Helmand province. A
Romanian soldier was killed and another was wounded in a bombing in
the south unrelated to the offensive. A morning explosion in Lashkar
Gah, the capital of Helmand, left eight people dead and at least 16
others wounded. The death toll of US troops in the Afghan war
surpassed the grim milestone of 1,000.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 May 19, Tens of thousands
of Romanians rallied in Bucharest to protest planned wage cuts as a
budget crises impacted the ailing economy.
(SFC, 5/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 18, Romania's finance
ministry said the cash-strapped government is asking for donations
to a solidarity fund set up to boost budget revenues and cushion the
impact of the economic crisis.
(Reuters, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 23, Romania's most
notorious television journalist and his producer were formally
arrested and detained for 29 days on charges of blackmailing and
threatening a mayor. Dan Diaconescu and producer Doru Parv were
arrested after a 7-hour overnight court hearing. They were charged
with demanding money from Ion Motz, the mayor of Zarand village, to
avoid broadcasting compromising material about him.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 29, In Romania
authorities said ten people have died and three were missing after
heavy rains and flooding in the northeast.
(AP, 6/29/10)
2010 Jul 5, A Romanian military
plane crashed near the Black Sea, killing 10 people and injuring
three. The Antonov AN-2 plane with 13 people on board took off for
parachuting training and crashed soon after takeoff.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 21, In Romania
forensic scientists exhumed what are believed to be the bodies of
Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena to solve the
mystery of where they are truly buried.
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 26, In central Romania
an Israeli helicopter crashed with no survivors among the six
Israeli and one Romanian soldiers on board.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Aug 2, Romania's central
bank issued a special coin commemorating Miron Cristea, a prime
minister (1938-1939) and religious leader, who stripped Jews of
their citizenship before World War II. The move prompted protest
from Romanian Jews as well as a director at the US Holocaust
Memorial Museum.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Romania a fire
at a Bucharest maternity hospital killed 3 babies. A 4th died the
next day and seven remained in critical condition. The accident
provoked a wave of public indignation, throwing light on Romania's
poorly funded and understaffed health system.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Russia Gabriel
Grecu, first secretary in the political department of the Romanian
Embassy in Moscow, was detained while trying to obtain secret
military information from a Russian citizen. He was given 48 hours
to leave the country.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 19, France deported
nearly 100 Gypsies, or Roma, to their native Romania as part of a
very public effort by conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy to
dismantle Roma camps and sweep them out of the country.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 20, France put about
100 Gypsies, or Roma, on a charter flight headed to their native
Romania, the second day in a row that it has expelled Roma in a much
criticized government crackdown.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 21, In Romania
Gheorghe Apostol (b.1913), a veteran Communist politician, died. He
gained international attention in 1989 by publicly criticizing
Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Sep 9, The European
Parliament called on France to suspend its expulsion of gypsies. The
rare criticism of an EU state was backed by 337 lawmakers meeting in
Strasbourg, France, with 245 opposed and 51 abstentions. To date
France had deported 8,000 people to Romania and Bulgaria this year
alone.
(AP, 9/9/10)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.73)
2010 Sep 24, In Romania some
6,000 police officers protested plans to cut their wages by 25
percent, part of government's austerity measures to reduce the
budget deficit. Pres. Basescu asked the interior ministry to
withdraw his police protection shortly after the protest.
(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 27, The Romanian
government was in an uproar over austerity protests. The interior
minister resigned, the opposition demanded the prime minister go as
well and top police officials held emergency talks with the
president.
(AP, 9/27/10)
2010 Oct 1, In southern
Afghanistan 2 coalition soldiers were killed in a blast while on
patrol. NATO said it has captured more insurgent leaders and
announced it has detained at least 438 suspected militants over the
last month. Just north of Kandahar, two Romanian soldiers were
killed and one injured when their Humvee was struck by an improvised
explosive device some 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Qalat in Zabul
province.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 27, Romania government
survived a no-confidence, as some 30,000 people demonstrated in
Bucharest against the nation's wage cuts and austerity measures.
(AP, 10/27/10)(SFC, 10/28/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 1, In Romania a MiG-21
Lancer fighter jet crashed during a training exercise, killing two
experienced pilots.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 In Romania Emil Boc's
government increased sales tax from 19 percent to 24 percent and cut
public workers' salaries by a quarter to reduce the budget deficit.
(AP, 2/6/12)
2011 Jan 6, Romanian witches
angry about having to pay income taxes for the first time hurled
poisonous mandrake into the Danube River to cast spells on the
president and government.
(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Feb 5, In Romania five
miners died in an explosion at a coal mine in the Jiu Valley mining
region.
(AP, 2/5/11)
2011 Feb 22, Ion Hobana (80),
Romania's best-known science fiction writer, died in Bucharest. His
works were translated abroad has died. His last book, a history of
French science fiction before 1900, was published in November.
(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Mar 10, Romania's Pres.
Traian Basescu signed a law making Feb. 20 an official holiday to
mark when the slavery of Gypsies, or Roma, was abolished. Roma
slavery was abolished Feb. 20, 1856, but discrimination persists
against the group.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Jul 16, Bulgarian railway
workers found seals on a train carriage door broken, and the door
not properly closed. 64 unarmed missile warheads from the train
transporting military equipment to Bulgaria from Romania were
missing. The components were said to not be dangerous.
(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Aug 16, Romania’s
controversial Tourism Minister Elena Udrea sparked outrage with a
frock she admitted cost as much as many Romanians make in more than
a month. She defended the $1290 dress, insisting it cost less than
the thousands of euros that media has reported.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug, In Romania Florin
Nicolae Ghinea was arrested for trafficking at least 38 women to
brothels in Ireland from 2007-2010.
(SSFC, 9/4/11, p.A4)
2011 Sep 13, Romania signed a
deal to host a crucial part of a US missile defense system.
Romania's President Traian Basescu announced the deal after meeting
with President Obama in Washington. Under NATO plans, a limited
system of US anti-missile interceptors and radars planned for Europe
include interceptors in Romania and Poland as well as radar in
Turkey.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Oct 18, Romania's
anti-discrimination council voted 5-2 to caution President Traian
Basescu for making discriminatory remarks about Gypsies and disabled
people.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 19, Romania's
government approved a draft law that permits the building of an
anti-ballistic interceptor site in the country as part of a US
missile shield.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Nov 16, A court in Romania
ordered the arrest of a Romanian man accused of hacking into NASA's
servers in December, 2010, causing NASA losses of about $500,000
(euro371,000). A court spokesman said Robert Butyka (26) would be
arrested for 29 days as he awaits trial.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 22, Romanian lawmakers
voted to make it legal to euthanize the thousands of stray dogs that
roam the country's streets, angering animal rights activists who
have lobbied for months to stop the measure. The law will allow
officials to round up homeless dogs from the street, hold them in
shelters for 30 days and then have them killed. President Traian
Basescu was expected to sign the law.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Dec, Romania’s former PM
Adrian Nastase (2000-2004) a key member of the opposition Social
Democracy Party, was cleared of corruption charges in a trial where
he was accused of paying a bribe to a government official in charge
of preventing money laundering to destroy documents regarding a bank
deposit of $400,000 (euro308,000) by Nastase's wife.
(AP, 1/30/12)
2012 Jan 13, In Romania
demonstrations began on behalf of Raed Arafat, a popular health care
official. He had quit over a plan to privatize a medical emergency
system, which he had set up. On Jan 17 the government gave him back
his job and said it would rethink its health plans.
(Econ, 1/21/12, p.57)
2012 Jan 15, In Romania
protests continued in cities for a 4th day reflecting widespread
anger against austerity measures and an unpopular government.
(AP, 1/15/12)
2012 Jan 16, In Romania dozens
of demonstrators gathered in downtown Bucharest as PM Emil Boc
warned that violent protests, that left 59 injured over the weekend,
could jeopardize stability and economic growth.
(AP, 1/16/12)
2012 Jan 20, In Romania crowds
gathered in Bucharest for the eighth day as a US official urged
Romanians to avoid the violence that has tarred anti-government
protests that have left more than 60 people injured.
(AP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 24, Romania's PM Emil
Bloc used a national Day of Unity holiday to call for unity as
thousands of protesters angry at the government's failure to reverse
falling living standards turned their ire toward state media.
(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 30, Romania's highest
court sentenced former PM Adrian Nastase (2000-2004) to two years in
prison after convicting him of illegally raising funds for a failed
presidential campaign.
(AP, 1/30/12)
2012 Feb 3, The death toll from
a severe cold spell in Eastern Europe rose to 222, including 101 in
the Ukraine, 37 in Poland, 24 in Romania and 16 in Bulgaria.
(AFP, 2/1/12)
2012 Feb 6, Romania's
government collapsed following weeks of protests against austerity
measures, the latest debt-stricken government in Europe to fall in
the face of raising public anger over biting cuts. President Traian
Basescu appointed Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu, the only
minister in Emil Boc's Cabinet who is not a member of any political
party, to be interim prime minister pending the formation of a new
government.
(AP, 2/6/12)
2012 Feb 9, Romania's
Parliament approved a government led by former spy chief Mihai
Razvan Ungureanu (43), which the ruling coalition hopes will improve
its popularity ahead of parliamentary elections this year. His
Cabinet has seven ministers from the previous cabinet, but new,
younger ministers for the key portfolios of economy, finance,
interior ministry and agriculture.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 13, Military planes
flew in tons of emergency food to towns and villages in eastern
Romania where thousands have been stranded by blizzards.
(AP, 2/13/12)
2012 Feb 14, A Romania court in
Bucharest ruled that former agriculture ministers Decebal Traian
Remes and Ioan Muresan took bribes and engaged in
influence-peddling. Both were sentenced to 3 years in prison.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 14, Romania's top
court recognized Prince Paul Hohenzollern as the legitimate grandson
of former King Carol II, ending a 21-year-legal battle.
(AP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 14, Snow as deep as 15
feet (4.5m) isolated areas of Albania, Moldova and Romania, and
helicopters and army trucks were used to deliver food and medicine,
and to transport sick people to hospitals. Officials said 5
Romanians died in the past 24 hours due to frigid temperatures,
bringing the total to 79 weather-related deaths since the nation's
cold spell began.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 15, Authorities said
more than 600 people in Eastern Europe have died during a
record-breaking cold snap. Officials in the Czech Republic blamed
two massive car pile-ups on blinding snow. Authorities in Russia
said 205 people have died, while in Ukraine there have been 112
fatalities; in Poland, 107. Authorities said 7 people have died in
Romania in the past 24 hours, bringing the total there to 86 deaths.
(AP, 2/15/12)
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