It was the time of World War I. The armed forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary and their allies had defeated the Romanian army back in 1916.
Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was born on this day in 1918, in the town of Scornicești in the part of Romania called Wallachia. Scornicești is located around 100 kilometers west from the Romanian capital of Bucharest, i.e. in the direction of Serbia.
It is interesting to note that Romania was occupied by the Central Powers at the time of Ceauşescu’s birth. Namely, it was the time of World War I. The armed forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary and their allies had defeated the Romanian Army back in 1916. When Nicolae Ceauşescu was born in the aforementioned Scornicești in January 1918, that area was under Austro-Hungarian and German occupation. Indeed, the Germans wanted to use the rich Romanian oilfields, which were important for supplying their war effort. They repaired the oilfields and collected some 1,000,000 tons of oil before the end of the war. The wells near Ploiești in Wallachia, located some 120 kilometers northeast of Ceauşescu’s birthplace, were considered particularly important.
