FOUR FACTS: NICOLAE CEAUSESCU

• Nicolae Ceausescu effectively became Romania's head of state in 1967 when appointed president of the Communist Party State Council.
  
  
• In 1978 the Ceausescus' visit to Britain was afforded full state status. They travelled in a carriage with the Queen from Victoria station to Buckingham Palace.
  
  
• Ceausescu crippled the Romanian economy in 1983 by paying off large foreign debts through mass exporting of agricultural and industrial goods. TV coverage from the time shows the president inspecting bountiful crops all in fact made from wood and polystyrene.
  
  
• A firing squad executed Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena on 25 December 1989. Their two-hour trial accused them of war crimes and bankrupting the nation.