December 25, a curse for communism

A couple of events that have changed the course of history have taken place in a day like today, December 25:

• In 1989, Nicolae Ceausescu, communist dictator in Romania since 1965, is condemned to death for crimes of genocide and is executed the same day in the city of Targoviste along with his wife, Elena. Such executions marked the end of the communist era in Romania, making it also the only country in the former Soviet bloc that overthrew its regime in a violent way.
• Exactly two years after Ceausescu's death, and following the unilateral declarations of independence made by Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Latvia, Georgia, Armenia, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan (which led to an imminent fall of the Soviet regime), Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as the president of the USSR. This event meant the very final episode for the Soviet Union, giving rise to what would be known thereafter as the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the rebirth of many countries as sovereign nations.

This is a world full of coincidences, indeed.