1917 in Romania

Events from the year 1917 in Romania.

Decades:

Incumbents

January 13: Ciurea rail disaster. The worst rail accident in Romanian history^[1] and third worst in the history of the world,^[2] with most estimates falling between 800 and 1000 deaths.
July 22-August 1: Battle of MÄrÄÈti
August 6-September 8: Battle of MÄrÄÈeÈti. The largest battle to take part on the Romanian front during World War I.^[3]
August 8â22: Third Battle of Oituz
September 13: Romania establishes diplomatic relations with Japan.^[4] King Ferdinand names Nicolae Xenopol as plenipotentiary minister to Tokyo.
December 9: Armistice of FocÈani is signed, ending the hostilities between Romania and the Central Powers.^[5]

March 18: Mircea Ionescu-Quintus â politician, senator, centenarian, Minister of Justice and chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL) from 1993 to 2001.^[6]
March 19: Dinu Lipatti â classical pianist and composer, posthumously elected into the Romanian Academy.^[7]
June 6: Ion RaÈiu â politician and the presidential candidate of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNÈ) in the 1990 elections.^[8]
June 20: Iosif Constantin DrÄgan â Romanian and Italian businessman, writer, historian and founder of the ButanGas company, who was at one time the richest man in Romania.^[9]
August 28: Horia Lovinescu [ro] â playwright.^[10]
August 22: Alexandru Piru â literary critic, historian and member of the Parliament between 1990 and 1992.^[11]
August 25: Ion Diaconescu â anti-Communist activist and politician who spent seventeen years as a political prisoner and later became a leader of the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNÅ¢CD).^[12]
September 3: Eugen FrunzÄ â poet who co-wrote the lyrics to Te slÄvim, RomÃ¢nie, which was the national anthem between 1953 and 1975.^[13]
November 18: Dinu Negreanu - director who created a string of films in the 1950s.^[14]
December 13: Miron Constantinescu â communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party, as well as a Marxist sociologist, historian, academic, and journalist.^[15]

Literary critic Titu Maiorescu
February 9: Aurel Popovici â lawyer and politician who proposed the federalization of Austria-Hungary under the United States of Greater Austria.^[16]
May 14: Emil Rebreanu - Austro-Hungarian Romanian military officer executed during World War I for trying to desert to the Romanian side. The 1922 novel Forest of the Hanged by his brother, Liviu Rebreanu, is influenced by his experience.^[17]
June 18: Titu Maiorescu - literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century.^[18]
August 27: Ion GrÄmadÄ â writer, historian and journalist who died in battle.^[19]
August 28: Calistrat HogaÈ â prose writer whose collected short stories were published posthumously.^[20]
September 3: Ecaterina Teodoroiu - woman who fought and died in World War I, and is regarded as war hero of Romania, where she is known as the âheroine of the Jiuâ.^[21]
December 18: Nicolae Xenopol â Politician, diplomat, economist, writer and first Romanian ambassador to Japan. Died in Tokyo, only months after taking the position.^[22]