This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we hear from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us.

BBC: Prime Minister Chamberlain declares war

During the Cold War, relations between the US and Soviet Union were eased when Cliburn won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, at the age of 23.

BBC: Bush remembers Van Cliburn at memorial

"You know very well this is a pretext of a political war between President Basescu and me, a war each of us leads with their own weapons, " he said.

BBC: Romanian PM Victor Ponta rejects plagiarism claim