Tag Archive for: This Week in Armenian History

BIRTH OF ROUBEN GREGORIAN

Violinist and conductor Rouben Gregorian was a prolific name both in Iran and the United States, where he lived for the last half of his life.
Rouben Grigorian was born to a family of musicians in Tiflis, Georgia, on October 23, 1915. His family moved to Iran a year later and settled in Tabriz. He studied at the Armenian Central School in Tabriz and then at the Tehran Conservatory, where he later became an instructor of violin. His studies also included classes in composition with celebrated composer

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DEATH OF JAMES G. MANDALIAN

For more than three decades, James Mandalian was a dominant name in the Armenian American press as the founding editor of two longstanding publications, Hairenik Weekly and The Armenian Review. James Mandalian was the first editor of Hairenik Weekly, a position that he maintained for thirty-six years until his retirement in 1970. He also was was the first Executive Secretary of the Armenian Youth Federation (originally known as A.R.F. Tzeghagron until 1941) and authored its booklet Highlights of Armenian History (1938).

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BIRTH OF RETEOS BERBERIAN

Reteos Berberian was the most influential and best regarded Armenian educator in Constantinople for three decades.
He was born in the neighborhood of Haskeuy, in Constantinople, on October 10, 1851. He graduated from the local Nersesian school in 1866. He had innate qualities to be an educator, and he cherished the ambition of founding a school from his youngest years. At the age of sixteen he started tutoring people of his age.

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DEATH OF HOVHANNES HOVHANNISIAN

Hovhannisian was born on April 26, 1864, into a peasant family in Vagharshapat. He attended the parochial school in Armenia before studying in Moscow at the Lazarian Language Institute (1877-1883) and Moscow State University (1884-88). In 1889 he traveled around Europe visiting Constantinople, London, Paris, and Vienna. He returned to Vagharshapat and began his teaching career as a Russian language and literature, general literature, and Greek language at …

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BIRTH OF CHARLES ATAMIAN

Charles Garabed Atamian was born on September 18, 1872, in Constantinople. He completed his early education at the Mekhitarist School in the district of Pera (now Beyoglu) and then attended the Lycée de Saint-Benoit, a French school. He continued his education at the Moorat-Raphaël College of the Mekhitarist Congregation (Venice) between 1887 and 1893. He studied for a short while at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Italian city, but then returned to Constantinople and worked at …

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BIRTH OF CLARENCE USSHER

American physician and missionary Clarence Ussher was an eyewitness of the Armenian self-defense of Van and author of one of the most important testimonies about the Turkish attack and the massacre of tens of thousands of Armenians in the Van region. He was born on September 9, 1870, in Aurora, Illinois. His father was posted to Montreal as a bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church and eventually moved with the family to Canada.

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DEATH OF LEVON MELIKSET-BEK

Melikset-Bek was born in Tiflis (nowadays Tbilisi) on September 14, 1890. After two years of private learning, he went to the Royal School of Tiflis from 1899 to 1908. He graduated from the School of Law of the University of Odessa in 1913, where he also followed courses of History and Philology. He was interested in archaeology and traveled to various Armenian communities of Russia to that end. In 1914 he was elected corresponding member of the Society of History and Antiquities of Odessa.

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DEATH OF TEODOR AXENTOWICZ

Teodor Axentowicz was born on May 13, 1859, in Brasov (Hungary, now Romania), to a family of Polish–Armenian ancestry. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1879-1882. Then he moved to Paris, where he was a student of French painter Carolus-Duran and continued his education until 1895. Meanwhile, he started a long-time cooperation with various journals as an art illustrator and making copies of masters like Titian and Botticelli for magazines.

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BIRTH OF MGRDICH BESHIGTASHLIAN

Mgrdich Beshigtashlian, along with Bedros Tourian, was one of the most remarkable names of Armenian poetry in the period of the cultural Zartonk (awakening) of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. He was born in Constantinople on August 18, 1828, in a Catholic family , He lost his parents at an early age due to tuberculosis. He received his education at the Mekhitarist schools of Constantinople and Padua (Italy).

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BIRTH OF ERNEST DERVISHIAN

Dervishian was born in Richmond, Virginia, on August 10, 1916. He was the son of two Armenian immigrants who operated a candy store. He attended public schools and the University of Richmond, where he took premedical courses before deciding to study law. After passing the bar in December 1937 and receiving his degree from the university’s T. C. Williams School of Law in June 1938, he practiced law with his brother.

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