DEATH OF HRACHIA KOCHAR

Writer Hrachia Kochar, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, became one of the official voices of Stalinism, but at the end of his life, mounting on the wave of national rebirth in Soviet Armenian, produced the most durable works of his literary career.

He was born Hrachia Kaprielian in the village of Kumlubujakh, situated on the foot of Mount Nepat in the district of Bagrevand (Western Armenia), on February 1, 1910. His mother died on the road to exile in 1916, and he was able to cross into Eastern Armenia with the rest of the villagers, finding shelter in the village of Vagharshapat. His father Kochar (Kocho), who fought along General Antranig, died in 1918.

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BIRTH OF KEVORK MESROB

Kevork Mesrob was a longtime teacher as well as prolific author and public servant both in the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.

His real name was Kevork Der-Mesrobian and he was born on May 1, 1881, in Bardizag. He studied at the local Nerses-Shushanian and then at the local American high school. Then he was admitted at the Seminary of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which he finished in three years instead of the usual six (1899-1902).

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BIRTH OF SEIRAN KHATLAMAJIAN

Seiran Khatlamajian is considered one of the founding fathers of the abstract art movement in Armenia.

He was born on April 20, 1937, in the village of Chaltyr near Rostov-on-Don. His parents were dispossessed landowners. Since childhood, Seiran was fascinated by drawing and at the age of 14 started his studies at the children’s art school in Rostov-on-Don. He entered the Mitrofan Grekov School of Art in 1953 and graduated in 1959 with honors.

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BIRTH OF ARTAK MOVSISYAN

Artak Movsisyan was a young and prolific historian of the post-Soviet generation in Armenia who made an important contribution to the study of ancient history.

He was born on April 10, 1970, in the city of Abovian. After graduating from the local No. 7 school, he served in the Soviet..

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BIRTH OF VARTAN GRIGORIAN

Historian by vocation and administrator by destiny, Vartan Gregorian went from a difficult childhood to becoming one of the most respected intellectuals in America.

He was born on April 8, 1934, in Tabriz (Iran). His father was mostly absent. His mother died when he was six and his father later remarried. Vartan and his younger sister were raised by his maternal grandmother.

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BIRTH OF FLORA ZABELLE

Flora Zabelle, a Broadway star, was born Zabelle Mangasarian in Constantinople on April 1, 1880. Her father, Dr. Mangasar Mangasarian (M. M. Mangasarian, 1859-1943), was a prominent pastor and theologian. She appears to have moved to the United States at a very early age, for her father studied in Princeton around 1880 and then moved to Philadelphia (1882-1885) and later New York and Chicago. Her sister, Christine Mangasarian, was also an actress in Broadway. Zabelle Mangasarian attended Wellesley College and decided upon an acting career, which was particularly ambitious and brave for a woman so young and especially at that time. At the age of 19, she moved to New York and adopted the stage name Flora Zabelle.

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DEATH OF BERTHA MORLEY

An American educator and relief worker, Bertha B. Morley headed schools and orphanages in the Ottoman Empire and rescued children from the Armenian Genocide, writing down journals that became an important eyewitness account.
Bertha Morley was born on June 21, 1878, in Mentor, Ohio. She attended Oberlin College (1895–1898) but did not complete her studies due to poor health. From 1898 to 1900, she attended Lake Erie Conservatory of Music and joined the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston (1904). She was appointed teacher at the American Missionary Association boarding school (Pleasant Hill, Tennessee) from 1905 to 1910.

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BIRTH OF MESROVB J. SETH

Mesrovb Jacob Seth (Setiants) was a pioneering scholar of the history of Armenians in India who also fell in love with Classical Armenian and continued its use as a medium of expression until the end of his life. He was born on March 15, 1871, in New Julfa near Isfahan, Iran. His father was the brother-in-law of noted writer Mesrop Taghiadiants. Seth received his primary education at the local Protestant missionaries’ school. He showed exceptional qualities, which led his father to the decision of moving to Calcutta (nowadays Kolkata), India, in 1889…

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OPENING OF THE YEREVAN SUBWAY

The Karen Demirchian Yerevan Subway, colloquially known as the Yerevan Metro, seems to have been around forever, but it started barely forty years ago. It is a government-owned company overseen by the City of Yerevan. Yerevan experienced substantial growth after World War II. The city’s very uneven landscape only left an underground system as the real alternative to moving large numbers of people in an efficient manner. The first plans for a rapid transit system began to be formed in the late 1960s,

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BIRTH OF BOHDAN GEBARSKI

Bohdan Gebarski was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the family of a Polish railway engineer, on February 27, 1905. He received his education in Russian schools and graduated in 1923. A year later, he moved to Warsaw (Poland) with his family. He studied at the Institute of Oriental Living Languages of Warsaw. He fought actively against Nazism during World War II and was a leading force in the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. He was arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where he remained …

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