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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Krikor Odian was born in Scutari. His father was the secretary of palace architect Krikor Balian. After his early schooling with his father, Krikor continued his studies with brothers Kapriel and Khachadur Bardizbanian. Later, he attended the private school of Gabriel Utujian, who would soon become the founding editor of the influential newspaper Masis. He also took private lessons of Ottoman Turkish and French. In the 1850s, Odian moved in the circles of the Armenian reformist intellectuals and political figures like Nahabed Rusinian, Mgrdich Beshigtashlian, Krikor Aghaton and others.
A scion of the Gulbenkian family, Roberto Gulbenkian was not only a remarkable name in the history of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, based in Portugal, but also a well-regarded scholar of Armenian Studies. Gulbenkian was born on April 7, 1923, in Algiers (capital of Algeria). He was the third son of Vahan Gulbenkian (brother of Calouste, the famous Mr. Five Per Cent) and Francoise Trillat-Gulbenkian.
Roupen Herian was born in Tokat in 1869. After graduating from the local school in 1883 he left for Constantinople, before moving to Boston in 1900 and then to New York, where he engaged successfully in the tobacco industry. He had become a member of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party when he was still in Tokat, and after the division of the party in 1896, he sided with the Reorganized Hunchakian Party. He joined the Armenian General Benevolent Union …
The Council of Ephesus is the third ecumenical council, after those of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), accepted by the Armenian Church. It was held over several sessions in 431 at the Church of Mary in Ephesus, Asia Minor (nowadays western Turkey). The council was called after Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria appealed Pope Celestine I to condemn Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople for heresy due to …
Author, Sargis Baghdasarian, was born on September 5, 1923, in the village of Banadzor in the district of Hadrut (Artsakh). His family moved to Yerevan, and he continued his studies at the Pushkin School and the sculpture group of the Pioneers (Soviet version of the boy scouts) Palace “Ghukas Ghukasian.” He participated in the republican exhibition “Our Young Creators” and won the first prize…
