BIRTH OF VARAZDAT HARUTIUNIAN

Varazdat Harutiunian was one of the best-known names in the study of Armenian architecture in Armenia during the second half of the twentieth century. He was born in Van on November 29, 1909. The Harutiunian family emigrated from Van after the heroic resistance of April-May 1915 against the Ottoman army during the Armenian Genocide. They first went to Etchmiadzin and then to Tiflis (nowadays Tbilisi). Varazdat Harutiunian studied at the local Armenian high school from 1919 to 1927 and then taught in two …

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DEATH OF LEVON MIRIJANIAN

Poet Levon Mirijanian had a wide literary and public activity in Armenia from the 1960s to the 2000s.
Mirijanian was born on January 22, 1933, in Yerevan. He finished the Khachatur Abovian high school in 1950 and the School of Armenian Language and Literature of Yerevan State University in 1955. In 1962 he passed the courses and exams for the Ph.D. program of the Institute of Literature Manuk Abeghian of …

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DEATH OF MIHRAN TOUMAJAN

Mihran Toumajan, one of the five disciples of Gomidas Vartabed, continued the work of his master for about forty years in the United States.
He was born on October 21, 1890, in the town of Gurin (province of Sepastia). He moved to Sepastia with his family in 1895 and pursued there his studies. Then, after moving to Constantinople in 1909, he entered the Law School of the University of Constantinople and graduated in 1913.

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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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