Dikran Tahta
Maths teacher of Stephen Hawking Dikran Tahta was a British mathematician, teacher and author. He was also the maths teacher of Stephen Hawking. Early Life Dikran Tahta was a descendant of Istanbul-based Armenian family of cotton merchants. His father, Kevork Tahtabrounian, (1895–1980), settled in Manchester with his wife in 1927, after the First World War and the Armenian genocide, shortening his surname to Tahta. Kevork run […]
Agnes Joaquim (Ashkhen Hovakimian)
Inventor of Singapore’s national flower Ashkhen Hovakimian (Agnes Joaquim) was a Singaporean Armenian who bred Singapore’s first hybridised orchid hybrid, Vanda ‘Miss Joaquim’. Joaquim was inducted into the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame in 2015. Singapore’s national flower: Vanda ‘Miss Joaquim’ Papilionanthe Miss Joaquim, also known as the Singapore orchid, the Princess Aloha orchid and formerly as Vanda Miss Joaquim, is a hybrid orchid (a grex) that is the national flower of Singapore. For its […]
Aram Deukmedjian
Popularizes Yoghurt in France He grew up in Istanbul (Constantinople) on the Kurucesme estate. He was educated in Istanbul at the « Aramyan school », in 1902, where he was awarded a Turkish government scholarship in 1909 to study abroad. He decided to study in Paris, at the Sorbonne. In 1913, he obtained a licence es science. […]
Agrippina Vaganova
Inventor of the Vaganova method Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova was a Soviet and Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method – the technique which derived from the teaching methods of the old Imperial Ballet School (today the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) under the Premier Maître de Ballet Marius Petipa throughout the mid to late 19th century, though mostly throughout the 1880s and […]
Auguste Ponsot
Inventor of Armenian paper Armenian paper is a type of incense that has been produced for centuries. The paper is infused with essences, fragrances or essential oils in order to achieve a perfuming or cleansing effect. Examples of Armenian paper include Papier d’Arménie, which is produced in France, and Carta d’Armenia, which is produced in Italy. The scents from […]
Pasqua Rosée
Pionneer of Coffee Shops Pasqua Rosée (fl. 1651–1658) was a 17th-century servant who opened the first coffee-house in London and possibly Britain. He was born into the ethnic Greek Armenian community of the Republic of Ragusa (now southernmost Croatia). In 1651 he became the servant of Daniel Edwards, an English merchant of the Levant Company who […]
Cristoforo Armeno
Origin of Serendipity Cristoforo Armeno or Christopher the Armenian, born in Tabriz in the 16th century, was a translator of Persian. He is credited with the first translation from Persian into Italian of Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo (Travels and adventures of the three princes of Serendip), in its editio princeps […]
