#81 Armenian History timeline.

4000 BCE

Earliest known winery

The region of Vayots Dzor claims to be home to the oldest winery in the world, in operation some 6,100 years ago. Discovered in 2007, the Areni-1 cave complex held evidence of large-scale wine production and the likely domestication of vines.
3627 BCE

Areni-1 Leather Shoe

The Areni-1 shoe is a 5,500-year-old leather shoe that was found in 2008 in excellent condition in the Areni-1 cave located in the Vayots Dzor province of Armenia.
2400 BCE

Noah's Ark

The Book of Genesis identifies the land of Ararat as the resting place of Noah's Ark after the "great deluge" described there. The Indo-Europeans were people who presumably spread from the Caucasus, settling on lands along the way. Armenian is one of the Indo-European language branches.
2300 BCE

Hayk Nahapet

The warrior-king Hayk organizes the Armens against the invading forces of the tyrant Bel of Babylon attacking from the south, from Mesopotamia into the highlands of Ararat. The battle takes place near Lake Van. Haik fires a triple-headed broad arrow from his longbow directly into the chest of Bel. The ample arrow splits the breastplate of Bel, who mortally wounded, falls to the ground. Bel's soldiers flee the battlefield. Haik calls on his kinsmen to unite into one single nation
2000 BCE

Trialeti-Vanadzor culture

It is attributed to the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. Trialeti culture emerged in the areas of the preceding Kura-Araxes culture.
Period: 860 BCE to 590 BCE

Kingdom of Ararat
Period: 860 BCE to 590 BCE

Kingdom of Van (Urartu)

Urartu is a geographical region commonly used as the exonym for the Iron Age kingdom also known by the modern rendition of its endonym, the Kingdom of Van, centered around Lake Van in the historic Armenian Highlands. The kingdom rose to power in the mid-9th century BC, but went into gradual decline and was eventually conquered by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century BC
782 BCE

Foundation of Erebuni

Urartian king Argishti the First founded Erebuni, the military and administrative center of the state of Urartu
512 BCE

Annexion to Persia by Darius I

Armenia is annexed to Persia by Darius I. Urartu is officially called Armenia for the first time in the Behistun inscription.
510 BCE

Aramazd

Aramazd was regarded as a generous god of fertility, rain, and abundance, as well as the father of the other gods, including Anahit, Mihr, and Nane. The main sanctuary of Aramazd was located in Kamax in northern Armenia. Another sanctuary of Aramazd was located in Bagavan (now Turkey).
500 BCE

Vardavar

Armenian Festival, where people release doves and sprinkle water on each other with wishes of health and good luck. Although now a Christian tradition, celebrating the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, Vardavar's history dates back to pagan times. The ancient festival is traditionally associated with the goddess Astghik. The name comes from vart "rose" and var "to burn/be burning", this is why it was celebrated in the harvest time in mid-July. Nowadays is celebrated 98 days after Easter.
500 BCE

Vahagn

Vahagn the Dragon Reaper was the god of fire, thunder, and war. He was identified with the Greek deity Heracles. He had blonde hair, flaming beard and sparkling eyes. Vahagn was the Armenian god of storm and lightning of whom the kings and generals were praying bravery. Vahagn’s main sanctuary was located in Ashtishat (Turkey) - the holy center of Ancient Armenia.
500 BCE

Astghik

Astghik, the goodness of love and water and whose cult was associated with the planet Arusyak (Venus), was Vahagni’s lover. Her temple was in Ashtishat and was called “Vahagn’s room”. They were portraying Astghik as a naked and swimming beautiful girl. She was swimming in the river Euphrates every night. Many boys were hiding to see her, but she covered the Taron valley with fog to stop them to do so. One tradition holds her as Noah's daughter, born after the great flood.
490 BCE

Anahit

Anahit was the goddess of fertility and healing, wisdom and water in Armenian mythology. In early periods she was the goddess of war. In Armenia, Anahit-worship was established in Erez and Ashtishat (Turkey) and Armavir and Artashat (Armenia). She was the mother goddess and was depicted with a child in her hands, covered with a typical Armenian headscarf to the shoulders.
490 BCE

Nane

Nane, was an Armenian mother goddess, as well as the goddess of war and wisdom. Nane was depicted as a young beautiful woman in the clothing of a warrior, with spear and shield in hand, as the Greek Athena. Her cult was closely associated with the cult of the goddess Anahit. The temple of the goddess Nane was in the town of Thil in Erzincan (Turkey) across from the Lycus River.
490 BCE

Mihr

Mihr, was the son and light god. His main temple was located in the Bagaharich village of the Derjan region (Turkey). The ancient pagan temple of Garni was built as a temple to the sun god Mihr.
405 BCE

Mesrop Mashtots invents the Armenian alphabet
387 BCE

Vardan Mamikonian

Vardan Mamikonian was an Armenian military leader, a martyr and a saint of the Armenian Church. He is best known for leading the Armenian army at the Battle of Avarayr in 451, which ultimately secured the Armenians' right to practice Christianity.
331 BCE

Independence from Persia

Alexander the Great attacks Persia and defeats Darius III, but never conquers Armenia. As a result, Armenia regains its independence from Persia.
Period: 321 BCE to 200 BCE

1. Orontid dynasty (Eruandid or Yervanduni)
Period: 321 BCE to 428

Kingdom of Armenia (Kingdom of Greater Armenia)
Period: 189 BCE to 12

2. Artaxiad dynasty
Period: 2 BCE to 58

Roman and Parthian

The Parthian Empire also known as the Arsacid Empire was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran
Period: 59 to 428

3. Arsacid dynasty or Arshakuni
257

Gregory the Illuminator
301

Christianity

Armenia becomes the first official Christian state in the world, King Tiridates III proclaims Christianity as the official state religion of Armenia. Zoroastrianism starts to decline gradually.
Period: 387 to 536

Byzantine Armenia (Western Armenia)
Period: 428 to 884

Presiding Marzbans and Princes of Armenia

Marzbān, were a class of margraves, warden of the marches, and by extension military commanders, in charge of border provinces of the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD) and mostly Sasanian Empire (224–651 AD) of Iran.
552

Armenian calendar

The Armenian calendar is the calendar traditionally used in Armenia, primarily during the medieval ages. The Armenian month names are: nawasard, hoṙi, sahmi, trē, kʿałocʿ, aracʿ, mehekan, areg, ahekan, mareri, margacʿ, hroticʿ, aweleacʿ. Navasard is the first month of the Armenian calendar, starting on 11 August and ending on 9 September. In ancient Armenia, the first day of Navasard was a holiday, held in honor of Anahit. The sick went to the temples asking for recovery.
610

Tsovinar

Tsovinar or Nar was the Armenian goddess of water, sea, and rain. She was a fierce goddess, who forced the rain to fall from the heavens with her fury. Her name, Tsovinar, means "daughter of the seas". Also identified as the princess Tsovinar, who agreed to marry the Muslim Caliph of Baghdad in order to save her father's kingdom. She conceives the divine twins Sanasar and Bagdasar on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land after quenching her thirst from a sacred spring.
630

Sanasar

Son of Tsovinar and father of Mher. One day he and his twin go to the sacred spring, where her mother conceived them. Sanasar asks Baghdasar to jump in the spring, but he refuses. Sanasar bravely jumps in the spring and falls into an underground kingdom. A miracle happens, the Holy Mother of God (Surb Astvatsatsin) hands over to Sanasar three invulnerable weapons and armor: a magical lightning sword; the divine warhorse Kurkik Jalalik, and the Battle Cross. The boys built the city of Sasun.
639

The first Arab invasion

The first Arab invasion under the leadership of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah devastates the region of Taron.
650

Khazar–Arab Wars & Byzantine–Arab Wars

Armenia becomes the main battleground of the Khazar–Arab Wars & Byzantine–Arab Wars which leaves the lands depopulated.
650

Great Mher, Lion of Sassoun

Son of Sanasar and father of David. Mher had inhuman strength and could uproot trees. Mher used his strength for the sake and welfare of the native people. Mher killed a lion, that had invaded Sasun, blocking the road leading to the wells and almost starving people, with his bare hands. Mher goes to Egypt to fight Mira Melik in one-on-one combat. After seeing they're evenly matched, they become blood brothers. After Mira Melik' death he fathers a son with his widow, David.
670

David of Sassoun (Sasuntsi Davit)

David, son of Mher, was placed in the care of Ismil-Chatun, widow of the Sultan of Mysr, after Mher's death and nursed and raised on honey and milk. He returns to Sasun, which has suffered demands for tribute that Arab troops are trying to collect. With his supernatural miracle weapons, he drove Arab invaders out, rebuilt the temple of the mother of the gods, Maruta, and returns the treasures stolen by the Arabs to the Armenians.
690

Little Mher,

Little Mher, is born to David and Lady Khandut in Tabriz (Iran, former Azerbaijan). He kills his 5 uncles from Tabriz who had angered him. When his father learns this, he fights him and an Angel renders Mher infertile at his father's request. Mher and his Georgian wife go to Azerbaijan, where he is king for 7 years. At the end of his life, he splits a rock in Agravakar in two and enters the mountain, the rock closes and imprisons him forever. He shall come out when there are no lies in the world
Period: 800 to 925

Kingdom of Vaspurakan
Period: 885 to 1045

Bagratid dynasty (Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia)
886

Armenian sovereignty by Constantinople

Formal recognition of Armenian sovereignty by Constantinople.
Period: 908 to 1021

Artsruni dynasty
Period: 987 to 1179

Siunia dynasty
1025

Gagik II of Armenia

Gagik II was the last Armenian king of the Bagratuni dynasty. Known as Gagik II, King of Ani, a juvenile at the time, he was enthroned as Gagik II and ruled for a brief period from 1042 to 1045 before the Bagratid dynasty rule collapsed in Armenia.
1045

Armenia falls to Byzantine troops

Armenia falls to Byzantine troops, and an exodus from the Armenian lands begins.
Period: 1045 to 1064

Armenia annexed by the Byzantine Empire
1064

Destruction of Byzantine Ani by the Turks

Byzantine Ani, once the capital of Bagratid Armenia, is conquered and destroyed by the Seljuk Turks.
Period: 1064 to 1072

Turko-Persian Seljuk Empire

Armenia annexed by the Turko-Persian Seljuk Empire
Period: 1072 to 1199

Armenia annexed by the Muslim Shaddadids
Period: 1080 to 1375

Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia

It was an Armenian state formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia. Located outside the Armenian Highlands and distinct from the Kingdom of Armenia of antiquity, it was centered in the Cilicia region northwest of the Gulf of Alexandretta.
Period: 1118 to 1430

Bagrationi dynasty
Period: 1137 to 1145

Byzantine Rule
Period: 1198 to 1252

Rubenian dynasty
Period: 1226 to 1341

Hethumid dinasty
Period: 1241 to 1244

Mongol Invasion of Anatolia

Mongol Invasion of Anatolia, much of the sedentary population of Armenia is slaughtered. (to 1244)
1266

Disaster of Mari

The Mamluks defeat the Armenians at the disaster of Mari.
Period: 1341 to 1375

Houses of Lusignan and Hethum-Neghir
1400

Timur/ Tamerlane's invasion

Tamerlane's devastating invasion of Georgia, Armenia and Central Anatolia leads to the slaughter of large portions of the population of Armenia and the enslavement of over 60,000 people from Anatolia and the Caucasus.
1460

Mehmed II conquered Cilicia
1478

Armenian migration to Bruges, Belgium

Mehmet II moved many Armenians to Constantinople, where the conditions were so unbearable that they migrated to Bruges. By 1478 Armenians had established a hospice mainly related to the trade of carpets in Bruges. Armenian merchants also started importing cotton goods, spices, perfumes, and other materials from the Orient and exporting European goods to markets in the East.
1501

Safavid dynasty (Persian, Iranian)

The Safavid Dynasty is established in Persia, that conquers Armenia.
Period: 1501 to 1639

Safavid-Ottoman (Turco-Iranian) division of Armenia

In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid dynasty of Iran divided Armenia. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell to the Safavid Empire. From the mid 16th century with the Peace of Amasya, and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century, Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule.
1514

The Ottoman-Persian Wars

The Ottoman-Persian Wars rage in the Armenian Highlands for the first time, the Ottomans temporarily gain Western Armenia.
Period: 1532 to 1555

Ottoman-Safavid War

Ottoman-Safavid War (1532-1555) commences.
1567

Armenian printing press

Establishment of Armenian printing press in Constantinople.
Period: 1603 to 1605

Shah Abbas of Persia

Shah Abbas of Persia invades Ottoman Armenia (to 1618) and reestablishes full control over Eastern Armenia and large parts of Western Armenia as part of his empire.When forced to abandon the siege of Kars, Shah Abbas orders the complete destruction of many Armenian towns and villages and deports over 300,000 Armenians to Persia, of which only half survive.
Period: 1603 to 1822

Five Melikdoms of Karabakh (Khamsa Melikdoms)

Melikdoms were Armenian feudal entities on the territory of modern Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring lands, from the dissolution of the Principality of Khachen in the 15th century to the abolition of ethnic feudal entities by the Russian Empire in 1822.
The five Armenian principalities (melikdoms) in Karabakh were:
Gulistan, Jraberd, Khachen, Varanda and Dizak.
1648

Major earthquake in Van
1747

Karabakh Khanate

The Persians establish the Karabakh Khanate, a political entity ruled by a khan, on the territories of modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan
1809

Khachatur Abovian

Khachatur Abovian, renowned novelist, poet, and playwright, is born.
1817

Ivan Aivazovsky

Russian Romantic painter who is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Baptized as Hovhannes Aivazian, he was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there.
1827

Occupation of Yerevan by Russian forces
1828

Treaty of Turkmanchay

Eastern Armenia is forcefully ceded by Persia to Russia per the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), strengthening Russian control of Transcaucasus.
Period: 1828 to 1917

Russian Armenia

Russian Armenia is the period of Armenian history under Russian rule from 1828, when Eastern Armenia became part of the Russian Empire following Qajar Iran's loss in the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) and the subsequent ceding of its territories that included Eastern Armenia per the out coming Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828.
Eastern Armenia remained part of the Russian Empire until its collapse in 1917.
1840

Garegin Srvandztiants

Armenian philologist, folklorist, ethnographer, and ecclesiastic.
1864

Hovhannes Hovhannisyan

Armenian poet, linguist, translator and educator. He was a key contributor to the Ashkharabar literature movement and a promoter of literacy in Armenia. He has been called the founder of Classic Armenian poetry.
1869

Hovhannes Tumanyan

He is the national poet of Armenia. Tumanyan wrote poems, quatrains, ballads, novels, fables, and critical and journalistic articles
1869

Soghomon Soghomonian, Komitas

Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer, and choirmaster, who is considered the founder of the Armenian national school of music.
1870

Kevork Chavush

Armenian fedayee leader in the Ottoman Empire and a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
1871

Alexander Afanasyevich Spendiarov (Spendiaryan)

Armenian and Soviet music composer, conductor, founder of Armenian national symphonic music
1873

Daredevils of Sassoun by Srvandztiants

Armenia's national epic Daredevils of Sassoun dates back to the 8th century, and was first put in written form in 1873 by Garegin Srvandztiants. It is performed annually on the first Saturday of October (Epic Day holiday) and major national cultural events. Usually the epos teller sits, wearing national costume and is accompanied on the duduk, a woodwind instrument.
1875

Avetik Isahakyan

He was a prominent Armenian lyric poet, writer and public activist.
1878

Alexander Tamanyan

Armenian neoclassical architect, well known for his work in the city of Yerevan.
1879

Aram Manukian

Armenian revolutionary, statesman, and a leading member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party. He is widely regarded as the founder of the First Republic of Armenia.
1880

Martiros Saryan

He was a Soviet Armenian painter, the founder of a modern Armenian national school of painting.
1886

Rupen Chilingiryan Sevag

Armenian poet, prose-writer, and doctor
1890

Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Armenian nationalist and socialist political party founded in 1890 in Tiflis, Russian Empire by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian. The ARF has always maintained its ideological commitment to "a Free, Independent, and United Armenia".
1891

Hamo Beknazarian

Beknazarian was a Soviet Armenian film director, actor and screenwriter. He shot many films in Tbilisi, including Patricide and Lost Treasures. In 1925, he shot his first Armenian film and moved to Armenia. In 1933, he shot the first Armenian sound film Pepo. In 1941, Beknazarian was awarded the Stalin Prize. Besides feature films, he also shot a few documentaries.
1894

Armenian fedayi

Armenian civilians who voluntarily left their families to form self-defense units and irregular armed bands in reaction to the mass murder of Armenians and the pillage of Armenian villages by criminals, Kurdish gangs and Turkish forces, and Hamidian guards during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in late 19th and early 20th centuries, known as the Hamidian massacres.
Period: 1894 to 1896

Hamidian Massacres

Hamidian Massacres; an estimated 80,000–300,000 are killed.
1897

Yeghishe Charents

He was an Armenian poet, writer and public activist. Charents' literary subject matter ranged from his experiences in the First World War, socialist revolution, and frequently Armenia and Armenians.
1900

Mark Grigorian

Mark Grigorian was a Soviet Armenian neoclassical architect
1901

Gevorg Kochar

Soviet architect of Armenian origin. While he followed modernism in his student days, he adapted to socialist classicism in the 1930s to 1950s . From the 1960s he returned to a modern design language.
1903

Aram Khachaturian

He is considered one of the leading Soviet composers.
1906

Missak Manouchian

French-Armenian poet and communist activist. An Armenian genocide survivor, he moved to France from an orphanage in Lebanon in 1925. He was active in communist Armenian literary circles.
1908

William Saroyan

Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy.
1908

Viktor Ambartsumian

Soviet Armenian astrophysicist and science administrator. One of the 20th century's top astronomers, he is widely regarded as the founder of theoretical astrophysics in the Soviet Union.
1909

Adana Massacre

Adana Massacre: An estimated 15,000–30,000 are killed.
1909

Khoren Der Harootian

Armenian-American sculptor and painter
1915

Armenian Genocide

The Armenians were a primarily Christian ethnic group who had lived in Eastern Anatolia (Eastern Turkey) for centuries. As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed in what was the Ottoman Empire during World War I. In an effort to "solve the Armenian problem," Ottoman troops led hundreds of thousands of Armenians on forced marches into the Syrian desert to Deir ez-Zor, little to no food and water was provided on these ‘death marches’ and those who could not keep up or continue were executed.
1915

Concentration Camps (Death Camps)

Those who survived the death marches were imprisoned in camps, such as Deir ez-Zor or Ras al-Ayn, where conditions were extremely poor and many thousands died of disease and malnutrition.
1915

Sero Khanzadyan

Armenian writer and novelist
Apr 24, 1915

Forced exodus to rid Turkey of Armenians

As anti-Armenian sentiment became increasingly violent, raids were carried out in Istanbul where authorities arrested and deported thousands of intellectuals belonging to the Armenian elite. In May, the Ottoman army began the mass deportation of all remaining Armenians from the eastern regions of the empire, claiming they might aid invading Russian troops.
1918

The Bolshevik government

The Bolshevik government in Baku was established
1918

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gives Kars, Ardahan and Batum regions to the Ottoman Empire.
1918

First Republic of Armenia

The Armenian Congress of Eastern Armenians declares the first Republic of Armenia.
1918

Armistice of Mudros

The Ottoman State lost the First World War and then agreed to a ceasefire with the Armistice of Mudros, agreeing to leave the Transcaucasus. The Democratic Republic of Armenia assumes control of Western Armenia, now that the Ottomans are forced to leave.
1918

Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic

The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR;[a] 22 April – 28 May 1918)[b] was a short-lived state in the Caucasus that included most of the territory of present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, as well as parts of Russia and Turkey. The state lasted only for a month before Georgia declared independence, followed shortly after by Armenia and Azerbaijan.
1918

Defeat of the Ottoman Empire WW1

Though the Ottoman Empire—in a period of relative decline—had initially aimed to stay neutral in World War I, it soon concluded an alliance with Germany and entered the war on the side of the Central Powers in October 1914. The Turks fought fiercely and successfully defended the Gallipoli Peninsula against a massive Allied invasion in 1915-1916, but by 1918 defeat by invading British and Russian forces and an Arab revolt had combined to destroy the Ottoman economy and devastate its land
1920

Fall of the first Republic of Armenia

Fall of the first Republic of Armenia, fully occupied by the Turkish National Movement and the Red Army (Soviet Union).
1920

Turkish–Armenian war

It was a conflict between the First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish National Movement following the collapse of the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. Remnants of the Ottoman Army’s XV Corps under the command of Kâzım Karabekir attacked Armenian forces controlling the area surrounding Kars. He had orders to "eliminate Armenia physically and politically". Nearly 100,000 Armenians were massacred in Transcaucasia by the Turkish army, and another 100,000 fled from Cilicia during the French withdrawal.
1920

Red Army invasion of Armenia

It was a military campaign carried out by the 11th Army of Soviet Russia from September to 29 November 1920 to install a new Soviet government in the First Republic of Armenia, a former territory of the Russian Empire.
1920

Treaty of Sèvres

After the Ottoman State lost the First World War signed the peace agreement of Sèvres. The signatories agreed to let US President Wilson determine the boundary between Turkey and Armenia, which would pass through the provinces of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis and prescribe an outlet for Armenia to the Black Sea. Turkey renounced any claim to the ceded land.
Period: 1920 to 1991

Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic

It was established in December 1920, when the Soviets took over control of the short-lived First Republic of Armenia and lasted until 1991. It is sometimes called the Second Republic of Armenia, following the First Republic of Armenia's demise.
1921

Arno Babajanian

He was a Soviet and Armenian composer and pianist. He was made a People's Artist of the USSR in 1971.
1922

Ohan Durian

Armenian conductor and composer.
1923

Armenian SSR annexed to the Soviet Union

Establishment of the Soviet Union; Armenian SSR annexed to the Soviet Union.
1923

Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast

Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast is created granting Armenian autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan SSR.
1924

Charles Aznavour

Franco-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat.
1924

Paruyr Sevak

Armenian poet, translator and literary critic. He is considered one of the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century
1924

Serhii Parajanov

Soviet Armenian film director, screenwriter and artist who made seminal contribution to world cinema with his films Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and The Color of Pomegranates. Parajanov is regarded by film critics, film historians, and filmmakers to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in cinema history.
1929

Arman Manaryan

Iranian-born Armenian film director. He was the brother of actor Yervand Manaryan. He repatriated to Soviet Armenia in 1946 and graduated from the Yerevan State Conservatory in 1952 and from the Moscow Institute of Cinematography in 1962.
1929

Tigran Petrosian

Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet Armenian Grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran".
1930

Mher Mkrttschjan

Mher Musheghi Mkrtchyan better known by the name Frunzik, was an Armenian stage and film actor. Mkrtchyan is widely considered one of the greatest actors of the Soviet period among Armenians and the USSR as a whole. He received the prestigious People's Artist of the USSR award in 1984.
1935

Hrant Matevosyan

Armenian writer and script writer. By the time of his death he was considered Armenia's "most prominent and accomplished contemporary novelist".
1945

Ruben Gevorkyants

Ruben Gevorkyants was born on November 30, 1945 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, USSR [now Armenia]. He was a director and writer, known for Islands (1987), Requiem (1989) and Autumn of the Magician (2009). He died on June 23, 2017 in Yerevan, Armenia.
1959

Vazgen Sargsyan

Armenian military commander and politician. He was the first Defence Minister of Armenia from 1991 to 1992 and then from 1995 to 1999. He served as Armenia's Prime Minister from 11 June 1999 until his assassination on 27 October of that year. He rose to prominence during the mass movement for the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia in the late 1980s and led Armenian volunteer groups during the early clashes with Azerbaijani forces.
1967

Serj Tankian

Armenian-American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, and political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, keyboardist, and occasional rhythm guitarist of heavy metal band System of a Down, which was formed in 1994.
1988

First Nagorno-Karabakh War

First Nagorno-Karabakh War commences.
Dec 7, 1988

Spitak earthquake

Earthquake with a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating). Between 25,000 and 50,000 were killed and up to 130,000 were injured.
1990

Declaration of State Sovereignty of Armenia (Third Republic of Armenia)

The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Armenia was signed by Armenia's president Levon Ter-Petrossian and Supreme Council of Armenia secretary Ara Sahakian on August 23, 1990 in Yerevan.
1991

Armenian independence referendum

First-ever Armenian presidential election, Levon Ter-Petrosyan elected President with overwhelming popular support.
Feb 9, 1991

Republic of Artsakh (formerly the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, NKR)

Artsakh is a breakaway state in the South Caucasus supported by Armenia, whose territory is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
1992

Capture of Shusha

The Battle of Shusha was the first significant military victory by Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The battle took place in the strategically important mountain town of Shusha on the evening of May 8, 1992, and fighting swiftly concluded the next day after Armenian forces captured it and drove out the defending Azerbaijanis.
Jan 12, 2015

Gyumri massacre

The Gyumri massacre was a mass murder of seven members of the Armenian Avetisyan family. The suspect, Valery Permyakov, a Russian serviceman from the Russian 102nd Military Base, was apprehended by the Armenia-based Russian Border Guards near the border with Turkey and brought into custody at the Gyumri base for further investigation under the Russian jurisdiction. The existence of a Russian military base in Armenia is controversial. Permyakov confessed to the crime and was sentenced to life.
2018

Armenian Velvet Revolution

Anti-government protests in Armenia staged by various political and civil groups led by a member of the Armenian parliament — Nikol Pashinyan. Protests and marches took place initially in response to Serzh Sargsyan's third consecutive term. As a response Parliament held elections for a new Prime Minister, with the opposition leader Pashinyan as the only nominee. He won with a 59–42 margin
May 8, 2018

Nikol Pashinyan elected prime Minister

He was sentenced to seven years in prison for "organizing mass disorders" on 1–2 March 2008. He was released from Artik prison on 27 May 2011 in accordance with the general amnesty declared by the government. He was elected prime minister in 2018. On 25 April 2021, Pashinyan announced his formal resignation from his post of prime minister to allow snap parliamentary elections in June.
2020

Second Nagorno-Karabakh war

The main combatants were Azerbaijan, with support from Turkey, Russia and foreign mercenary groups on one side; and the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh and Armenia, on the other. Following the capture of Shusha, a “peace” agreement was signed. Azerbaijan kept all the areas they held at the end of the war, gained transport communication to its Nakhchivan exclave bordering Turkey and Iran. Armenia returned the surrounding territories it had occupied since 1994 Azerbaijan.