Indian Princess Pocahontas, a convert to Christianity, marries English colonist John Rolfe - April 5
1524 - Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli marries Anna Reinhart for the second time – this time in public. In 1522, Zwingli (and 10 other priests) appealed to the bishop of Constance for permission to marry. When the bishop refused the petition, Zwingli married secretly and, later that year, resigned from the priesthood (see issue 4: Ulrich Zwingli).
1614 - Indian Princess Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe. Pocahontas was captured and held for ransom by English colonists during hostilities in 1613. During her captivity, she converted to Christianity and was baptized under the name Rebecca.
1649 – John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay, dies. Profoundly religious, Winthrop, who left England because it persecuted Puritans, believed New England to be “a city upon a hill” for the world to see and emulate.
1735 - Death at Upminster of William Derham, a Church of England clergyman and scientist, who had measured the speed of sound with more accuracy than had been achieved before.
1803 - The first complete performance of Beethoven’s oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives takes place in Vienna.
1811 - Philanthropist Robert Raikes, founder of English Sunday schools in 1780, dies. Raikes built his Sunday schools not for respectable and well-mannered children of believers, but for (in one woman's description) "multitudes of wretches who, released on that day from employment, spend their day in noise and riot." In 4 years, 250,000 students were attending the schools, by Raikes's death, 500,000, and by 1831, 1.25 million. Raikes is regarded as the founder of the modern Sunday school movement.
1834 - Matthew Simpson rides away from the medical profession in Ohio to become a Methodist itinerant preacher. At the time he still struggles even to speak with people. However, he will become a notable educator and bishop.
1835 - Rama Varma, son of a Rajah, is baptized in India despite strong Hindu opposition. After several years of evangelistic and apologetic work, he will die at the age of 42.
1922 - Death in Bombay of Indian intellectual, evangelist, and philanthropist Pandita Ramabai.
– Sources: Christian History Institute, christianitytoday.com