MOMENTS IN TIME

The History Channel

* On April 5, 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indian confederacy, marries English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Va. Pocahontas had been kidnapped and used as a hostage for peace negotiations. By the time she was released, she had fallen in love with John Rolfe.

* On April 9, 1859, a 23-year-old Missouri youth named Samuel Langhorne Clemens receives his steamboat pilot’s license. During his time as a pilot, he picked up the term “Mark Twain,” a boatman’s call noting that the river was only 2 fathoms deep, the minimum depth for safe navigation. He used it as a pseudonym in his writing for nearly 50 years.

* On April 10, 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is founded in New York City by philanthropist and diplomat Henry Bergh. Bergh’s impassioned accounts of the horrors inflicted on animals convinced the New York State legislature to pass the ASPCA charter.

* On April 6, 1896, the Olympic Games, a long-lost tradition of ancient Greece, are reborn in Athens — 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed athletes from 13 nations to the international competition.

(c) 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.