February 27th, 1531: German Protestants form the League of Schmalkalden to resist the power of the Holy Roman Emperor.
Bündnis zum Schutz der Reformation
Die protestantischen Reichsstände schließen am 27. Februar 1531 den Schmalkaldischen Bund zum Schutz des reformatorischen Glaubens gegen die katholische Religionspolitik Kaiser Karls V.
1531 Evangelical German monarchy/towns form Schmalkaldische Union
Die deutschen evangelischen Länder, Städte und Fürsten schließen sich gegen den aggressiven Katholizismus der Habsburger zum Schmalkaldischen Bund zusammen. Der Bund wird 1547 militärisch besiegt werden. 

Anderson did sing in Washington, D.C., on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It was Easter Sunday, 1939. 75,000 people showed up to hear her sing. Thousands more heard her sensational voice on a simultaneous radio broadcast. 

Marian Anderson, who was born in Philadelphia on this day in 1897, was destined to become one of the world’s finest contraltos. She began her singing career as a member of the Union Baptist Church choir. However, even a performance with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra could not dispel the racial hate that would prevent her from having a successful career in the United States. And so, Marian Anderson moved to Europe where she was accepted for her color and her magnificent voice and versatility. 

Marian Anderson was the first African-American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera [1955]. In 1958 she became an alternate U.S. delegate to the United Nations. In 1961, she came full circle. This time, she was invited to sing in Washington, D.C. -- at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. She was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, a Congressional Gold Medal in 1978, the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1984 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991. 

Marian Anderson passed away on April 8, 1993; but the sound of her voice will live forever. 

On this day in 1897 opera legend Marian Anderson was born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When prejudice prevented Anderson from realizing her dream of singing for an American opera company in the 1920s, she began a series of widely successful European concerts and recitals which made her the most acclaimed contralto in the world. After her famous (and perhaps apocryphal) snub by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939, Eleanor Roosevelt helped her organize the Lincoln Memorial concert which gained her further acceptance at home and led to her being the first African American to sing at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1955. 

 1910 - Joan (Geraldine) Bennett
actress: House of Dark Shadows, Father of the Bride, Woman in the Window, The Son of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask, Little Women [1933], Too Young to Go Steady; died Dec 7, 1990, geboren

 1910 - Ted Horn

 1927 - Guy Mitchell (Al Cernick)
singer: Singing the Blues, Heartaches by the Number, My Heart Cries for You, My Truly Truly Fair, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; actor: Red Garters; died July 1, 1999, geboren

 1962 - Grant Show