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Births on August 7

Billie Burke
1884Aug, 7

Billie Burke

Billie Burke, American actress and singer (d. 1970)
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie musical The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Burke was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live (1938). She is also remembered for her appearances in the Topper film series. Her unmistakably high-pitched, quivering and aristocratic voice, made her a frequent choice to play dimwitted or spoiled society types.

She was married to Broadway producer and impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. from 1914 until his death in 1932.

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Events on 1884

  • 27Mar

    Cincinnati riots of 1884

    A mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, attacks members of a jury which had returned a verdict of manslaughter in what was seen as a clear case of murder; over the next few days the mob would riot and eventually destroy the courthouse.
  • 20Apr

    Humanum genus

    Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus.
  • 14Oct

    Photographic film

    American inventor George Eastman receives a U.S. Government patent on his new paper-strip photographic film.
  • 22Oct

    Prime meridian (Greenwich)

    The Royal Observatory in Britain is adopted as the prime meridian of longitude by the International Meridian Conference.
  • 10Dec

    Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.