Tragedy struck on November 10, 1997, when the 5-ton coliseum scoreboard dropped while it was being lowered, landing on and killing Billie Wayne Garrett, a rodeo volunteer from Columbia, SC.

Engagements with Lionel Hampton, Slim & Slam, T-Bone Walker, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan and six years with Lena Horne established him as a jazz drummer, and he struck out on his own as a bandleader in 1955.

From 1955, Billy Bunter comic strips were published in Holland, in the Dutch language comic Sjors, with the character renamed " Billie Turf ".

* 1884 – Billie Burke, American actress ( d. 1970 )

* 1915 – Billie Holiday, American singer and songwriter ( d. 1959 )

* 1908 – Billie Bird, American actress ( d. 2002 )

* 1943 – Billie Jean King, American tennis player

* 1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in The Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

* April 20 – Billie Holiday records " Strange Fruit ", the first anti-lynching song.

* July 17 – Billie Holiday, American singer ( b. 1915 )

* August 7 – Billie Burke, American actress ( d. 1970 )

* March 25 – Motown celebrates its 25th anniversary and has the television special Motown 25 during which Michael Jackson performed " Billie Jean " and introduces to the world the moonwalk.

Her mother, Billie ( née Early ), is an import-export agent, and her father, Emilio Diaz ( 1949 – 2008 ), worked for the California oil company UNOCAL for more than 20 years as a field gauger.

* Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet ( 1950 ) – as himself

* Judy Holliday – Billie Dawn

* Madeline Kahn – Billie Dawn

* Billie Joe Armstrong – lead vocals, guitar

* Billie Letts – Author of No. 1 New York Times bestseller and Oprah Winfrey Book Club selection Where the Heart Is ( Warner, 1996 ), made into a 2000 film of the same title, starring Ashley Judd and Natalie Portman.

* Billie Smith – Mitzi Green

* Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport – Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday

* Billie Holiday Sings – Billie Holiday

*# US Open – Billie Jean King

*# Wimbledon – Billie Jean King

* 20 September – In the famed Battle of the sexes at Houston's Astrodome – Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in 3straight sets.

The 2008 season also featured the " Liberty Outdoor Classic ", the first ever professional regular season basketball game to be played outdoors, on July 19 at Arthur Ashe Stadium of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Upon Henin's first retirement from the WTA in the early part of the 2008 season, Billie Jean King said that " pound for pound, Henin is the best tennis player of her generation ", as well as that " Justine is the best women's athlete I've ever seen.

* 2008 Billie Award in Breakthrough and Innovation.

In 2008, Weatherford published her first poetic novel for young adults, Becoming Billie Holiday, about the development of the artist who she refers to as her muse.

In July 2008, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and Arthur Ashe Stadium hosted its first ever non-tennis event, when the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association ( WNBA ) played in the " Liberty Outdoor Classic: 2008 ".

In 2008, the Los Angeles-based rock group Warpaint performed a version of the song on their EP Exquisite Corpse ( EP ) under the title " Billie Holliday ".

When the radio station was rebranded as " Toronto Virgin Radio " on August, 2008, their morning show was rebranded as " The Breakfast Show with Mad Dog and Billie ".

The remaining Mouseketeers, consisting of the White or Blue Teams, were Don Agrati ( later known as Don Grady when starring as " Robbie " on the long running sitcom My Three Sons ), Sherry Alberoni, Billie Jean Beanblossom, Johnny Crawford, Jonathan A. Kahn ( a. k. a. Tio Juan ), Eileen Diamond, Dickie Dodd ( not related to Jimmie Dodd ), Mary Espinosa, Bonnie Lynn Fields, Judy Harriet, Linda Hughes, Dallas Johann, John Lee Johann, Bonni Lou Kern, Charlie Laney, Larry Larsen, Paul Petersen, Lynn Ready, Mickey Rooney Jr., Tim Rooney, Mary Lynn Sartori, Bronson Scott, Michael Smith, Margene Storey, Ronnie Steiner, Mark Sutherland and Don Underhill.

Once at the studio, producer Milt Gabler ( Uncle of actor Billy Crystal, who had produced Louis Jordan as well as Billie Holiday ), insisted the band work on a song entitled " Thirteen Women ( and Only One Man in Town )" ( previously written and recorded by Dickie Thompson ), which Gabler wanted to promote as the A-side of the group's first single for Decca.

The Women's Tennis Association ( WTA ), founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King, is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis.

Many artists made their mark with pop standards, particularly interpreters like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Frankie Laine, Nat King Cole ( originally known for his jazz piano virtuosity ), Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Vic Damone, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mel Tormé, Sarah Vaughan, Eydie Gormé, Andy Williams, Nancy Wilson, Jack Jones, Rita Reys, Steve Lawrence and Cleo Laine.

* " Invincible " ( Theme from The Legend of Billie Jean ), by Pat Benatar from Seven the Hard Way

* Vertigo ( Billie Myers album ), 2000

Artists signed to American Decca in the 1930s and 1940s included Louis Armstrong, Charlie Kunz, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Jane Froman, The Boswell Sisters, Billie Holiday, The Andrews Sisters, Ted Lewis, Judy Garland, The Mills Brothers, Billy Cotton, Guy Lombardo, Chick Webb, Louis Jordan ( the No. 1 R & B artist of the 1940s ), Bob Crosby, Bill Kenny & The Ink Spots, Dorsey Brothers ( and subsequently Jimmy Dorsey after the brothers split ), Connee Boswell and Jack Hylton, Victor Young, Earl Hines, Claude Hopkins, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the original ' soul sister ' of recorded music.

She made four films in close succession with William Powell: Libeled Lady ( 1936 ), which also starred Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy, The Great Ziegfeld ( 1936 ), in which she played Billie Burke opposite Powell's Florenz Ziegfeld, the second " Thin Man " film, After the Thin Man with Powell and James Stewart, and the romantic comedy Double Wedding ( 1937 ).

* Body and Soul ( Billie Holiday album ), 1957

** Michael Brooks, Michael Cuscuna ( producers ), Matt Cavaluzzo, Harry Coster, Seth Foster, Darcy Proper, Ken Robertson & Mark Wilder ( engineers ) for Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933-1944

The main objective of Motown's relocation was to branch out into the motion picture industry, and Motown Productions got its start in film by turning out two hit vehicles for Diana Ross: the Billie Holiday biographical film Lady Sings the Blues ( 1972 ), and Mahogany ( 1975 ).

* Billie " Buckwheat " Thomas ( 1931 – 1980 ), actor

Versions have been recorded by Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Tommy Dorsey, Tex Beneke with The Glenn Miller Orchestra ( Recorded in New York City on February 1, 1947 and released by RCA Victor Records as catalogue number 20-2016B and by EMI on the His Master's Voice label as catalogue number BD 5968 ), Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Jan Garber, Fumio Nanri, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, Connie Francis, Jean Sablon, Keely Smith, Terumasa Hino, Harry Connick Jr, Ella Fitzgerald, Olavi Virta, The Peanuts, Django Reinhardt, Barry Manilow, John Coltrane, Earl Grant, Willie Nelson, Billy Ward and His Dominoes, George Benson, Mina, Ken Hirai, Los Hombres Calientes and many others.

She made two further comebacks against Durr ( 2 – 6, 6 – 2, 6 – 3 ) and Lesley Hunt ( 4 – 6, 6 – 2, 6 – 3 ), both seasoned professionals, before losing to Billie Jean King in a semifinal ( 6 – 3, 6 – 2 ).

She was chosen as the year-end number one over her closest rivals, Billie Jean King and Evonne Goolagong, each of whom had 6 titles including a Grand Slam ( King the U. S. Open and Goolagong the Australian ), by the leading experts and authorities of the day, except Bud Collins.

During her career versus selected rivals, Evert was: 40 – 6 against Virginia Wade, 37 – 43 against Martina Navratilova, 26 – 13 against Evonne Goolagong Cawley, 24 – 0 against Virginia Ruzici, 23 – 1 against Sue Barker, 22 – 0 against Betty Stöve, 22 – 1 against Rosemary Casals, 21 – 7 against Hana Mandlíková, 20 – 1 against Wendy Turnbull, 19 – 7 against Billie Jean King ( winning the last 11 matches with a loss of only 2 sets ), 19 – 3 against Pam Shriver, 18 – 2 against Kerry Melville Reid, 17 – 2 against Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 17 – 2 against Helena Suková, 17 – 3 against Andrea Jaeger, 16 – 3 against Dianne Fromholtz Balestrat, 15 – 0 against Olga Morozova, 13 – 0 against Françoise Durr, 9 – 4 against Margaret Court, 8 – 9 against Tracy Austin, 7 – 0 against Mary Joe Fernandez, 6 – 3 against Gabriela Sabatini, 6 – 5 against Nancy Richey Gunter ( winning the last 6 matches ), 6 – 8 against Steffi Graf ( losing the last 8 matches ), and 2 – 1 against Monica Seles.