Pageant Center: Pageant History


1960

The Miss USA/Universe sister pageants move to Miami Beach, Florida, where CBS begins to televise them.

1960

Corrine Huff makes history when she wins the Miss Iowa-USA title and becomes the first black woman to win a state title and compete in a major national pageant, the Miss USA Pageant.


1960

The first international pageant for children is staged in Miami, Florida--"Little Miss Universe." The contest is discontinued in 1966.

1961

The "Little Miss America Pageant" contest is started in New Jersey, affiliated with Palisades Amusement Park.

1961

The Miss Teenage America Pageant is founded as a program to honor young women�s achievement and judges contestants' grades and achievement. The scholarship pageant has no swimsuit competition. Diane Cox, of Virginia, beats out 95 contestants for the national title. CBS acquires the rights to televise the event.

1961

By happenstance, Nancy Fleming, Miss America 1961, is visiting the hometown of astronaut, Alan Shepard, on the day he becomes the first American in space. She is invited to watch the historic and dangerous Freedom 7 space launch with Shepard's nervous parents.

1962

Miss Haiti 1962 becomes the first black woman to make the semifinals at the Miss Universe Pageant.

1963
Diane Sawyer, representing Kentucky, is chosen as America�s Junior Miss.

She later attends Wellesley College, works as a press aide to President Nixon, and becomes anchor of PrimeTime Live and one of the highest paid female anchors in television history.


Donna Axum, Miss America 1964, is attending a conference in Dallas, Texas when the shocking news arrives that President Kennedy has been assassinated only miles away.

1965

Miss USA/Universe contests separate into two televised pageants, Miss USA and Miss Universe, beginning a tradition that would become one of the highest rated television specials in the world.

Apasra Hongsakula, Miss Thailand, and Sue Downey, Miss Ohio, win the Miss Universe and Miss USA titles, respectively.

1965

The America�s Junior Miss Pageant is televised for the first time.

Late 1960s

Miss Americas travel to Vietnam to entertain servicemen with Bob Hope. The tradition continues through the early 1970s.

1967

The Miss Universe Pageant ends its ban on hairpieces and falls, allowing contestants to wear them for competition. Falsies remained grounds for disqualification.

1967

Sylvia Hitchcock, Miss USA, is named Miss Universe 1967, the first American to capture the coveted title in seven years. Although a native of Florida (Miami), Sylvia wins the national title as Miss Alabama (where she attends college). Miss Florida, Cheryl Ann Patton, assumes the Miss USA title.

1968

The Women's Liberation Front protests the Miss America Pageant as FBI anti-riot squads have them under surveillance. The picketers toss symbols of the beauty culture in a "freedom trash can." Protesters infiltrate Convention Hall during the pageant creating a commotion that is audible during the telecast.

1968

Pageant chairman, Albert Marks, attempts to dump the song There She Is, but after a public uproar, the decision is reversed.

1968

First Miss Black America Pageant is held in Atlantic City as a protest against the absence of black women in the Miss America Pageant.

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