19 April: The Miss World Contest

On this date in 1951, the first Miss World contest took place at the Lyceum Ballroom in London to coincide with the Festival of Britain. Originally intended to be a one off event, it has taken place every year since. Here are ten things you might not know about the Miss World contest.

1. The person who came up with the idea was Eric Morley, an entertainment entrepreneur who was also responsible for the original Come Dancing series and commercial Bingo.
2. The first winner was Kiki Haakonson, from Sweden, Stockholm policeman’s daughter. At time of writing, the title is held by Toni-Ann Singh from Jamaica.
3. It was intended to be a bathing beauty contest to help promote the Bikini, which was then a new kind of swimwear. Kiki Haakonson is the only Miss World to have been crowned wearing a bikini. Most of the controversy attached to that first competition was that the contestants were wearing these indecent swimming costumes. One-piece swimsuits were worn after that, and in 1976 the contestants changed into evening gowns for the crowning.
4. Eric Morley hosted the first few contests and started the tradition of announcing the winners in reverse order, third, second and first.
5. The women's Liberation movement objected to the contest altogether. In 1970, they stormed the venue armed with Water pistols and flour bombs.
6. In the 1970s and early 1980s the contest was one of the most watched programmes on TV but declined in popularity after that. Despite attempts to re-invent itself by adding tests of intelligence and personality it was dropped by the BBC after 1988.
7. In 2002 when the contest was due to be held in Nigeria, there were calls to boycott it because a Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Several nations declared they would not take part. Lawal herself asked contestants not to do that as the contest would be good for her country, and would also raise awareness about her case. Lawal's case was overturned on appeal.
8. Hosts of the contest over the years have included Bob Hope, Michael Aspel, David Vine, Andy Williams, Esther Rantzen, Alexandra Bastedo, Ronan Keating, Ulrika Jonsson, Jerry Springer, Myleene Klass and Peter Andre.
9. The contest is now associated with a charity called Beauty With a Purpose which has raised over $500 million for charity over the years.
10. Over a million women apply to enter each year. A few contestants have gone on to become movie stars. 11 finalists have appeared in James Bond films. Halle Berry was runner up in 1986 and went on to become an Oscar winning actress. Aishwarya Rai won the title in 1994 and went on to become a massive star of Bollywood films.

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