Miss America Timeline of Events

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Miss America

The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

Timeline of Events

1921

9.8.1921

16-year-old Margaret Gorman wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America.

1983

9.17.1983

Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.

1984

7.20.1984

Officials of the Miss America pageant ask Vanessa Lynn Williams to quit after ''Penthouse'' publishes nude photos of her.

7.23.1984

Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown after nude photos of her appeared in ''Penthouse'' magazine.