The '''Miss World''' pageant is an international beauty pageant founded in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951.
Along with the rival Miss Universe pageant, Miss World has grown to be the most sought after and prestigious title in beauty pageantry. It is the most widely attended and broadcasted of such events, with over a hundred delegates in competition (Miss Universe, by comparison, welcomes approximately 80 delegates). Miss World – The Final is the world's largest live annual television event with global viewing figures topping two billion across more than 200 countries.http://www.missworld.tv/
The winner spends a year travelling the globe representing the Miss World Organization in its various causes. Traditionally, Miss World lives in London during her reign and uses it as her base for world travel. The current Miss World is Unnur Birna of Iceland.
Miss World 2006
:''Main article: Miss World 2006
The 56th Miss World pageant is being celebrated in Warsaw, Poland. The pageant final will take place on Saturday, September 30th at Sala Kongresowa, the main 2,897-seat auditorium at the Palace of Culture and Science. This is the first time ever that the pageant will be held in an European city other than London, United Kingdom, having previously been held there in 2002 after the Nigeria Controversy.
History
Miss World started as the ''Festival Bikini Contest'', in honour of the recently introduced swimwear of the time, but was called '''Miss World''' by the press. It was originally planned as a one-off event. Upon learning about the upcoming Miss Universe pageant, Morley decided to make the pageant an annual event.
Opposition to the wearing of bikinis led to their replacement with more modest swimwear after the first contest. In 1959, the BBC started broadcasting the competition. The pageant's popularity grew as the popularity of television grew.
In the 1980s, the pageant repositioned itself with the slogan ''Beauty With a Purpose''. The contest added tests of intelligence and personality. By the 1990s, the pageant was reaching two billion viewers from almost every country in the world. However, the competition has been seen as old-fashioned and rather politically incorrect in its native Britain. Despite the global appeal, the show was not broadcasted on any major terrestrial British TV network for several years, until Channel Five aired it in 1998.
21st century
Eric Morley died as the pageant entered the new century. His wife, Julia, succeeded as chairman of the Miss World Organization, in charge of holding the global pageant.
The century saw its first black African winner, Agbani Darego, in 2001. During that edition, as part of
