Miss World and Miss Universe are the world's two most popular beauty pageants, the former having originated in the United Kingdom and the latter in the United States of America. Miss World commenced in the year 1951 and the first edition of Miss World pageant was held on 29th July 1951 when Kiki Håkansson of Sweden became the first ever Miss World. A year later, Miss Universe pageant started and the winner of the inaugural edition was Armi Kuusela of Finland.
Coincidentally, both the winners were from Nordic countries!
Well, looking at the history of the two pageants, there have been certain years (though not too many) when girls from the same country achieved the feat of winning both the titles in the very same year. So, let's look at the countries which accomplished that and who the winners were.
And the first country to achieve the dual win was France in the year 1953 when Denise Perrier of France was crowned Miss World 1953 and Christiane Martel of France was crowned Miss Universe 1953.
The next was Australia in the year 1972, with Belinda Green winning Miss World 1972 and Kerry Anne Wells winning Miss Universe 1972. In 1981, Venezuelan beauties achieved the double delight for their country when Pilín León became Miss World 1981 and Irene Sáez became Miss Universe 1981.
And finally, in the years 1994 and 2000 India accomplished the dual win. In 1994, Aishwarya Rai won the Miss World title and Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe title. In the year 2000 again, India won both Miss World 2000 and Miss Universe 2000 titles and the winners were Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta respectively.
Since then no other country has managed to win both the titles in the same year! Will this year be different? Do you see any country which can do that in this year's editions of both the beauty pageants?