

The pageant was founded in 1952 by California clothing company Pacific Mills. Miss Universe is an international beauty pageant that is run by the Miss Universe Organization, and as of 2022, owned by the Thai-based JKN Global Group.Since Morley's death in 2000, his widow, Julia Morley, co-chairs the pageant.

It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Miss World is the oldest existing major international beauty pageant.The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, CNN, Xinhua News Agency, and global news agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse collectively refer to the four major pageants as "Big Four" namely: Of the hundreds of thousands of beauty contests held annually, the Big Four are considered the most prestigious, widely covered and broadcast by media. In 2018, NBC News referred to them as the "four biggest international pageants", while Agencia EFE delineated them in 2019 as the "four most influential beauty pageants in the world". In 2017, the Latin Times considered the group as the "most important pageants in the world". In April 2008, the South China Morning Post described them as "four of the world's top beauty pageants" the same description was also used by South Korea's leading newspaper, Chosun Ilbo in 2010. The group was first described by the China Daily newspaper in 2004 as "the world's four major beauty contests". The Big Four or the Big League Pageants refers to the four major international beauty pageants for women – Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth.

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