U.S. Air Force photos of Miss America 2024 There is hardly an American tradition more “apple-pie” than the Miss America Pageant. Starting with the “Inter-City Beauty Contest” held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1921, the competition has been held – with a few exceptions during the Great Depression and a couple of other years – for more than one hundred years and has been one of the nation’s most popular annual events. Not without controversy, criticism, even scandals, the pageant has reflected the evolving nature of American society, for better and for worse — but mostly for the better. The …