For the second time, the Philippines, where the late General Douglas MacArthur redeemed his famous vibrant pledge “I shall return” in the mid-1940s, is home to the annual pageant on May 20, 1994, with Fidel V. Ramos, the country’s ruler, among those attending; the first being the 1974 Manila MU. The contest takes place at Philippine Internaional Convention Center in Manila. On the other hand, the Philippines is a country of 7,100 islands stretching (among them 11 major islands).
2. Miss Germany got the 73rd position of the overall MU rankings.
3. The contest is almost a Latin America-India dual meet.
4. The beginning of the era of India: Miss Shusmita Sen gains the award during a spectacular show attended by the nation’s Head of State Fidel Ramos, beating South American delegates Carolina Gomez and Minorka Mercado in the finals. She wasn’t a frontrunner, but the travel to Manila turned into the greatest day for India, which improved on its 5 th place finish at the Mexico City MU 1993 to win the nation’s first universal title. Months earlier, Ashwarya Rai –considered by America’s movie star Julia Roberts as “the most beautiful girl on the Planet”- lost to Shusmita Sen in the finals of Miss India. After helping her country win the MU title, Sen ,the country’s first greatest beauty queen, became an actress.
5. Miss Colombia is vice Miss Universe for the third time in a row.
6. The former athlete of Venezuela, Minorka Mercado, is second runner-up. In the latter half of the 1980s, she was an enthusiastic volleyball player in her native country. Due her height, 1,86m, she played on Venezuela’s national youth side, always referred to as one of the top volleyball squads on the South American continent. By the late 1980s, she and her team-mates winning the right to compete in the IV FIVB Junior World Championship in the Peruvian capital of Lima. In Peru, her team finished in 13 th place, among 16 countries (ahead of Spain, Puerto Rico and Mexico). However,her sporting career was brief to follow the paths of her countrywoman Paola Ruggeri, an athlete-turned-beauty queen in 1982. Despite her Olympic talent, Miss Minorka retired from volleyball to become a model and after being discovered by the Cuban-born guru Osmel Sousa, President of the Miss Venezuela Organization, to participate in the national competition, where in the finals she beat Monica Lei Scaccia,a prestigious model of Italian descent. Mercado’s victory evoked comparisons to Miss South America 1983 Paola Ruggeri.
7. The young African country of Namibia will host the 1995 MU (the first contest scheduled to be held on the Dark Continent). During Namibia’s bid to host the 1995 MU, the country’s head of state Sam Nujoma, a former guerrilla from the Marxist South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), strongly supported the international project. Michelle Mc Lean was another supporter of the Namibia 1995 bid.
8. Greece makes the list of the semi-finalists with Rea Toutounzi.
9.Tiny new nation of the Slovak Republic -former Czechoslovakia- qualifies for the Top Ten. Landlocked Slovakia -or Slovak Republic-is an independent country in Eastern Europe since on January 1, 1993.
10.Russia (former USSR) makes its international debut!