Senate and House Republicans attended a Trump-hosted lunch at the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, amid stalled shutdown negotiations.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The US government shutdown has resulted in the furlough of about 900,000 federal workers.
Congress is deadlocked over budget issues, particularly Affordable Care Act subsidy cuts.
The ongoing shutdown is the third-longest in US history and is quickly approaching the second spot.
The US government is still closed for business.
Since the government shutdown began on October 1, an estimated 900,000 federal workers across various agencies have been furloughed, meaning they have been placed on unpaid leave. Meanwhile, others are working without pay.
As the Trump administration threatens to permanently lay off some federal workers — an unprecedented move during shutdowns — and with thousands of federal employees on the brink of missing their paychecks this Friday, the stakes for reopening the government have been heightened.
Congress has been in a gridlock, unable to reopen the government, as Democratic representatives push against legislation that would cut subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The budget approval process we know today was introduced in 1974, when Congress passed the Budget Act of 1974 in response to President Richard Nixon’s impounding of federal funds approved by Congress during his presidency.
Since then, there have been more than a dozen shutdowns.
As of October 21, the ongoing shutdown ranks as the third-longest shutdown in US history, falling behind the 2018 shutdown during Trump’s first presidency and quickly approaching the duration of the 1995 shutdown, which lasted 21 days and kept the US government from shutting down again for 16 years.
We ranked the 10 longest government shutdowns in US history using the House of Representatives’ list, which counts shutdown duration from the first day of the funding gap to the last full day the government was shut down, not including the day that the legislation reopening the government was signed into law.
See how the ongoing shutdown compares to past government shutdowns.
10. In 1995, the government shut down for five days as the Clinton administration debated with congressional Republicans on budget priorities.
AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander, File
Dates: November 13 to 19, 1995
On November 13, 1995, the government entered a five-day shutdown as congressional Republicans and the Clinton administration failed to reach an agreement on budget priorities.
The disagreements began after the House and Senate both flipped to a Republican majority during the midterm elections, when Republican politicians, including Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, campaigned on a platform of reduced government spending, as outlined in what they called a “Contract with America.”
Having control of the House for the first time in 40 years, the Republicans passed a spending bill that cut federal funding for Medicare and gave states more power over welfare programs, such as Medicaid.
Clinton vetoed the bill, and the government shut down for five days before Congress passed a temporary funding bill to keep federal agencies working.
The budget debates later led to what became, at the time, the longest government shutdown in US history.
8. (tie) In 1977, the federal government shut down — twice — for eight days over the use of Medicaid funds for abortions.
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Dates: October 31 to November 9, and November 30 to December 9, 1977
The government shut down for eight days twice between October 31 and December 9, 1977, after a longer gap in funding at the beginning of that October. The three funding gaps accounted for a total of 28 days that year during which the federal government operated outside its appropriated budget.
The gaps in funding came as the Democrat-led House and Senate argued over whether Medicaid funds should be used to pay for abortions.
Despite the funding gap, most federal agencies continued to operate as usual, and workers were not furloughed. This was the norm before the 1981 Supreme Court decision, which ruled that federal agencies lacked the legal means to operate during periods of funding gaps.
7. In 1976, an appropriations bill vetoed by President Ford resulted in a 10-day funding gap.
Dev O’Neill/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images
Dates: September 30 to October 11, 1976
The first government shutdown occurred in 1976, when President Gerald Ford vetoed an appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare passed by Congress, citing the increases as “inflationary,” as reported by The New York Times at the time.
While Congress overrode the veto on October 1, the process resulted in a lapse in funding that lasted for 10 days.
6. In 1979, another fight in Congress over Medicaid funding for abortions shut down the government for 11 days.
Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Dates: September 30 to October 12, 1979
The debate over the use of Medicaid funds for abortions that had resulted in 28 days of lapsed funding in 1977 continued in the following years.
In 1979, the House and Senate, both held by Democratic majorities, disagreed on how Medicaid funds should be used for abortions, with the House passing a restrictive bill and the Senate looking for a more permissive approach that would allow for funding in cases of rape and incest.
Funding restarted when a compromise bill was passed, which included the Senate’s approach to abortion funding and a raise in congressional salaries.
5. Also in 1977, the government shut down for 12 days over Medicaid restrictions on abortion funding.
AP
Dates: September 30 to October 13, 1977
The longest funding gap of 1977 happened on September 30, when the House and Senate failed to pass a funding bill for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare over disagreements on the use of Medicaid funding for abortions.
While both chambers were controlled by the president’s party, the House advocated for funding only in cases where the mother’s life was at risk, while the Senate backed a less restrictive approach, which would also provide funding in cases of rape and incest.
The disagreement led to the passage of a temporary funding bill, which expired on October 31 and was followed by two more lapses in funding.
Like other funding gaps prior to 1977, federal agencies continued working, and no federal employees were furloughed.
4. In 2013, the government shut down for 16 days over Obamacare funding.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Dates: September 30 to October 17, 2013
After 16 years without a government shutdown, the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-held House failed to pass a funding bill due to disagreements over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
In an effort to diminish the act, the House passed two funding bills that would defund portions of the program and delay its implementation by a year; however, neither was passed by the Senate.
The showdown led to over 800,000 federal workers being furloughed during budget negotiations, while pay for active-duty military members was agreed upon by the president and Congress.
After two weeks, the House passed a funding bill without restrictions for the health law.
3. In 1978, President Carter shut down the government for 17 days over “wasteful” spending.
Bettmann/Getty Images
Dates: September 30 to October 18, 1978
The longest government shutdown of the Carter presidency started on September 30, 1978, when the president vetoed a spending bill that included funding for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and a series of water public works projects, which he deemed wasteful.
The veto, added to the existing congressional disagreements over Medicaid abortion funding, led to a 17-day impasse that ended once Congress removed both the aircraft carrier and water works funding from the funding bill.
2. In 1995, the government shut down for 21 days after Clinton vetoed the Republicans’ long-term budget.
Robert McNeely/White House/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images
Dates: December 15, 1995, to January 6, 1996
Following the shorter, five-day shutdown on November 13, 1995, the government entered another funding gap on December 15, after a temporary funding bill expired without Congress and the president agreeing on a bill to keep the government open.
The government stood at a stalemate for 21 days, with federal agencies furloughing workers during the holiday season.
The shutdown came to an end when congressional Republicans, who had lost public support in the polls, as reported by NPR, passed a balanced budget that avoided hikes in Medicare premiums and funding cuts for federal agencies.
The government did not shut down again for 16 years.
1. In 2018, the government shut down for 34 days over debates on funding a border wall and protecting Dreamers.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Dates: December 21, 2018, to January 25, 2019
The longest government shutdown in US history began on December 21, 2018, after House Democrats refused to approve spending bills that provided the Trump administration with $5.7 billion in funding for a wall along the southern border, which the president had insisted on.
While clean funding bills were passed through the House and the Senate, both of which were held by Republican majorities, the president refused to approve the budgets, resulting in a 34-day stalemate.
During the nearly five weeks the government was closed, airports began experiencing flight delays as air traffic controllers and TSA workers, who were working without pay, began calling out sick en masse. TSA reported that the number of employees taking sick leave had more than doubled since the beginning of the shutdown.
The shutdown ended when the president and Congress agreed on a funding bill that didn’t include funding for the border wall.
The current ongoing shutdown already ranks within the top five longest in US history.
Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
Dates: October 1, 2025, to current
The government shut down on October 1, 2025, after Congress failed to agree on funding measures, with a key point of contention being healthcare subsidies.
Democrats refused to support a temporary funding bill passed by House Republicans that lacked protections against provisions from Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which they say would cut federal funding, expand Medicaid requirements, and reduce subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, citing increased healthcare premiums.
Federal funding expired on October 1 as both sides failed to reach an agreement.
After the Senate failed to advance an 11th funding bill on Monday, the likelihood of the shutdown ending soon remains slim.
As far as negotiations go, the stalemate appears to have no clear end in sight, even as furloughed federal workers and some employees working without pay experience a third week of uncertainty.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman showed off a new AI-infused web browser on Tuesday.
The browser, called ChatGPT Atlas, combines a web browser with OpenAI’s chatbot and Agent AI tool.
Shares of Google Chrome-maker Alphabet fell 3% on the news.
OpenAI is coming for Google Chrome.
On Tuesday, CEO Sam Altman announced ChatGPT Atlas, OpenAI’s entry into the increasingly competitive web browser space. Shortly after the news, shares of Google Chrome-maker Alphabet dipped 3%.
ChatGPT Atlas combines multiple OpenAI products into one, bundling the chatbot functionality with a browser along with the ability for paid users to summon “agent,” the company’s AI tool capable of taking control of the user’s mouse and keyboard.
The chatbot functionality of the ChatGPT Atlas web browser
OpenAI
Altman positioned Tuesday’s announcement of an AI-infused web browser as just the beginning. ChatGPT Atlas went live on Tuesday afternoon for Mac OS users worldwide, with Altman adding that he hopes to expand to Windows and mobile devices “as quickly as we can.”
“There’s a lot more to add, this is just early days for this project,” Altman said during the company’s presentation. “The kind of idea that we’re excited about is what it means to have custom instructions follow you everywhere on the web.”
OpenAI showed off functionality that showed how the browser could do a variety of tasks, from searching through browser history to even some agentic work like task management, which one speaker called “vibe-lifeing.” Multiple demonstrations used Google’s services, including Gmail and Google Docs.
The agent mode of ChatGPT Atlas lets the AI take control of your mouse to complete online tasks on your behalf.
OpenAI
Atlas’ agentic functions will be limited to plus and pro users “for now,” Altman said.
“As you have this agent that you’re having do things for you, getting to know you more and more, pulling stuff together for you proactively, finding things you might want on the internet, and bringing them together, which we showed a little bit of,” he said. “We think we can push that quite far.”
Tuesday’s announcement comes amid a flurry of deals and product announcements from OpenAI, ranging from an expanded partnership with Nvidia to the launch of Sora 2, a TikTok-esque competitor app for AI-generated content.
Web browsers are increasingly becoming integrated with AI. Beyond Google’s work to integrate its Gemini AI into its Chrome and Search products, Microsoft has integrated AI features into its Edge browser.
There are also plenty of AI startups making AI browser experiences, chief among them Perplexity, which recently launched its Comet Browser.
And if there was any doubt that OpenAI is hoping users will switch over from using Chrome, Safari, or Edge, a note in its Atlas announcement makes it abundantly clear.
“Set ChatGPT as default browser and get boosted limits for 7 days,” OpenAI says on the download page.
The government has been shuttered for 20 days, making this the third-longest shutdown in history.
Airports, benefits programs, and national parks are among the impacted services.
Federal workers are either furloughed or working without pay, and are starting to feel the squeeze.
As October stretches on, the government is creeping farther and farther up a grim list: the nation’s longest shutdowns.
The government shut down on October 1, affecting everything from food assistance programs to airports to federal employees’ monthly budgets. Shutdowns as we currently know them only began in the early 1980s, and so far this fall’s is the third-longest in history. If it continues until Wednesday, it’ll jump up to second place.
A 35-day shutdown in 2018 and 2019 takes the prize as the country’s longest, and they typically last around eight days. SinceCongress is still deadlocked over Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire soon, there’s no end in sight to the current impasse.
On Monday evening, the Senate is voting for the 11th time on a bill to fund the government and put an end to the shutdown that’s touching every corner of the country — and its airspace.
Airport delays
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Sunday that airports in Chicago, Atlanta, Newark, and Dallas experienced delays due to staffing shortages, Reuters reported. Still, the broad national effects of the shutdown on air travel are relatively muted. Bad weather has contributed to the delays, and aviation analytics company Cirium said delay rates were normal and flight cancellation rates were low as of October 17. An airport in Burbank, California, temporarily closed on October 6 over staffing shortages.
Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told Business Insider that there hasn’t been a drastic impact on the staffing of air traffic controllers, who received a partial paycheck earlier this month and will get a check for $0 on October 28 if the shutdown persists.
Controllers were already working up to 60 hours a week amid an ongoing staffing shortage, though financial worries may further exacerbate the situation. There was one staffing-related issue at Newark Liberty International Airport affecting the national airspace system as of 2 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, per the FAA NAS website.
If controllers do start calling out of work, they’ll likely attribute it to fatigue or illness. During the 2019 shutdown, New York’s LaGuardia airport temporarily closed because controllers called out, which was part of what pressured politicians into ending the record-breaking shutdown.
An air traffic controller told Business Insider that they’re seeing some colleagues pick up gig work, and Pete LaFevre, a DC-based controller and union representative, said the topic is a common one in the breakroom.
“We’re all going to be faced with tough decisions,” LaFevre said. “On my one day off, am I going to go and drive for Uber, Uber Eats, Instacart, so I can make my payments?”
NerdWallet travel analyst Sally French told Business Insider that things could worsen as Thanksgiving and Christmas near. She said TSA agents called out en masse, known as the “sickout,” about a month into the 2018-2019 shutdown.
“If this drags into late October/early November — right before the holiday travel rush — that’s when things could get really messy, she said. “People can only work for free for so long, especially with bills due.”
National parks
Many national parks are operating at partial capacity.
Natalie Behring/Getty Images
Americans might bump up against the funding lapse when trying to visit national parks, some of which are open but are operating at partial capacity.
Visitors can still access roads, trails, and open-air memorials, according to the agency’s contingency plans, and parks that take in fees can use those for basic services, like cleaning bathrooms and picking up trash. If a building or facility is usually closed during non-business hours, it’s closed during the shutdown, per the contingency plan. The parks aren’t collecting entrance fees, and staffing is limited.
“National parks remain as accessible as possible during the federal government shutdown. However, some services may be limited or unavailable,” a banner on the National Parks Service website reads. “
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed — meaning they’re placed on unpaid leave — or are working without pay. Most employees got a paycheck for the days they worked just before the shutdown, which might be the final one they receive until Congress agrees on a funding package. Government contractors, including those working in maintenance roles at federal buildings and at national museums, are also affected.
Employees previously told Business Insider that the shutdown is impacting their monthly budgets, with some worried they won’t be able to afford basic necessities like medication, and others putting off expenses like home repairs.
The White House has floated the possibility that federal workers might not receive back pay, unlike after previous shutdowns, and thousands have been hit with termination notices. Those firings are in limbo after a judge temporarily ordered the Trump administration to stop laying off federal employees.
Before the funding lapse, the US Department of Agriculture said in a memo that the program had enough money to fully fund October’s checks, but that recipients might see less cash in November.
“If the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits,” Acting SNAP Head Ronald Ward said in a letter to regional program directors, dated October 10 and reviewed by Business Insider. Ward said the program is drafting a “contingency plan.”
Monthly checks range from $25 to $1,700, depending on a household’s size and income, and the program costs the federal government around $100 billion annually.
Social Security payments are considered mandatory spending and are still going out to 74 million Americans. The Social Security Administration has paused some activities, though, according to the agency’s contingency plan, including benefit verification and Medicare card replacements.
An Amazon Web Services outage disrupted Wordle on Monday, causing momentary concern among players.
The New York Times puzzle game tracks daily win streaks, adding pressure to play consistently.
The outage highlighted users’ dependency on daily rituals and the impact of tech disruptions.
Alec Laurie was in a state of panic for several hours on Monday morning.
It wasn’t a work or family matter that had him checking his phone in between every client call. Instead, Laurie was struggling to remain calm after seeing his 292-day Wordle streak suddenly disappear.
“It was actually, genuinely stressful,” said the 43-year-old partner of a boutique executive search firm in Manchester, England.
Wordle, the hit puzzle game from The New York Times, was one of many online services that stopped working properly early Monday morning due to an Amazon Web Services outage, the media company confirmed with Business Insider. Many popular online services were also disrupted, including Snapchat, Zoom, and Reddit.
When fans like Laurie saw Wordle no longer recognized their play history, they realized they were in a jam. The game — which has millions of weekly users, according to the Times — resets every night at midnight local time and tracks players’ win streaks. Miss a day or fail to solve the puzzle by identifying a five-letter word in six tries, and the streak ends.
This meant anyone who hadn’t finished Monday’s puzzle prior to the outage had to hope the game would return before midnight, while those who had solved it could only pray their streaks would be restored.
“We are encouraging subscribers to try logging in again at a later time and are taking steps to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” Jordan Cohen, executive director of communications at The New York Times, told Business Insider.
It’s unclear how many players were affected or if all lost streaks had been restored. AWS said it mitigated the underlying issue and its services were showing strong signs of recovery, but connectivity issues remained “across multiple services in the US-EAST-1 Region.”
‘I’ve worked really hard’
One Wordle user who goes by @Morgan_Lenana on X, told Business Insider on the social media platform that she realized around 3 a.m. East Africa Time that the game wasn’t working and she might lose her streak.
“I’ve worked really hard on it and wanted to challenge myself to get to 60 days,” she wrote.
Lenana added that she felt “a little heartbroken” thinking her streak had ended, especially because she lost a streak for Connections, another daily New York Times game, two days earlier, after getting distracted by work. It would have been a “double loss” if Wordle didn’t end up coming back, she said. After checking around 2 p.m. Eastern, she said her streak had been restored.
Others, like 59-year-old Dennis Ames, who plays three New York Times games every morning to help keep his “brain active,” turned to Facebook to figure out what was happening. Ames said it wasn’t long before a user commented on his post explaining that the issue was tied to a larger outage.
“I didn’t even realize they use AWS,” Ames said.
A daily puzzle fix
Micah Willbrand of Durham, N.C., was 260 days into his Wordle streak when he woke up at around 4 am Monday and made two guesses before taking a break. When he opened his phone a few hours later to try a third time, he couldn’t log back in.
At first, Willbrand said he was only “a little worried.” Two other apps he uses frequently, Snapchat and Flight Radar, were also down. But around 8 a.m. he started getting text messages from family members showing they’d completed the puzzle game, which only made him more anxious.
Willbrand next clicked on his Wordle profile and saw he was logged in, yet his streak was still missing. “This is when I really panicked,” he said.
Around 10:30 am Eastern, Willbrand checked the game once more, and his streak had been restored. But the experience left him feeling somewhat traumatized. He said if his game history had been wiped out, he would have been upset, but that he might have also felt a strange sense of relief.
“Part of me would have been really disappointed,” he said. “But on the flip side, it would mean I was released from my self-imposed little prison.”
All four players who spoke with Business Insider said their Wordle streaks were ultimately restored. Still, the moment of panic about losing their progress revealed just how committed fans are to completing their daily puzzle fix.
“It was an interesting journey that showed me how addicted I am to Wordle,” Willbrand said.
WalletHub released a ranking of the safest cities in the US, examining a total of 182 cities.
The ranking examined safety categories of home and community, natural-disaster risk, and financial.
It named Warwick, Rhode Island, Overland Park, Kansas, and Burlington, Vermont, the safest cities.
If you’re looking for a place to live where you can sleep soundly at night without worrying too much about crime, natural disasters, or financial ruin, these are the top 10 contenders, according to a new WalletHub analysis.
WalletHub examined a total of 182 US cities — the 150 most populated cities in the country, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state — to determine the safest cities in the US.
The cities were evaluated based on 41 metrics in three main categories: home and community safety, natural-disaster risk, and financial safety.
To determine home and community safety rankings, WalletHub examined factors in each city including murders, thefts, and assaults per capita, traffic and pedestrian fatalities per capita, and the number of mass shootings.
Natural-disaster risk factors measured the risk indexes of earthquakes, hail, flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires.
For financial safety rankings, WalletHub looked at the rates of unemployment, poverty, and foreclosure, as well as the number of fraud and identity theft complaints per capita.
The analysis used data from the US Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. among other sources.
Here are the top 10 safest cities in the US.
10. Salem, Oregon
Salem, Oregon.
Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Salem, Oregon, has the fewest law-enforcement employees per capita, contributing to its home and community safety ranking of 52nd overall, per WalletHub’s study.
It had the 13th-lowest natural-disaster risk ranking and placed 31st in financial safety among the 182 cities studied.
9. Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine.
James Aloysius Mahan V/Shutterstock
Lewiston, Maine, was found to have the fourth-lowest natural-disaster risk level and the second-highest financial safety rank of the cities analyzed. It placed 63rd in home and community safety.
8. Columbia, Maryland
Columbia, Maryland.
KhanIM/Shutterstock
WalletHub’s analysis awarded Columbia, Maryland, the second-highest home and community safety ranking.
It also ranked 11th in natural-disaster risk and 51st in financial safety.
7. South Burlington, Vermont
South Burlington, Vermont.
Bob LoCicero/Shutterstock
South Burlington — which was named the No. 1 safest city in WalletHub’s 2024 report — features one of the lowest unemployment rates of the cities included in WalletHub’s analysis, tied for first place with Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Rapid City, South Dakota, Burlington, Vermont, and Miami, Florida.
It also has the lowest percentage of uninsured people, contributing to its financial safety ranking of third overall.
It ranked 46th in home and community safety and sixth in natural-disaster risk.
6. Casper, Wyoming
Casper, Wyoming.
Jacob Boomsma/Shutterstock
Casper, Wyoming, featured the fifth-lowest natural-disaster risk in WalletHub’s analysis. It was ranked 51st in home and community safety and seventh in financial safety.
5. Yonkers, New York
Yonkers, New York.
FraNcis BarNor/Shutterstock
Yonkers, which is just north of the Bronx, moved up a spot from its No. 6 position in WalletHub’s 2024 ranking.
This year, it placed third in home and community safety, 29th in natural-disaster risk, and 118th in financial safety.
4. Juneau, Alaska
Juneau, Alaska.
Alexandre.ROSA/Shutterstock
Juneau jumped from the 16th-safest city in WalletHub’s 2024 ranking to the fourth safest in its 2025 list.
It features the lowest natural-disaster risk level out of the 182 cities named in WalletHub’s study. It ranked 86th in home and community safety and 57th in financial safety.
3. Burlington, Vermont
Burlington, Vermont.
Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Burlington features the 14th-lowest risk of flooding, 21st-lowest risk of tornados, and the 31st lowest risk of wildfires, contributing to its overall natural-disaster risk ranking of sixth place.
It ranked 33rd in home and community safety thanks to its 26th-lowest murder rate. Burlington also placed ninth in financial safety.
All told, WalletHub named Burlington the third-safest city in the US.
2. Overland Park, Kansas
Overland Park, Kansas.
Jacob Boomsma/Shutterstock
Overland Park earned the title of second-safest city in the US with statistics such as the 15th-lowest rate of traffic fatalities, the fifth-lowest pedestrian fatality rate, and the lowest percentage of residents living in poverty.
In WalletHub’s overall category ranking, Overland Park placed fourth in home and community safety, 118th in natural-disaster risk, and 16th in financial safety.
1. Warwick, Rhode Island
Warwick, Rhode Island.
Wangkun Jia/Shutterstock
WalletHub named Warwick, Rhode Island, the safest city in the US.
With the 10th-lowest risk of wildfires, the seventh-lowest number of thefts per capita, and the third-lowest number of aggravated assaults per capita, both its natural disaster and home and community safety rankings earned top 10 placements in the overall ranking.
It also has the fourth-lowest percentage of residents living in poverty and living without health insurance, contributing to its financial safety ranking of 44th out of the 182 total cities named in WalletHub’s analysis.
Miss USA has always found time to crown a new queen, no matter what’s going on behind the scenes. So in honor of the coming pageant, Business Insider took a look back at every Miss USA winner since its inception in 1952.
1952: Miss New York Jackie Loughery
Miss USA 1952.
CBS via Getty Images
Loughery was crowned the winner of the pageant after a second round of voting, as the initial vote ended in a tie, according to Reader’s Digest.
Hansen represented Illinois in the Miss USA pageant, and she was runner-up in the 1953 Miss Universe pageant.
1954: Miss South Carolina Miriam Stevenson
Miss USA 1954.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Stevenson became the first American to win the Miss Universe pageant after being crowned Miss USA.
1955: Miss Vermont Carlene King Johnson
Miss USA 1955.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Johnson is the only Miss Vermont to win the Miss USA pageant to date.
1956: Miss Iowa Carol Morris
Miss USA 1956.
Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Morris was also crowned Miss Universe in 1956, and she is the only Miss Iowa to win Miss USA to date.
1957: Miss Maryland Mary Leona Gage
Miss USA 1957.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Although she won, Gage’s title was revoked because she lied about being married, having two children, and her age. The crown then passed to first runner-up Charlotte Sheffield, who represented Utah.
1958: Miss Louisiana Eurlyne Howell
Miss USA 1958.
Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images
Howell went on to pursue a career in acting after winning Miss USA.
1959: Miss California Terry Huntingdon
Miss USA
Huntingdon was the first Miss USA to win the pageant in her home state.
1960: Miss Utah Linda Bement
Miss USA 1960.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Bement went on to be crowned Miss Universe during the first Miss Universe pageant that was televised live.
1961: Miss Louisiana Sharon Brown
Miss USA 1961.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
In addition to being Miss USA, Brown was crowned queen of the Sugar Bowl in 1962.
1962: Miss Hawaii Macel Wilson
Miss USA
Wilson was the first Miss Hawaii to win the Miss USA pageant, as well as the first woman of color to win the pageant.
1963: Miss Illinois Marite Ozers
Miss USA 1963 Marite Ozers.
The Miss Universe Organization
Ozers was born in Latvia, and her family relocated to Illinois because of World War II. She went on to represent the state in Miss USA.
1964: Miss District of Columbia Bobbi Johnson
Miss USA 1964
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Johnson was the first contestant from DC to win the pageant.
1965: Miss Ohio Sue Ann Downey
Miss USA 1965.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
After winning Miss USA, Downey won the National Costume Contest at the Miss Universe pageant.
1966: Miss California Maria Remenyi
Miss USA 1966.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Remenyi returned to the pageant world in 1973 when she served as a judge at Miss Universe.
1967: Miss Alabama Sylvia Louise Hitchcock
Miss USA 1967.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Hitchcock went on to win the Miss Universe pageant, and she returned to judge the pageant in 1972.
Cheryl Patton, who was second runner-up at Miss USA, became queen in Hitchcock’s stead.
1968: Miss Washington Dorothy Anstett
Miss USA
In addition to participating in the pageant, Anstett was married to famous NBA player Bill Russell for three years.
1969: Miss Virginia Wendy Dascomb
Miss USA 1969.
Steve Larson/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Dascomb was the first Miss Virginia to win the Miss USA pageant.
1970: Miss Virginia Deborah Shelton
Miss USA 1970.
Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch via Getty Images
After the pageant, Shelton went on to star on “Dallas” as Mandy Winger from 1984 to 1987.
1971: Miss Pennsylvania Michele McDonald
Miss USA 1971 Michele McDonald.
The Miss Universe Organization
McDonald was the first representative from Pennsylvania to win Miss USA.
1972: Miss Hawaii Tanya Wilson
Miss USA 1972.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Wilson competed in the Miss Nevada pageant twice before she relocated to Hawaii and won the state’s pageant, leading her to the Miss USA crown.
1973: Miss Illinois Amanda Jones
Miss USA 1973.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Jones told the South Eastern Missourian in 1973 that she only applied to the pageant at the encouragement of her modeling agent.
1974: Miss Illinois Karen Jean Morrison
Miss USA 1974.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Morrison was one of few Miss USA contestants to be crowned by a winner from her same state.
1975: Miss California Summer Bartholomew
Miss USA 1975.
Kevin John Berry/Fairfax Media via Getty Images
Following her win, Bartholomew had a brief career as a game-show host, appearing on “Sale of the Century” and “The Price is Right.”
1976: Miss Minnesota Barbara Elaine Peterson
Miss USA 1976.
FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images
Peterson was the first Miss Minnesota to win the Miss USA pageant.
1977: Miss Texas Kimberly Tomes
Miss USA 1977.
Sunny Lee/South China Morning Post via Getty Images
Tomes was the first Miss Texas to win the pageant, and she later served as a host for the Miss Texas pageant.
1978: Miss Hawaii Judi Andersen
Miss USA 1978 Judi Andersen.
The Miss Universe Organization
Andersen appeared on TV shows like “Magnum, P.I.” and “Fantasy Island” after winning Miss USA.
1979: Miss New York Mary Therese Friel
Miss USA 1979.
Russell McPhedran/Fairfax Media via Getty Images
Less than a decade after winning the pageant, Friel founded her own modeling agency and helped train other pageant contestants.
1980: Miss South Carolina Shawn Weatherly
Miss USA 1980.
Keystone/Getty Images
Weatherly became Miss Universe after winning Miss USA, and she later appeared on “Baywatch” as Jill Riley.
As first runner-up in the pageant, Miss Arizona Jineane Ford became Miss USA when Weatherly began her reign as Miss Universe.
1981: Miss Ohio Kim Seelbrede
Miss USA 1981.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Seelbrede’s winnings were valued at around $100,000, according to UPI.
1982: Miss Arkansas Terri Lea Utley
Miss USA 1982.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Utley was the first Miss Arkansas to win the Miss USA pageant.
1983: Miss California Julie Hayek
Miss USA 1983.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Hayek placed first runner-up at Miss Universe in 1983. Her Miss USA reign launched an acting career, and she appeared on shows including “Dallas,” “Twin Peaks,” and “As the World Turns,” according to her IMDb.
1984: Miss New Mexico Mai Shanley
Miss USA 1984.
CBS via Getty Images
To date, Shanley is the only Miss New Mexico to win the Miss USA pageant.
1985: Miss Texas Laura Harring
Miss USA 1985.
Images Press/IMAGES/Getty Images
Harring became a successful model and actor after winning the pageant, appearing on the cover of magazines like Elle and Cosmopolitan and in films like “Mulholland Drive.”
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
The year Royer was crowned queen, Bob Barker quit his job hosting the pageant because it allowed contestants to wear real fur coats, as Live Now Fox reported.
1988: Miss Texas Courtney Gibbs
Miss USA 1988 Courtney Gibbs.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Gibbs placed eighth at Miss Universe 1988. She then pursued an acting career and, according to her IMDb, appeared in the soap opera “All My Children” and films including “Naked Truth.”
1989: Miss Texas Gretchen Polhemus
Miss USA 1989.
George Rose/Getty Images
Polhemus was the fifth Miss Texas in a row to win Miss USA from 1985 to 1989. She placed second runner-up at Miss Universe 1989. Polhemus’ daughter followed in her pageant footsteps and won Miss Utah USA in 2017.
1990: Miss Michigan Carole Gist
Miss USA 1990 Carole Gist.
George Rose/Getty Images
Gist was the first African-American woman to win the Miss USA crown. She was also the first winner from Michigan, breaking a five-year winning streak by contestants from Texas. She placed first runner-up at Miss Universe 1990.
1991: Miss Kansas Kelli McCarty
Miss USA
McCarty was the first Miss Kansas to win Miss USA, and she placed in the top six at Miss Universe 1991. She went on to star in the soap opera “Passions” for seven years.
1992: Miss California Shannon Marketic
Miss USA
Before she won Miss USA, Marketic had been crowned Miss Arizona Teen USA in 1989. She lost the title a week later after it was discovered she had actually placed first runner-up.
1993: Miss Michigan Kenya Moore
MISS UNIVERSE,INC./AFP via Getty Images
Moore’s big pageant win kicked off a Hollywood acting career that included stints on TV shows like “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Living Single,” and “Girlfriends.” In 2012, she became a Bravo star, appearing on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
1994: Miss South Carolina Lu Parker
Miss USA
Parker placed in the top six at Miss Universe 1994. She’s been a co-anchor on KTLA for more than a decade and has won six Emmys for her work.
1995: Miss Texas Chelsi Smith
Miss USA 1995 Chelsi Smith.
PHILIP LITTLETON/AFP via Getty Images
Following her success at Miss USA, Smith also won Miss Universe 1995. She was the sixth American woman to capture the coveted crown and the first to win since 1980.
First runner-up Shanna Moakler of New York became Miss USA when Smith’s reign as Miss Universe started.
After she took the Miss USA crown, Lee went on to win Miss Universe 1997.
Her first runner-up, Miss Idaho Brandi Sherwood, then became Miss USA.
1998: Miss Massachusetts Shawnae Jebbia
Miss USA
Jebbia was the first Miss Massachusetts to win Miss USA. She placed in the top five at Miss Universe 1998 and went on to become a “Barker Beauty” on “The Price is Right.”
1999: Miss New York Kimberly Pressler
Miss USA 1999 Kimberly Pressler.
AFP via Getty Images
In addition to Miss USA 1999, Pressler also won Miss New York Teen USA in 1994.
After her pageant career came to an end, Pressler hosted MTV shows, including “Senseless Acts of Video” and “Total Request Live.” She also hosted “Adrenaline X” on NBC and has worked as a correspondent for ESPN.
2000: Miss Tennessee Lynnette Cole
Miss USA
Cole was the first Miss Tennessee to win Miss USA. She also won Miss Tennessee Teen USA in 1995, and placed fifth at Miss Universe 2000.
The pageant queen has since worked as a TV host for major channels including NBC, MTV, and ESPN.
2001: Miss Texas Kandace Krueger
Miss USA 2001 Kandace Krueger.
PATRICK PRATHER/AFP via Getty Images
Krueger placed second runner-up at Miss Universe 2001, narrowly missing the crown to Miss Puerto Rico Denise Quiñones.
2002: Miss District of Columbia Shauntay Hinton
Miss USA 2002 Shauntay Hinton.
Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
Miss USA 2002 was only the second pageant Hinton had ever competed in. She has appeared in shows including “Criminal Minds” and “iCarly.”
2003: Miss Massachusetts Susie Castillo
Miss USA
Castillo was the first Latina woman to win Miss Massachusetts USA. She had previously won Miss Massachusetts Teen USA in 1998.
Following her Miss USA reign, Castillo became an MTV VJ and host for “Total Request Live.”
2004: Miss Missouri Shandi Finnessey
Miss USA 2004 Shandi Finnessey.
Michael Caulfield/WireImage
Finnessey placed first runner-up in the 2004 Miss Universe competition. She has since appeared on reality shows including “The Apprentice,” “Dancing with the Stars,” and “Ready for Love,” which she won.
2005: Miss North Carolina Chelsea Cooley
Miss USA
Cooley defended Donald Trump, who previously owned the Miss USA pageant, during his 2016 presidential campaign. She told the Daily Mail that he had been her personal business mentor for years.
2006: Miss Kentucky Tara Conner
Miss USA
Conner almost lost her Miss USA crown after tabloids ran stories about her underage drinking and partying at New York City clubs. Trump allowed Conner to continue her reign after she went to rehab.
2007: Miss Tennessee Rachel Smith
Miss USA 2007 Rachel Smith.
MATT CARASELLA/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Smith starred in Trump’s 2007 MTV reality show “Pageant Place” alongside Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner and Miss Universe 2007 Riyo Mori.
2008: Miss Texas Crystle Stewart
Miss USA
Stewart went on to become president of Miss USA in 2020. She ran the pageant for two years but was suspended in October 2022 after contestants claimed that year’s Miss USA competition was rigged.
Dalton comes from a big pageant family. Her mother was Miss North Carolina USA in 1982 and her sister Julia competed at Miss USA 2015 as Miss North Carolina.
Campanella had previously placed first runner-up at Miss Teen USA 2007.
2012: Miss Rhode Island Olivia Culpo
Olivia Culpo was crowned Miss Universe in 2012.
David Becker/Getty Images
Olivia Culpo was the first Miss USA to win Miss Universe in 15 years when she took the crown in 2012. She was just 20 years old at the time.
Miss Maryland Nana Meriwether was the first runner-up, so she was crowned Miss USA after Culpo became Miss Universe.
Culpo has since amassed a huge social media following, dipped her toe into acting, and starred on the TLC reality series “The Culpo Sisters” with her family. She is married to Christian McCaffrey, who plays for the San Francisco 49ers.
2013: Miss Connecticut Erin Brady
Miss USA 2013 Erin Brady.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Brady was the first woman from Connecticut to win Miss USA. The finance worker had to postpone her wedding to compete at Miss Universe, which was scheduled on the same day.
2014: Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez
Miss USA 2014 Nia Sanchez.
Stacy Revere/Getty Images
Sanchez was the first Miss Nevada to win Miss USA and she placed first runner-up in Miss Universe 2014. She previously worked as a Disney princess in Hong Kong Disneyland.
2015: Miss Oklahoma Olivia Jordan
Miss USA 2015.
AP Images
Jordan was crowned after months of controversy at Miss USA. The show was dropped by NBC, and multiple guests and judges backed out from appearing at the pageant because of comments Trump made about Mexican immigrants during his presidential campaign.
2016: Miss District of Columbia Deshauna Barber
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Barber joined the Army when she was 17 and was serving as a logistics commander when she won Miss USA.
“As a commander of my unit, I’m powerful, I am dedicated, and it is important that we recognize that gender does not limit us in the United States,” she said during the pageant finals.
2017: Miss District of Columbia Kára McCullough
Miss District of Columbia USA Kara McCullough reacts after she was crowned the new Miss USA during the Miss USA contest Sunday, May 14, 2017, in Las Vegas.
John Locher/AP Images
McCullough was the talk of social media during the Miss USA 2017 pageant when she said she prefers the word “equalism” to “feminism.”
The pageant queen later told Business Insider that she believed the word “feminist” can sometimes have a negative connotation in the media, and that’s why she wanted to “just change the word to equalist.”
2018: Miss Nebraska Sarah Rose Summers
Miss Nebraska Sarah Rose Summers is crowned by Miss USA 2017 Kara McCullough, Miss Universe 2017 Demi Leigh Nel Peters and Miss Teen USA 2018 Hailey Colborn after winning the 2018 Miss USA Competition.
“In a moment where I intended to admire the courage of a few of my sisters, I said something that I now realize can be perceived as not respectful, and I apologize,” Summers wrote in an apology she posted to Instagram at the time.
2019: Miss North Carolina Cheslie Kryst
Frank L. Szelwach/Miss USA
Kryst was a complex litigation attorney who helped free a man who was sentenced to life in prison for a drug offense. Her death in January 2022 shocked the tight-knit pageant community.
2020: Miss Mississippi Asya Branch
Benjamin Askinas/Miss USA
Branch was the first African-American woman to win the title of Miss Mississippi USA.
2021: Miss Kentucky Elle Smith
Felipe Espinal
Smith, a journalist from Kentucky, won Miss USA just six months after she began competing in pageants.
Miss Utah Noelia Voigt was crowned Miss USA in 2023.
Miss USA
Voigt was the first Venezuelan American to become Miss USA when she won in September 2023. She also became the first Miss USA to give up the crown, relinquishing her title in May 2024. Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava resigned two days later, saying her “personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization.” Miss Hawaii Savannah Gankiewicz became queen in Voigt’s stead.
Voigt and Srivastava’s mothers told Business Insider that their daughters endured “eight months of torture and abuse” from Laylah Rose, who was the CEO of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA during their reigns. Rose denied the allegations.
Cooper is a second lieutenant and military intelligence officer in the US Army and a graduate of the West Point Military Academy.
She is also a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University, where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in data science.
Following her win, Cooper told Business Insider that she believes the military and pageantry go hand in hand.
“I think discipline is a firm aspect between pageantry and the military,” Cooper said. “Being able to be intrinsically motivated, to have personal courage, is one of the Army values.”
“And to get onstage in front of millions of people, a nationally televised audience, and wear a swimsuit — that, in and of itself, is one way to display personal courage and believe in oneself,” she added.
