Remember These 12 Oscar Milestone Moments?
Indelible events from the first 89 years of the Academy Awards
by Garrett Schaffel, AARP, February 28, 2018
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PHOTO BY: Courtesy Everett Collection
Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Clara Bow in 1927's "Wings"
1929
At the first Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Wings wins for outstanding picture, the only silent film to do so until The Artist in 2012. The entire ceremony takes 15 minutes and is watched only by the 270 guests in attendance. (It's the sole Oscars not broadcast on radio or TV.) The Jazz Singer isn't eligible because the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences had thought it unfair to have talkies compete with silent films.
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PHOTO BY: Courtesy Everett Collection
Miriam Hopkins, Fredric March in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde;" Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper in "The Champ"
1932
Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and Wallace Beery (The Champ) tie for the award for best actor. Thirty-seven years later, it happens again when Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) tie for best actress. This is controversial because Streisand was oddly invited to join the academy before her film was even released and thus had the opportunity to vote for herself.
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PHOTO BY: Ullstein Bild/Getty Images
Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in "It Happened One Night"
1935
It Happened One Night wins the big five – best picture, best director, best screenplay, best actor and best actress — the first film to do so, and only one of three ever. The other two: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1976 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1992.
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PHOTO BY: AP Photo
Hattie McDaniel (left) poses with an Oscar with Fay Bainter, the previous year's best supporting actress winner.
1940
Hattie McDaniel is named
best supporting actress for Gone With the Wind, the first black actress to win an Oscar and the only black winner until Sidney Poitier's victory for best actor in 1964 for Lilies of the Field. After McDaniel's death, an estate appraiser dismissed her award as having "no value," and it was later lost. Today it's estimated to be worth about $500,000. -
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PHOTO BY: Courtesy Everett Collection
Cathy O'Donnell and Harold Russell in "The Best Years of Our Lives"
1947
Harold Russell becomes the first nonprofessional actor to win an acting Oscar, for
best supporting actor for The Best Years of Our Lives. He is a World War II veteran who had lost both hands during the war, making him the first disabled actor to win an Academy Award, as well. -
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PHOTO BY: John Malmin/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Miyoshi Umeki (left) and her "Sayonara" costar Red Buttons, who also won that night
1958
Miyoshi Umeki wins for
best supporting actress for her role in 1957's Sayonara, becoming the first — and only — Asian actress to win an Oscar. -
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PHOTO BY: AP Photo
David Niven (right) cohosts the 1974 Oscars.
1974
Conceptual artist Robert Opel interrupts the ceremony by streaking naked across the stage and flashing a peace sign. Oscars cohost David Niven quips: "The only laugh that man will ever get in life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings."
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PHOTO BY: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Image
Giuseppe Sillato and Robert De Niro in "The Godfather: Part II"
1974
The Godfather: Part II becomes the first sequel to win for best picture — two years after The Godfather took the top prize. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King went on to win in 2004, the only other sequel to earn the award.
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann Archive
Don Ameche, the winner for best supporting actor for "Cocoon," and Cher, who had announced his category
1986
Cher beats Barbra Streisand's record for the most shocking Oscar outfit ever, a Bob Mackie dress with an 800-rooster-feather headpiece. The blouse Streisand wore at the 1969 ceremony — which she hadn't realized was so see-through in the bright lights — raised fewer eyebrows. In 2001, singer-songwriter and actress Bjork outdoes them both, donning a swan dress and dropping six eggs on the red carpet.
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PHOTO BY: Courtesy Everett Collection
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Titanic"
1998
Titanic, which still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 at the box office (15), wins for best picture at what many consider the best-ever Oscars ceremony, with a record-setting 55 million viewers. (That's more than 200,000 times the number who witnessed the first Oscars.)
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PHOTO BY: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Director Martin Scorsese accepts his Oscar.
2007
Martin Scorsese finally wins the Oscar for best director for The Departed. He had been nominated in this category five times before, coming up short each time. So when George Lucas, Steven Spielberg
and Francis Ford Coppola announce his name and present him the award, Scorsese jokes, "Could you double-check the envelope?" -
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PHOTO BY: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
"La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz (left) holds up the card that reveals the actual best picture winner is "Moonlight." Warren Beatty and host Jimmy Kimmel were also onstage.
2017
In perhaps the most shocking Oscars moment of them all, heavy favorite La La Land is accidentally announced as the winner for best picture. After more than 90 seconds of acceptance speeches by that film's producers, the wrong is righted (the envelopes had been mixed up backstage), and Moonlight is revealed to be the true winner.
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PHOTO BY: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP
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There is a lot of history in the Academy Awards over almost 100 years of celebrating the best Hollywood films. How well do you know the Oscars? Take our quiz and find out!