Thank the Academy for This Oscars History Quiz

In 1943, Greer Garson won the best actress award for "Mrs. Miniver" and spoke for a whopping five minutes. At the time, winners typically didn’t even give speeches. Many credit this moment with the modern-day time limit on Oscar acceptance speeches.

The very first Oscar in the history of the awards show was given to Emil Jannings on May 16, 1929. He won Best Actor for two different silent films: "The Way of All Flesh" (1927) and "The Last Command" (1928). The awards ceremony was much different than how we know it today — it cost $5 for a private dinner, and the entire ceremony only took 15 minutes.

At just 10 years old, Tatum O'Neal won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1973 for her role in "Paper Moon," which made her the youngest winner in history — a recond she holds to this day. Dressed in a tuxedo, the actress thanked two people in her acceptance speech: "Paper Moon" director Peter Bogdanovich and her costar and dad, Academy Award winner Ryan O'Neal.

On March 27, 1973, Marlon Brando won an Oscar for his performance of Don Vito Corleone in "The Godfather." However, he did not attend the ceremony and refused to accept the award. In his place, he famously sent Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather, who said Brando was not accepting the award because of Hollywood’s portrayal and treatment of Indigenous Peoples.

The truth of how the Academy Award statuette came to be called "Oscar" is murky, but folklore has an explanation. The story goes that Academy librarian Margaret Herrick saw the statuette for the first time, mentioned that it resembled her Uncle Oscar, and the nickname stuck.

On February 29, 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar. She won the Best Supporting Actress trophy for her portrayal of Mammy, a formerly enslaved woman who became a housemaid in "Gone With the Wind."

The Oscars are handed out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hence the official name of the show, the Academy Awards. Louis B. Mayer, who was head of MGM Studios at the time, founded the group in 1927 as a non-profit, and silent film star Douglas Fairbanks was the first president. The first annual Oscars ceremony took place in 1929.

Bob Hope wins the award for hosting the Academy Awards more than any other person — 19 times. Hope first took the stage at the 12th Academy Awards in 1940 and hosted 18 other times through 1978. He hosted the first televised Oscars in 1953 and the first ceremony broadcast in color in 1966. Billy Crystal comes in second with nine times and Johnny Carson's in third with five times.

Rolling out the red carpet didn’t begin with the Academy Awards; it actually dates back at least 2,500 years. Its first appearance was in the Greek tragedy "Agamemnon." In the play, the king hesitated to walk on a red carpet when he returned from the Trojan War because that was treatment for the gods, not man. He walked on it anyway and met an untimely end.

At four Oscars total, Katharine Hepburn holds the record for the most acting Oscars — all for Best Actress. She won her first in 1933 for "Morning Glory." The next was in 1967 for "Who's Coming To Dinner"; then a third in 1968 for "The Lion In Winter"; and her fourth in 1981 for "On Golden Pond." Hepburn never actually showed up to any of the award ceremonies to collect her awards, famously saying, “My prize is my work.”