Person of the Year
Person of the Year is an annual issue of U.S.
newsmagazine TIME that features a profile on the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year."
The tradition of selecting a
Man of the Year began in 1927, when
Time editors contemplated what they could write about during a slow news week. Primarily, they sought to remedy an editorial embarrassment from earlier that year when the magazine did not put aviator
Charles Lindbergh on its cover following his historic trans-Atlantic flight. At the end of the year, they came up with the idea of a cover story about Charles Lindbergh being the "Man of the Year."
Since then, a person, group of people (either a team of select individuals or a demographic category), or in two special cases, an invention and the planet Earth, has been selected for a special issue at the end of every year. In 1999, the title was changed to
Person of the Year. However, the only women to win the renamed award were those in 2002 who were recognized as "The Whistleblowers" and, jointly with
Bill Gates and
Bono,
Melinda Gates in 2005. Four women were awarded the title when it was still
Man of the Year:
Corazon Aquino in 1986,
Queen Elizabeth II in 1952,
Soong Mei-ling in 1937 and
Wallis Simpson in 1936. However women would also be included in several groups, namely
Hungarian Freedom Fighter in 1956, U.S. scientists in 1960,
Twenty-Five and Under in 1966,
The Middle Americans in 1969, and of course, American Women in 1975.
|
Albert Einstein as Person of the Century |
Since 1927, every
President of the United States has been a Person of the Year at least once with the exceptions of
Calvin Coolidge,
Herbert Hoover and
Gerald Ford.
The
December 31,
1999 issue of
TIME named
Albert Einstein the
Person of the Century.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Mahatma Gandhi were chosen as runners-up.
The title is frequently mistaken as being an honor. Many, including some members of the American media, continue to wrongly perpetuate the idea that the position of "Person of the Year" is a reward or prize, despite the magazine's frequent statements to the contrary. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that many admirable people have been given the title—perhaps the majority. Thus, journalists will frequently describe a new person of the year as having "joined the ranks" of past winners such as
Martin Luther King. The fact that people such as
Adolf Hitler have been granted the title as well is often less well-known.
There was a massive public backlash in the
United States after
Time named
Ayatollah Khomeini as Man of the Year in
1979. Since then,
Time has generally shied away from choosing controversial candidates.
Time's Person of the Year
2001 â€" in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacks â€" was
New York mayor
Rudolph Giuliani. It was a somewhat controversial result; many thought that Giuliani was deserving, but many others thought that the rules of selection ("the individual or group of individuals who have had the biggest effect on the year's news") made the obvious choice
Osama bin Laden. They cited previous choices such as
Adolf Hitler to demonstrate that Person of the Year did not necessarily mean "best human being of the year." It is interesting to note that the issue which declared
Rudolph Giuliani as Person of the Year included an article that mentioned
Time's earlier decision to make Ayatollah Khomeini as Man of the Year in 1979 and the 1999 rejection of Hitler as "Person of the Century." The article seemed to imply that Osama bin Laden
was a stronger candidate than Giuliani for Person of the Year and Hitler was a stronger candidate than
Albert Einstein for Person of the Century, but they were not ultimately selected due to what the magazine described as their "negative" influence on history.
According to stories in respected newspapers,
Time's editors anguished over the choice, reasonably fearing that selecting the
al-Qaeda leader might offend readers and advertisers. Bin Laden had already appeared on its covers on
October 1,
November 12, and
November 26. Many readers expressed dissatisfaction at the idea of seeing his face on the cover again. In the end, Giuliani's selection led some to criticize that
Time had failed to uphold its own declared standards.
In recent years, the choices for Person of the Year have also been criticized for being too
Americentric, which is a departure from the original tradition of recognizing foreign political leaders and thinkers. Until
Bono received the title in 2005, Time had gone over a decade without recognizing a non-American individual.
The magazine's
Time for Kids, targeted at grade school and junior high students, has recently begun selecting a "person of the year" independent of the main magazine's selection. In 2005,
Harry Potter author
J.K. Rowling was named.
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1927:
Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974) (first person chosen)
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1928:
Walter Chrysler (1875–1940)
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1929:
Owen Young (1874–1962)
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1930:
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948)
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1931:
Pierre Laval (1883–1945)
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1932:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945)
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1933:
Hugh Johnson (1882–1942)
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1934:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) (
2nd time)
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1935:
Haile Selassie I (1892–1975)
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1936:
Wallis Simpson (1896–1986) (first female chosen)
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1937:
Chiang Kai-Shek (1887–1975) and
Soong May-ling (1898–2003) (first couple chosen)
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1938:
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
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1939:
Joseph Stalin (1879–1953)
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1940:
Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
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1941:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) (
3rd time)
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1942:
Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) (
2nd time)
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1943:
George Marshall (1880–1959)
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1944:
Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969)
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1945:
Harry Truman (1884–1972)
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1946:
James F. Byrnes (1879–1972)
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1947:
George Marshall (1880–1959) (
2nd time)
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1948:
Harry Truman (1884–1972) (
2nd time)
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1949:
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) (
2nd time) ("Man of the Half-Century")
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1950:
The American Fighting-Man (first "abstract" chosen)
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1951:
Mohammed Mossadegh (1882–1967)
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1952:
Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926)
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1953:
Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967)
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1954:
John Dulles (1888–1959)
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1955:
Harlow Curtice (1893–1962)
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1956:
Hungarian Freedom Fighter*
1957:
Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)
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1958:
Charles De Gaulle (1890–1970)
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1959:
Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969) (
2nd time)
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1960: U.S.
scientists (represented by
Linus Pauling,
Isidor Rabi,
Edward Teller,
Joshua Lederberg,
Donald A. Glaser,
Willard Libby,
Robert Woodward,
Charles Draper,
William Shockley,
Emilio Segre,
John Enders,
Charles Townes,
George Beadle,
James Van Allen and
Edward Purcell)
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1961:
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)
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1962:
Pope John XXIII (1881–1963)
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1963:
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968)
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1964:
Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973)
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1965:
William Westmoreland (1914–2005)
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1966:
The Generation Twenty-Five and Under*
1967:
Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973) (
2nd time)
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1968: The Astronauts;
Frank Borman (b. 1928),
Jim Lovell (b. 1928),
William Anders (b. 1933)
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1969: The
Middle Americans
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1970:
Willy Brandt (1913–1992)
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1971:
Richard Nixon (1913–1994)
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1972:
Richard Nixon (1913–1994) (
2nd time) and
Henry Kissinger (b. 1923)
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1973:
John Sirica (1904–1992)
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1974:
King Faisal (1906–1975)
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1975:
American Women (represented by
Betty Ford,
Carla Hills,
Ella Grasso,
Barbara Jordan,
Susie Sharp,
Jill Conway,
Billy Jean King,
Susan Brownmiller,
Addie Wyatt,
Kathleen Byerly,
Carol Sutton and
Alison Cheek)
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1976:
Jimmy Carter (b. 1924)
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1977:
Anwar Sadat (1918–1981)
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1978:
Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997)
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1979:
Ayatollah Khomeini (1902–1989)
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1980:
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004)
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1981:
Lech Wałęsa (b. 1943)
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1982:
The Computer (first non-human "abstract" chosen)
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1983:
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) (
2nd time) and
Yuri Andropov (1914–1984)
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1984:
Peter Ueberroth (b. 1937)
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1985:
Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) (
2nd time)*
1986:
Corazón Aquino (b. 1933)
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1987:
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (b. 1931)
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1988: Endangered
Earth ("Planet of the Year")
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1989:
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (b. 1931) (
2nd time)
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1990:
George H. W. Bush (b. 1924)
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1991:
Ted Turner (b. 1938)
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1992:
Bill Clinton (b. 1946)
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1993: The Peacemakers;
Nelson Mandela (b. 1918),
F.W. de Klerk (b. 1936),
Yasser Arafat (1929–2004), and
Yitzhak Rabin (1922–1995)
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1994:
Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)
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1995:
Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
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1996:
David Ho (b. 1952)
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1997:
Andy Grove (b. 1936)
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1998:
Bill Clinton (b. 1946) (
2nd time) and
Kenneth Starr (b. 1946)
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1999:
Jeffrey P. Bezos (b. 1964)
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2000:
George W. Bush (b. 1946)
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2001:
Rudolph Giuliani (b. 1944)
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2002: The
Whistleblowers;
Cynthia Cooper of
Worldcom (b. 1963),
Sherron Watkins of
Enron (b. 1959), and
Coleen Rowley of the
FBI (b. 1954)
*
2003: The
American Soldier (
2nd time)
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2004:
George W. Bush (b. 1946) (
2nd time)
*
2005: The Good Samaritans;
Bono (b. 1960),
Bill Gates (b. 1955), and
Melinda Gates (b. 1964)
Image:Time-magazine-cover-charles-lindberg.jpg|Charles Lindberg, 1927Image:1101250420 400.jpg|Walter Chrysler, 1928Image:Time Jan 6 1930.jpg|Owen Young, 1929Image:1101301103 400.jpg|Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, 1930Image:1933.jpg|Hugh S. Johnson, 1933Image:Stalintime2.jpeg|Joseph Stalin, 1939Image:Winstonchurchilltimemagazine.jpg|Winston Churchill, 1940Image:American fighting man Time.jpg|The American Fighting Man, 1950Image:Mossadegh_Time.jpg|Mohammed Mossadegh, 1951Image:Time Jan 2 1956.jpg|Harlow Curtice, 1955Image:Pope_John_XXIII.jpg|Pope John XXIII, 1962Image:January 3, 1969 Time Magazine Cover.jpg|Apollo 8 crew, 1968Image:Willy Brandt Time.jpg|Willy Brandt, 1970Image:Faisal_time.jpg|Faisal bin Abdelaziz Al Saud, 1973Image:Reagan-MOTY.jpg|Ronald Reagan, 1980Image:Lech Walesa Time1.jpg|Lech Wałęsa, 1981Image:1101850107 400.jpg|Peter Ueberroth, 1984Image:Cory Aquino - Woman_of_the_Year.jpg|Cory Aquino, 1986Image:TIME Gorbachev.jpg|Mikhail Gorbachev, 1987Image:1101920106 400.jpg|Ted Turner, 1991Image:Jeff bezos TIME person of the year 1999.jpg|Jeff Bezos, 1999Image:1101011231 400.jpg|Rudolph Giuliani, 2001Image:American soldier Time.jpg|The American soldier, 2003Image:TIME cover Persons of the Year 2005.jpg|The Good Samaritans; Bono, Bill Gates , and Melinda Gates; 2005The
lemmas of what, according to the
Oxford English Corpus, are the three most common noun
lexemes in the
English language are
time,
person and
year.
*
Mick Foley (Received an overwhelming majority of the online votes in 1998 before being removed)
*
Masashi Tashiro (He was No. 1 temporarily in the Internet vote in 2001 before being removed)
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Yearly Time covers
