Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."[1]
[edit] History
The tradition of selecting a Man of the Year began in 1927, with Time editors contemplating newsworthy stories possible during a slow news week. The idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year for not having aviator Charles Lindbergh on its cover following his historic trans-Atlantic flight. By the end of the year, it was decided that a cover story featuring Lindbergh as the Man of the Year would serve both purposes.[2]
Since then, individual people, classes of people, an invention, and a planet have been selected for the special year end issue. In 1999, the title was changed to Person of the Year [3] in an effort to be more inclusive.[citation needed] However, the only women to win the renamed recognition as an individual so far were those recognized as The Whistleblowers (2002) and Melinda Gates (jointly with Bill Gates and Bono in 2005). Before that, four women were granted the title as individuals, adapted as Women of the Year — Wallis Simpson in 1936, Soong May-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) in 1937, Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, and Corazon Aquino in 1986. Several classes of people comprise of both men and women, or women only, namely Hungarian Freedom Fighter in 1956, U.S. scientists in 1960, Twenty-Five and Under in 1966, The Middle Americans in 1969, American Women in 1975, The American Soldier in 2003, and You in 2006.
Since the list began, every serving President of the United States has been a Person of the Year at least once with the exceptions of Calvin Coolidge, in office at time of the first issue, Herbert Hoover, the next U.S. president, 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.[4]
Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person to have received the title 3 times - in 1932, 1934 and 1941.
Despite the magazine's frequent statements to the contrary, the designation is often regarded as an honor, and spoken of as an award or prize, simply based on many previous selections of admirable people.[5] However Time magazine points out those such as Adolf Hitler in 1938, and Joseph Stalin in 1939 and again in 1942, and the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, have also been granted the title.
In 1998, professional wrestler Mick Foley led the online poll to be voted Time Man of the Year; however, he was removed as a candidate after Time felt he had not done enough to deserve the accolade. Furthermore, the magazine has often attracted criticism for being too biased towards American personalities in its choice of Person of the Year.
As a result of the public backlash it received from the United States for naming the Ayatollah Khomeini Man of the Year in 1979, Time has shied away from using figures that are controversial (read unpopular) in the United States.[6] Time's Person of the Year 2001—immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks—was New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, although the rules of selection, the individual or group of individuals who have had the biggest effect on the year's news, made Osama bin Laden a more likely choice. The issue that declared Giuliani the Person of the Year included an article that mentioned Time's earlier decision to elect the Ayatollah Khomeini 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, as Adolf Hitler was a stronger candidate than Albert Einstein. The selections were ultimately based on what the magazine describes as who they believed had a stronger influence on history.
Another criticized choice was the 2006 selection of "You", representing most if not all people for advancing the information age by using the Internet (via e.g. blogs, YouTube, MySpace and Wikipedia).[7]
[edit] Persons of the Year
| Year | Choice | Lifetime | Notes |
| 1927 |  Charles Lindbergh | 1902–1974 | |
| 1928 | Walter Chrysler | 1875–1940 | |
| 1929 | Owen D. Young | 1874–1962 | |
| 1930 |  Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi | 1869–1948 | |
| 1931 |  Pierre Laval | 1883–1945 | |
| 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1882–1945 | |
| 1933 | Hugh Samuel Johnson | 1882–1942 | |
| 1934 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1882–1945 | |
| 1935 |  Haile Selassie I | 1892–1975 | |
| 1936 |  Wallis Simpson | 1896–1986 | |
| 1937 |  Chiang Kai-shek
Soong May-ling | 1887–1975
1897–2003 | |
| 1938 |  Adolf Hitler | 1889–1945 | |
| 1939 |  Joseph Stalin | 1878–1953 | |
| 1940 | Winston Churchill | 1874–1965 | |
| 1941 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1882–1945 | |
| 1942 | Joseph Stalin | 1878–1953 | |
| 1943 | George Marshall | 1880–1959 | |
| 1944 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1890–1969 | |
| 1945 | Harry S. Truman | 1884–1972 | |
| 1946 | James F. Byrnes | 1879–1972 | |
| 1947 | George Marshall | 1880–1959 | |
| 1948 | Harry S. Truman | 1884–1972 | |
| 1949 | Winston Churchill | 1874–1965 | Man of the Half-Century |
| 1950 | The American Fighting-Man | | Representing Korean War troops; first abstract chosen |
| 1951 |  Mohammed Mossadegh | 1882–1967 | |
| 1952 | Queen Elizabeth II[n 1] | b. 1926 | |
| 1953 |  Konrad Adenauer | 1876–1967 | |
| 1954 | John Foster Dulles | 1888–1959 | |
| 1955 | Harlow Curtice | 1893–1962 | |
| 1956 |  Hungarian Freedom Fighter | | |
| 1957 |  Nikita Khrushchev | 1894–1971 | |
| 1958 | Charles de Gaulle | 1890–1970 | |
| 1959 |  Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1890–1969 | |
| 1960 |  US Scientists | | Represented by George Beadle, Charles Draper, John Enders, Donald A. Glaser, Joshua Lederberg, Willard Libby, Linus Pauling, Edward Purcell, Isidor Rabi, Emilio Segrè, William Shockley, Edward Teller, Charles Townes, James Van Allen, and Robert Woodward |
| 1961 | John F. Kennedy | 1917–1963 | |
| 1962 |   Pope John XXIII | 1881–1963 | |
| 1963 | Martin Luther King, Jr. | 1929–1968 | |
| 1964 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 1908–1973 | |
| 1965 | William Westmoreland | 1914–2005 | |
| 1966 | The Generation Twenty-Five and Under (Baby Boomers) | | |
| 1967 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 1908–1973 | |
| 1968 | The Apollo 8 astronauts | | William Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell |
| 1969 | The Middle Americans | | |
| 1970 | Willy Brandt | 1913–1992 | |
| 1971 | Richard Nixon | 1913–1994 | |
| 1972 | Richard Nixon | 1913–1994 | |
| Henry Kissinger | b. 1923 | |
| 1973 | John Sirica | 1904–1992 | |
| 1974 |  King Faisal | 1906–1975 | |
| 1975 | American Women | | Represented by Susan Brownmiller, Kathleen Byerly, Alison Cheek, Jill Conway, Betty Ford, Ella Grasso, Carla Hills, Barbara Jordan, Billie Jean King, Carol Sutton, Susie Sharp, and Addie Wyatt |
| 1976 | Jimmy Carter | b. 1924 | |
| 1977 |  Anwar Sadat | 1918–1981 | |
| 1978 |  Deng Xiaoping | 1904–1997 | |
| 1979 |  Ayatollah Khomeini | 1902–1989 | |
| 1980 | Ronald Reagan | 1911–2004 | |
| 1981 |  Lech Wałęsa | b. 1943 | |
| 1982 | The Computer | | Machine of the Year |
| 1983 | Ronald Reagan | 1911–2004 | |
 Yuri Andropov | 1914–1984 | |
| 1984 | Peter Ueberroth | b. 1937 | |
| 1985 | Deng Xiaoping | 1904–1997 | |
| 1986 |  Corazon C. Aquino | 1933–2009 | |
| 1987 | Mikhail Gorbachev | b. 1931 | |
| 1988 | The Endangered Earth | | Planet of the Year |
| 1989 | Mikhail Gorbachev | b. 1931 | Man of the Decade |
| 1990 | George H. W. Bush | b. 1924 | Bush was referred to as The Two George Bushes — this is not a reference to George W. Bush but to how George H.W. Bush was complimented for international affairs and criticized for domestic affairs, including his quote, "Read my lips: no new taxes."[8] |
| 1991 | Ted Turner | b. 1938 | |
| 1992 | Bill Clinton | b. 1946 | |
| 1993 |    The Peacemakers | | Represented by Yasser Arafat, F.W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, and Yitzhak Rabin |
| 1994 | Pope John Paul II | 1920–2005 | |
| 1995 | Newt Gingrich | b. 1943 | |
| 1996 | David Ho | b. 1952 | |
| 1997 |  Andy Grove | b. 1936 | |
| 1998 | Bill Clinton | b. 1946 | |
| Kenneth Starr | b. 1946 | |
| 1999 | Jeffrey P. Bezos | b. 1964 | |
| 2000 | George W. Bush | b. 1946 | |
| 2001 | Rudolph Giuliani | b. 1944 | |
| 2002 | The Whistleblowers | | Represented by Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom; Coleen Rowley, FBI; and Sherron Watkins, Enron |
| 2003 | The American Soldier | | |
| 2004 | George W. Bush | b. 1946 | |
| 2005 |  The Good Samaritans | | Represented by Bono, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates |
| 2006 | You [9] | | Represented the individual content creator on the World Wide Web |
| 2007 |  Vladimir Putin[10] | b. 1952 | |
| 2008 | Barack Obama[11] | b. 1961 | |
| 2009 | Ben Bernanke[12] | b. 1953 | |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Person of the Year: 75th Anniversary Celebration (Special Collector's Edition ed.). New York: Time Books. 2002. OCLC 52817840.
- ^ Time (2002) p. 1.
- ^ First Person of the Year is Jeff Bezos of amazon.com.
- ^ Golden, Frederic (3 January 2000). "Person of the Century: Albert Einstein". Time. http://www.time.com/time/time100/poc/magazine/albert_einstein5a.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ Time (2002) pp. 2, 79.
- ^ Time (2002) p. 79.
- ^ http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2006/walkup/
- ^ Time (2002) p. 95.
- ^ Lev Grossman (13 December 2006). "Time's Person of the Year: You". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ "Person of the Year 2007". Time. 2007. http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/0,28757,1690753,00.html. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
- ^ "Person of the Year 2008". Time. 2008. http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/personoftheyear/article/0,31682,1861543_1865068,00.html?cnn=yes. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
- ^ Grunwald, Michael (16 December 2009). "Person of the Year 2009". Time. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1946375_1947251,00.html. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
[edit] External links
