From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base
Time Person of the Year
Annual influential person or idea chosen by magazine
Annual influential person or idea chosen by magazine
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Person of the Year |
| caption | 1927 Man of the Year Charles Lindbergh, the award's inaugural winner |
| country | United States |
| presenter | *Time* |
| former name | |
| year | |
| holder | "The Architects of AI" (2025) |
Person of the Year, called Man of the Year or Woman of the Year until 1999, is an annual issue of the American news magazine and website Time featuring a person, group, idea, or object that "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year". The Time website or a partner organization also runs an annual online reader's poll that has no effect on the selection, although no poll was held in 2023 or 2024.
Background
The tradition of selecting a "Man of the Year" began privately in 1927, with Time editors contemplating the news makers of the year after a series of "slow news days" leading up to New Year's Day. The idea originally focused on a Man of the Week before it was decided to use Charles Lindbergh to represent the predominant story of 1927, with the magazine listing him as Man of the Year being published in early 1928. The idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year of not having aviator Lindbergh on its cover following his historic transatlantic 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. Before the online poll was instituted, "readers were invited to weigh in by mail."
Selection
State leaders
Since the list began, every serving president of the United States has been a Man or Person of the Year at least once, with the exceptions of Calvin Coolidge (in office at the time of the first issue), Herbert Hoover (the subsequent president), and Gerald Ford (the only president never to have been elected to the office of president or vice president). Most were named Man or Person of the Year either the year they were elected or while they were in office; the only one to be given the title before being elected was Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1944, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Invasion Force, eight years before his first election. He received the title again in 1959 while in office. Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chosen US president and is the only person to have received the title three times, first as president-elect (1932) and later as the incumbent president (1934 and 1941). Below is a list of all countries' heads of state or government to have been chosen as Man, Woman, or Person of the Year (arranged in chronological order by country name, from the most frequently selected).
| Number of selections | Office | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 24 (14 unique leaders) | President of the United States | (1932, 1934, 1941); (1945, 1948); (1959); (1961); (1964, 1967); (1971, 1972); (1976); (1980, 1983); (1990); (1992, 1998); (2000, 2004); (2008, 2012); (2020); and (2016, 2024) |
| 6 (4 unique leaders) | General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union | (1939, 1942); (1957); (1983); and (1987, 1989) |
| 4 | Chancellor of Germany | (1938); (1953); (1970); and (2015) |
| 3 | Pope (Sovereign leader of the Vatican City) | John XXIII (1962); John Paul II (1994); and Francis (2013) |
| 2 (1 unique leader) | Paramount leader of the People's Republic of China | (1978, 1985) |
| 2 | Prime Minister of France | (1931); and (1958) |
| 1 | Premier of the Republic of China | (1937) |
| 1 | President of Egypt | (1977) |
| 1 | Emperor of Ethiopia | (1935) |
| 1 | Prime Minister of Iran | (1951) |
| 1 | Supreme Leader of Iran | (1979) |
| 1 | Prime Minister of Israel | (1993) |
| 1 | President of the Palestinian National Authority | (1993) |
| 1 | President of the Philippines | (1986) |
| 1 | President of Russia | (2007) |
| 1 | King of Saudi Arabia | Faisal (1974) |
| 1 | State President of South Africa | (1993) |
| 1 | President of Ukraine | (2022) |
| 1 | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | (1940) |
| 1 | Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms | Elizabeth II (1952) |
; Notes Winston Churchill was chosen a second time for the special "Man of the Half-Century" edition in 1949 while serving as Leader of the Opposition before his second premiership; Charles de Gaulle was chosen while being elected President of France before formally taking office; Lech Wałęsa and Nelson Mandela were chosen before being elected President of Poland and President of South Africa, respectively.
Women
Before 1999, four women were granted the title as individuals: three as "Woman of the Year"—Wallis Simpson (1936), Queen Elizabeth II (1952), and Corazon Aquino (1986)—and one as half of "Man and Wife of the Year", Soong Mei-ling (jointly with Chiang Kai-shek) in 1937. "American Women" were recognized as a group in 1975. Other classes of people recognized comprise both men and women, such as "Hungarian Freedom Fighters" (1956), "U.S. Scientists" (1960), "The Inheritors" (1966), "The Middle Americans" (1969), "The American Soldier" (1950 and 2003), "You" (2006), "The Protester" (2011), and "Ebola Fighters" (2014). However, the title on the magazine remained "Man of the Year" for both the 1956 "Hungarian Freedom Fighter" and the 1966 "Twenty-five and Under" editions which both featured a woman standing behind a man, and "Men of the Year" on the 1960 "U.S. Scientists" edition which exclusively featured men on its cover. It was not until the 1969 edition on "The Middle Americans" that the title embraced "Man and Woman of the Year".
In 1999, the title was changed to the gender-neutral "Person of the Year" (its first recipient under the new name being Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com). Women who have been selected for recognition after the renaming include "The Whistleblowers" (Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley, and Sherron Watkins) in 2002; Melinda Gates (jointly with Bill Gates and Bono) in 2005; Angela Merkel (2015); "The Silence Breakers" (2017); Greta Thunberg (2019); Kamala Harris (jointly with Joe Biden) in 2020; Taylor Swift (2023); and "The Architects of AI" (among whom Fei-Fei Li and Lisa Su) in 2025. To celebrate International Women's Day in 2020, Time editors released 89 new magazine covers, each showing women, in addition to the 11 already chosen, as counterparts to the Man of the Year choices from the past century. Since 2022, Time has awarded a separate "Women of the Year" title to a number of women each year, in a similar fashion to Time 100.
Groups and non-humans
Despite the name, the title is not just granted to individuals. Pairs of people such as married couples and political opponents, classes of people, and inanimate objects have all been selected for the special year-end issue.
Multiple named people
- Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling, president and first lady of China (1937)
- William Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell, crew of Apollo 8 (1968)
- Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, political allies (1972)
- Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov, Cold War rivals (1983)
- Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk; Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, political leaders leading peace negotiations (1993)
- Bill Clinton and Ken Starr, key figures in the Clinton impeachment (1998)
- Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley, and Sherron Watkins, whistleblowers (2002)
- Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Bono, philanthropists (2005)
- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, American president-elect and vice president-elect (2020)
Classes of unnamed people
- The American fighting-man / The American soldier (1950 and 2003)
- The Hungarian freedom fighter (1956)
- U.S. scientists (1960)
- The Inheritor (1966)
- Middle Americans (1969)
- American women (1975)
- You (2006)
- The Protester (2011)
- Ebola fighters (2014)
- The Silence Breakers (2017)
- The Guardians (2018)
- The Architects of AI (2025)
Inanimate objects
- The Computer (Machine of the Year, 1982)
- The Endangered Earth (Planet of the Year, 1988)
Abstract concepts
- The Spirit of Ukraine (2022)
Special editions
In 1949, Winston Churchill was named Man of the Half-Century, and the last issue of 1989 named Mikhail Gorbachev as "Man of the Decade". The December 31, 1999 issue of Time named Albert Einstein the "Person of the Century". Both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi were chosen as runners-up. Aside from Einstein, the December 31 edition also named Persons of the Century for every century of the 2nd millennium: William the Conqueror for the 11th century, Saladin for the 12th century, Genghis Khan for the 13th century, Giotto for the 14th century, Johannes Gutenberg for the 15th century, Elizabeth I for the 16th century, Isaac Newton for the 17th century, Thomas Jefferson for the 18th century, and Thomas Edison for the 19th century.
Controversial choices
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. Time observes that controversial figures such as Adolf Hitler (1938), Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Nikita Khrushchev (1957), and Ayatollah Khomeini (1979) have also been granted the title for their impact on events. Nevertheless, as a result of the cancellation of subscriptions from the American audience for naming Khomeini Man of the Year in 1979, following the Iran hostage crisis, the magazine's editors have since shied away from using figures who are controversial in the United States, fearing reductions in sales or advertising revenue.
Times Person of the Year for 2001, immediately following the September 11 attacks, was Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City at the time of the attacks. The stated rules of selection—the individual or group of individuals who have had the bigger influence on the year's events—made Osama bin Laden the more likely choice that year; however, Giuliani was selected for symbolizing the American response to the attacks, in the same way that Albert Einstein was selected Person of the Century for representing a century of scientific exploration and wonder instead of Adolf Hitler, who was arguably a stronger candidate.
Withdrawn and alleged selections
In 1941, the fictional elephant Dumbo from Walt Disney's animated film of the same name was selected to be "Mammal of the Year", and a cover was created showing the title character in a formal portrait style. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 pre-empted the cover. The U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was named Man of the Year for a record third time, although Dumbo's Mammal of the Year profile still appeared on the inside pages of the magazine.
Filmmaker Michael Moore claims that director Mel Gibson cost him the opportunity to be Person of the Year alongside Gibson in 2004. Moore's controversial political documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 became the highest-grossing documentary of all time the same year Gibson's The Passion of the Christ became a box-office success and also caused significant controversy. Moore said in an interview "I got a call right after the '04 election from an editor from Time Magazine. He said,' Time Magazine has picked you and Mel Gibson to be Time's Person of the Year to put on the cover, Right and Left, Mel and Mike. The only thing you have to do is pose for a picture with each other. And do an interview together.' I said 'OK.' They call Mel up, he agrees. They set the date and time in LA. I'm to fly there. He's flying from Australia. Something happens when he gets home ... Next thing, Mel calls up and says, 'I'm not doing it. I've thought it over and it is not the right thing to do.' So they put Bush on the cover."
U.S. president Donald Trump claimed on Twitter in November 2017 that Time editors had told him he would "probably" be named Person of the Year for a second time, conditional on an interview and photo shoot, which he had refused. Time denied that they had made any such promises or conditions to Trump, who was named a runner-up.
Person(s) of the Year
| Year | Image | Choice | Lifetime | Notes | Runners-up | (2) | (3) | (2) | (2) | (2) | (2) | (2) | John XXIII | (2) | (2) | (2) | (2) | (2) | John Paul II | (2) | (2) | (2) | (2) | Francis | fighters | (2) | (2) | The Architects of AI | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1927 | [[File:Charles Lindbergh Time cover 1928.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1902–1974 | Lindbergh completed the first solo transatlantic flight in May 1927 by piloting his monoplane *Spirit of St. Louis* from Garden City, New York to Paris, France. | *Time* did not release a shortlist. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1928 | [[File:Walter Chysler Time cover 1929.webp | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1875–1940 | In 1928, Chrysler oversaw a merger of his company, Chrysler, with Dodge before beginning work on the Chrysler Building. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1929 | [[File:Owen D. Young on TIME Magazine, January 6, 1930.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1874–1962 | Young chaired a committee which authored 1929's Young Plan, a program for settlement of German reparations after World War I. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1930 | [[File:Gandhi Time cover 1931.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1869–1948 | Gandhi was the leader of India's independence movement. In 1930, he led the Salt Satyagraha, a 240-mile march to protest the imposition of taxes on salt by the British Raj. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1931 | [[File:Pierre Laval-TIME-1932.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1883–1945 | Laval was first appointed Prime Minister of France in 1931. He was popular in the American press at the time for opposing the Hoover Moratorium, a temporary freeze on World War I debt payments that was disliked in both France and the US. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1932 | [[File:Franklin_D._Roosevelt_on_Time_cover_1933.webp | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1882–1945 | Roosevelt won the [1932 US presidential election](1932-united-states-presidential-election) by a landslide, defeating the incumbent, Herbert Hoover. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1933 | [[File:1933 Time Man of the Year cover alt 2.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1882–1942 | In 1933, Johnson was appointed director of the National Recovery Administration. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave him the task of bringing industry, labor and government together to create codes of "fair practices" and set prices. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1934 | [[File:Franklin D. Roosevelt Time cover 1935.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1882–1945 | Roosevelt was President of the United States from 1933 to 1945. In 1934, Roosevelt's New Deal reforms were beginning to bring results. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1935 | [[File:Haile Selassie Time cover 1936.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1892–1975 | Selassie was Emperor of Ethiopia in 1935, when Italian forces invaded Ethiopia, starting the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1936 | [[File:Vincenzo Laviosa - Duke and Duchess of Windsor - Google Art Project (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1896–1986 | In 1936, Simpson's relationship with King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom led the king to abdicate the throne to marry her. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1937 | [[File:Chiang Kai-shek（蔣中正） (9to12).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1887–1975 | Chiang was Premier of the Republic of China at the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:Madame Chiang Kai-shek, seated portrait (cropped 3x4).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1898–2003 | Soong was wife of Chiang Kai-shek from 1927 until his death in 1975, and was active in rallying support for the Republic of China in the US. Addressed as Madame Chiang Kai-Shek by the magazine, she was recognized together with her husband as "Man & Wife of the Year". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1938 | [[File:Adolf Hitler cropped restored.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1889–1945 | last=Kluger | first=Jeffrey | author-link=Jeffrey Kluger | title=130 Years After Hitler's Birth, He Continues to Live as a Symbol of Evil | magazine=Time | url=https://time.com/5573720/hitler-world-influence/ | access-date=June 10, 2020 | archive-date=May 22, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522042547/https://time.com/5573720/hitler-world-influence/ | url-status=live }} | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1939 | [[File:Joseph Stalin, 1950 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1878–1953 | In 1939, Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Premier of the Soviet Union. He oversaw the signing of a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany before invading eastern Poland. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1940 | [[File:Sir Winston Churchill - 19086236948 (cropped2).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1874–1965 | Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1941 | [[File:FDR 1944 Color Portrait (3x4 cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1882–1945 | Roosevelt was President of the United States in 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor, declaration of war against Japan and resulting entry of the United States into World War II. The editors had already chosen Dumbo as their "Mammal of the Year" before the Pearl Harbor attack, but quickly changed it to Roosevelt. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1942 | [[File:Joseph Stalin, 1950 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1878–1953 | By 1942, Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Premier of the Soviet Union, overseeing the Battle of Stalingrad (1942–1943). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1943 | [[File:George Catlett Marshall, general of the US army (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1880–1959 | As United States Army Chief of Staff in 1943, General Marshall was instrumental in organizing US actions in World War II. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1944 | [[File:WW2 Liberation of France Eisenhower Portrait (3x4 cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1890–1969 | General Eisenhower was Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during 1944's Operation Overlord. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1945 | [[File:Harry S Truman, bw half-length photo portrait, facing front, 1945 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1884–1972 | Truman became President of the United States after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, authorizing the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1946 | [[File:James F. Byrnes cph.3c32232.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1882–1972 | In 1946, Byrnes was United States Secretary of State during the Iran crisis of 1946, taking an increasingly hardline position in opposition to Stalin. His speech, "Restatement of Policy on Germany", set the tone of future US policy, repudiating the Morgenthau Plan economic policies and giving Germans hope for the future. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1947 | [[File:George Catlett Marshall, general of the US army (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1880–1959 | Appointed United States Secretary of State in 1947, Marshall was the architect of the Marshall Plan. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1948 | [[File:TRUMAN 58-766-06 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1884–1972 | Truman was [elected in his own right](1948-united-states-presidential-election) as President of the United States in 1948, which is considered to be one of the greatest election upsets in American history. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1949 | [[File:Sir Winston Churchill - 19086236948 (cropped2).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1874–1965 | Proclaimed as the "Man of the half-century", Churchill had led Britain and the Allies to victory in WWII. In 1949, Churchill was Leader of the Opposition. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1950 | [[File:Man-of-the-Year-TIME-1951.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Representing US troops involved in the Korean War (1950–1953) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1951 | [[File:Mohammad Mosaddegh portrait.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1882–1967 | In 1951, Mossadegh was appointed Prime Minister of Iran and expelled Western oil companies, starting the Abadan Crisis. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1952 | [[File:Queen Elizabeth II-TIME-1953.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1926–2022 | In 1952, Elizabeth acceded to the throne of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms upon the death of her father, King George VI. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1953 | [[File:Konrad-Adenauer-TIME-1954.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1876–1967 | In 1953, Adenauer was [re-elected](1953-west-german-federal-election) as Chancellor of West Germany. Adenauer was overseeing the reconstruction of Germany and the Economic Miracle, had successfully restored relations with Germany's wartime enemies in the West, and was working towards European integration. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1954 | [[File:John Foster Dulles Nov 49-cropped.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1888–1959 | As United States Secretary of State in 1954, Dulles was architect of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1955 | [[File:Mr. Harlow H. Curtice, General Manager. Buick Motor Division.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1893–1962 | Curtice was President of General Motors (GM) from 1953 to 1958. In 1955, GM sold five million vehicles and became the first corporation to earn US$1 billion in a single year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1956 | [[File:TIME Magazine Cover Hungarian Patriot, Man of the Year.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Representing Hungarian revolutionaries involved in the 1956 uprising against the Soviet-dominated government, which was put down by the Soviet Army | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1957 | [[File:Nikita-Khrushchev-TIME-1958.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1894–1971 | In 1957, Khrushchev consolidated his leadership of the Soviet Union, surviving a plot to dismiss him by Stalinist members within the Presidium, and leading the Soviet Union into the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1958 | [[File:Charles-DeGaulle-TIME-1959.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1890–1970 | De Gaulle was appointed Prime Minister of France in May 1958 and, following the collapse of the Fourth Republic and establishment of the Fifth Republic, was then [elected](1958-french-presidential-election) as President of France in December. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1959 | [[File:Dwight D. Eisenhower, official photo portrait, May 29, 1959.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1890–1969 | Eisenhower was President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. In 1959, Eisenhower arranged the state visit by Nikita Khrushchev to the United States and toured several countries, becoming the first US president to visit India. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1960 | [[File:Conical flask teal.svg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | *Time* claimed in 1960 "science is at the apogee of its power for good or evil", although it noted that "the 15 men [on the cover] include two or three whose greatest work is probably behind them". | title = The cover and piece spotlights the following scientists: | George Beadle, pioneer of genetics | Charles Draper, inventor of spacecraft inertial guidance systems | John Enders, pioneer of polio and measles vaccines | Donald A. Glaser, inventor of the bubble chamber | Joshua Lederberg, discoverer of bacterial conjugation | Willard Libby, contributor to radiocarbon dating | Linus Pauling, pioneer of quantum chemistry and molecular biology | Edward Purcell, co-discoverer of nuclear magnetic resonance | Isidor Rabi, co-discoverer of nuclear magnetic resonance | Emilio Segrè, discoverer of astatine, technetium and the antiproton | William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor | Edward Teller, nuclear physicist and co-inventor of the hydrogen bomb | Charles Townes, inventor of the maser | James Van Allen, discoverer of the Van Allen radiation belt | Robert Woodward, pioneer of organic synthesis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1961 | [[File:John F. Kennedy, White House color photo portrait.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1917–1963 | Kennedy was inaugurated as President of the United States in 1961, ordering the failed invasion of Cuba by U.S.-trained Cuban exiles. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1962 | [[File:Pope John XXIII - Time Magazine Cover - January 4, 1963.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1881–1963 | Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963. In 1962, he volunteered as a mediator in the Cuban Missile Crisis between the U.S. and USSR, gaining praise from both sides. He also initiated the Second Vatican Council that same year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1963 | [[File:Martin Luther King, Jr..jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1929–1968 | A leader of the American Civil rights movement, King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1964 | [[File:37 Lyndon Johnson 3x4.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1908–1973 | Johnson was [elected in his own right](1964-united-states-presidential-election) as President of the United States in 1964, secured the passage of the Civil Rights Act, declared a war on poverty, and escalated US involvement in the Vietnam War. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1965 | [[File:Gen William C Westmoreland b.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1914–2005 | General Westmoreland was commander of US forces in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1966 | [[File:US Birth Rates.svg | frameless | class=skin-invert | upright=0.5]] | Representing a generation of American men and women, aged 25 and under – the Baby Boom generation, who in 1966 made up nearly half the population and were influential both in the counterculture of the 1960s and as drafted soldiers in the Vietnam War. The face most prominently seen on the cover representing the generation was that of Thomas M. McLaughlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1967 | [[File:Lyndon B. Johnson Dec. 1967 (cropped 3x4).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1908–1973 | Johnson was President of the United States from 1963 to 1969. *Time* noted that it had been a year of setbacks and failures for Johnson, with race riots across the US, deepening involvement in the Vietnam War, and the Dump Johnson movement within his own party. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1968 | [[File:Apollo 8 Crewmembers (4x5 cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Frank Borman: 1928–2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jim Lovell: 1928–2025 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| William Anders: 1933–2024 | In 1968, the American crew of Apollo 8 (William Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell) became the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit, orbiting the Moon and paving the way for the first human Moon landings in 1969. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1969 | [[File:US map-Central.png | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Conservative, small-town Americans, also referred to as the silent majority. *Time* saw Middle America as the driving force behind Richard Nixon's [1968 election win](1968-united-states-presidential-election), the background of the American astronauts of Apollo 11, and the conservative side of debates on social issues such as school desegregation, prayer in public schools, sex education and drugs policy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1970 | [[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F057884-0009, Willy Brandt.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1913–1992 | As Chancellor of West Germany, Brandt was acknowledged for "seeking to bring about a fresh relationship between East and West" through his "bold approach to the Soviet Union and the East Bloc". In 1970, Brandt renounced German claims on Poland and recognized East Germany, and acknowledged the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland with the symbolic *Kniefall von Warschau*. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1971 | [[File:RichardNixoncrop.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1913–1994 | Nixon was President of the United States from 1969 to 1974. In 1971, Nixon had withdrawn the US dollar from the gold standard, triggering the Nixon shock, created the Economic Stabilization Program, and [re-opened relations with communist China](1972-visit-by-richard-nixon-to-china). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1972 | [[File:Richard Nixon presidential portrait (1).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1913–1994 | As President of the United States, Nixon [visited China](1972-visit-by-richard-nixon-to-china) in 1972, the first U.S. president to do so. Nixon later secured the SALT I pact with the Soviet Union before being [re-elected](1972-united-states-presidential-election) in one of the largest landslide election victories in American history. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, 1973-1977.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1923–2023 | Kissinger, as Nixon's National Security Advisor, traveled with the President to China in 1972, and was negotiating peace in the Vietnam War. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1973 | [[File:John Sirica c. 1973.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1904–1992 | In 1973, as Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Sirica ordered President Nixon to turn over Watergate-related recordings of White House conversations. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1974 | [[File:King Faisal bin Abdulaziz (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1906–1975 | Faisal, King of Saudi Arabia, was acknowledged in the wake of the [oil crisis](1973-oil-crisis), which arose when Saudi Arabia withdrew its oil from world markets to protest Western support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. | {{Collapsible list | title = 5 | Yasser Arafat | Gerald Ford | Henry Kissinger | Richard Nixon | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1975 | [[File:Pink Venus symbol.svg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Highlighting the successes of the American feminist movement and "the status of the everyday, usually anonymous woman, who moved into the mainstream of jobs, ideas and policy making". | title = The cover and piece spotlights the following women: | Susan Brownmiller, author of *Against Our Will* | Kathleen Byerly, first female captain in the U.S. Navy | Alison Cheek, first ordained Episcopalian minister | Jill Conway, first female president of Smith College | Betty Ford, politically active as First Lady of the United States | Ella Grasso, first female Governor of Connecticut | Carla Hills, first female United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development | Barbara Jordan, member of the United States House of Representatives | Billie Jean King, tennis player and winner of the "Battle of the Sexes" | Carol Sutton, first female editor of a major U.S. paper | Susie Sharp, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court | Addie Wyatt, vice president of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters trade union | {{Collapsible list | title = 9 | Jerry Brown | Hugh Carey | Deng Xiaoping | Gerald Ford | Henry Kissinger | Pat Moynihan | Anwar Sadat | Andrei Sakharov | William Simon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1976 | [[File:Carter cropped.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1924–2024 | In 1976, Carter was [elected](1976-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States, defeating incumbent President Gerald Ford. | *Time* did not release a shortlist. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1977 | [[File:Anwar Sadat cropped.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1918–1981 | Sadat, as President of Egypt, traveled to Israel in 1977—the first Arab leader to do so—to discuss normalization of relations of both countries. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1978 | [[File:Deng Xiaoping at the arrival ceremony for the Vice Premier of China (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1904–1997 | Deng, as Vice Premier, overthrew Hua Guofeng to [assume *de facto* control](3rd-plenary-session-of-the-11th-central-committee-of-the-chinese-communist-party) over China in 1978, as Paramount leader. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | John Paul II | Margaret Thatcher | Paul Volcker | Young Indochinese refugees | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1979 | [[File:Portrait of Ruhollah Khomeini.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1902–1989 | Khomeini led the Iranian Revolution, overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, establishing himself as Supreme Leader. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Jimmy Carter | Howard Jarvis | John Paul II | Jim Jones | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1980 | [[File:Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981-cropped.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1911–2004 | Reagan was [elected](1980-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States in 1980, defeating incumbent President Jimmy Carter. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | The American hostages | Herbert Boyer | Leonid Brezhnev | Lech Wałęsa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1981 | [[File:Lech Wałęsa (2019), FORUM 2000, Prague (2).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1943 | Leader of the Polish Solidarity trade union and architect of the Gdańsk Agreement until his arrest by the communist authorities and the imposition of martial law in Poland in December 1981 | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Diana, Princess of Wales | Ronald Reagan | Space Shuttle *Columbia* | "A weapon of terror" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1982 | [[File:Sanco 8001.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Denoted "Machine of the Year" to herald the dawn of the Information Age | title = The feature spotlights the following people, in order: | Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer | John Opel, president and CEO of IBM | Adam Osborne, founder of Osborne Computer Corporation | Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc | Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore International | Clive Sinclair, founder of Sinclair Research | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Menachem Begin | *E.T.* | Margaret Thatcher | Paul Volcker | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1983 | [[File:Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981-cropped.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1911–2004 | In 1983, as President of the United States, Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada and championed the Strategic Defense Initiative. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Harold Greene | John Paul II | Margaret Thatcher | U.S. servicemen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:YuriAndropov1970.png | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1914–1984 | Andropov, as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was a critic of the Strategic Defense Initiative and tried to revive the stagnating Soviet economy. Andropov was hospitalized in August 1983 and died in 1984. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1984 | [[File:Peter Ueberroth 1985.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1937 | Ueberroth orchestrated the organization of the [1984 Summer Olympics](1984-summer-olympics), which involved a [Soviet-led boycott](1984-summer-olympics-boycott). | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | José Napoleón Duarte | Geraldine Ferraro | Ronald Reagan | The Terrorist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1985 | [[File:Deng Xiaoping at the arrival ceremony for the Vice Premier of China (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1904–1997 | As Paramount Leader of China, Deng acknowledged the need for "sweeping economic reforms that have challenged Marxist orthodoxies". In 1985, Deng had lifted price controls and eased the restrictions on private ownership and business. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Bob Geldof | Mikhail Gorbachev | Nelson Mandela | The Terrorist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1986 | [[File:Corazon Aquino 1986.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1933–2009 | Aquino was a prominent figure in 1986's People Power Revolution, being [elected](1986-philippine-presidential-election) president of the Philippines. | {{Collapsible list | title = 3 | Mikhail Gorbachev | Nelson and Winnie Mandela | Oliver North | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1987 | [[File:RIAN archive 850809 General Secretary of the CPSU CC M. Gorbachev (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1931–2022 | As general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev oversaw perestroika and glasnost political reforms in 1987, aimed at liberalizing Soviet society. | {{Collapsible list | title = 5 | Óscar Arias | William Casey | Oliver North | John Poindexter | Ronald Reagan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1988 | [[File:The Blue Marble (remastered).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Planet of the Year, representing the growing environmental movement as well as several natural and ecological disasters that struck in 1988: among them were the [North American drought](1988-1990-north-american-drought), "syringe tide", [Bangladeshi cyclone](1988-bangladesh-cyclone) and [an earthquake in Armenia](1988-armenian-earthquake), as well as ozone depletion, global warming, radioactive contamination and deforestation. | *Time* did not release a shortlist. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1989 | [[File:RIAN archive 850809 General Secretary of the CPSU CC M. Gorbachev (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1931–2022 | Acknowledged as "Man of the Decade". Gorbachev, as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Soviet leader), oversaw 1989's [first free Soviet elections](1989-soviet-union-legislative-election) in history before the fragmentation of the Eastern Bloc and overthrow of Soviet-dominated communist governments in Eastern Europe. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1990 | [[File:George H. W. Bush presidential portrait (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1924–2018 | As President of the United States, Bush oversaw U.S. involvement in the Gulf War (1990–1991). | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Saddam Hussein | Helmut Kohl | Nelson Mandela | Boris Yeltsin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1991 | [[File:Ted Turner April 1985 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1938 | Founder of CNN. The piece particularly highlighted CNN's coverage of Operation Desert Storm and the Gulf War, proclaiming it "History as it happens". | {{Collapsible list | title = 7 | George H. W. Bush | Dick Cheney | Anita Hill | Colin Powell | Norman Schwarzkopf | Clarence Thomas | Boris Yeltsin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1992 | [[File:Bill Clinton.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1946 | Clinton was [elected](1992-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States in 1992, defeating incumbent President George H. W. Bush. | *Time* did not release a shortlist. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1993 | [[File:Peace symbol (bold).svg | frameless | class=skin-invert | upright=0.5]] | Represented by Yasser Arafat, F. W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, and Yitzhak Rabin. De Klerk, as State President of South Africa, oversaw Mandela's release from prison in 1990. In 1993, the pair were negotiating the end of the Apartheid system, and had just jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize. Arafat, as President of the Palestinian National Authority, and Rabin, as Prime Minister of Israel, signed the 1993 Oslo Accord, the first face-to-face agreement between Palestinian and Israeli authorities. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1994 | [[File:Ritratto di papa Giovanni Paolo II (1984).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1920–2005 | Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005. In 1994, he had been active in several social debates: he released a book-length interview and the English translation of the *Catechism of the Catholic Church*, ruled out the ordination of women, criticized the promotion of abortion and family planning at the Cairo Conference, and established relations with Israel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1995 | [[File:Newt Gingrich by Gage Skidmore 3 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1943 | Leader of the "Republican Revolution", a Republican Party [election landslide](1994-united-states-elections), which led to Gingrich being elected Speaker of the House | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1996 | [[File:David Ho portrait (cropped).JPG | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1952 | Ho, a scientist, pioneered much AIDS research. In 1996, he had announced that a medical trial of combination therapy had reduced the viral load in HIV-positive patients to levels too low to be measured, changing the disease profile from terminal to a manageable disease. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997 | [[File:Andrew Grove.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1936–2016 | In 1997, Grove was chairman and CEO of Intel, recognized as a pioneer in the semiconductor industry and taken as a representative of the Digital Revolution and the tech boom. | {{Collapsible list | title = 3 | Diana, Princess of Wales | Alan Greenspan | Ian Wilmut | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1998 | [[File:Bill Clinton.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1946 | As President of the United States, Clinton was impeached in 1998 following the Lewinsky scandal. The Senate acquitted him of the charges. | {{Collapsible list | title = 5 | Hillary Rodham Clinton | John Glenn | Alan Greenspan | The Irish Peacemakers | Mark McGwire | url=https://people.com/celebrity/times-men-of-year-just-in-time/ | title=Time's Men of the Year (Just in time) | website=People | access-date=14 September 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004205916/https://people.com/celebrity/times-men-of-year-just-in-time/ | archive-date=4 October 2022 | date=27 May 1999}} | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:Kenneth W. Starr.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1946–2022 | Starr, a lawyer investigating various figures within the Clinton administration, published his Starr Report in 1998, opening the door for the impeachment of Bill Clinton. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1999 | [[File:Jeff Bezos 2004 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1964 | Bezos is the founder and was the CEO of Amazon.com, at that point one of the most successful companies in the dot-com boom. | *Time* did not release a shortlist for 1999. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | [[File:GeorgeWBush (1).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1946 | In 2000, Bush was [elected](2000-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States, defeating incumbent Vice President Al Gore. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | David Boies | Francis Collins | J.K. Rowling | Craig Venter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001 | [[File:Rudy Giuliani 207-DP-8297B-DSC 0041.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1944 | Giuliani, Mayor of New York City at the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001, was selected as a symbol of America's response to the attacks. | *Time* did not release a shortlist. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002 | [[File:Whistle icon.svg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Represented by Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley, and Sherron Watkins. In 2001, Watkins uncovered accounting irregularities in the financial reports of Enron, testifying before Congressional committees the following year. In 2002, Cooper exposed a $3.8 billion fraud at WorldCom. At the time, this was the largest incident of accounting fraud in U.S. history. In 2002, Rowley, an FBI agent, gave testimony about the FBI's mishandling of information related to the September 11 attacks of 2001. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2003 | [[File:2ID Recon Baghdad.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Representing U.S. forces around the world, especially in the Iraq War (2003–2011) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004 | [[File:George-W-Bush.jpeg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1946 | In 2004, Bush was [re-elected](2004-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States, defeating John Kerry and overseeing US involvement in the Iraq War. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005 | [[File:Bill og Melinda Gates 2009-06-03 (bilde 01).JPG | frameless | upright=0.5]] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:Bono singing in Indianapolis on Joshua Tree Tour 2017 9-10-17.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Represented by Bono, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates. Bono, philanthropist and member of the rock band U2, helped to organize the 2005 Live 8 concerts. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and richest person in the world at the time, and his wife Melinda, founded the philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006 | [[File:Courtney Recker 2017 (Unsplash).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Representing individual content creators on the World Wide Web | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad | James Baker | Hu Jintao | Kim Jong-il | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2007 | [[File:2008-08-29 Владимир Путин (4).jpeg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1952 | Putin was President of Russia from 2000 to 2008, and from 2012 onwards. In 2007, it was apparent that Putin's power would continue after his presidential term expired: he had suppressed much of the opposition to his rule, including having a suspected role in the 2006 assassination of Anna Politkovskaya and poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, and had secured his position as Prime Minister of Russia to his loyalist successor Dmitry Medvedev. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Al Gore | Hu Jintao | David Petraeus | J. K. Rowling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2008 | [[File:Obama portrait crop.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1961 | In 2008, Obama was [elected](2008-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States, defeating John McCain to become the first African-American President of the United States in January 2009. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Sarah Palin | Henry Paulson | Nicolas Sarkozy | Zhang Yimou | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2009 | [[File:Ben Bernanke official portrait.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1953 | Chairman of the Federal Reserve during the [2008 financial crisis](2008-financial-crisis) and the Great Recession | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Usain Bolt | The Chinese Worker | Stanley McChrystal | Nancy Pelosi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2010 | [[File:Mark Zuckerberg at the 37th G8 Summit in Deauville 018 v1.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1984 | Founder of the social-networking website Facebook. In 2010, Facebook passed half a billion users but was involved in privacy disputes, and Zuckerberg had been the subject of the Oscar-winning biographical film *The Social Network*. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Julian Assange | [The Chilean Miners](2010-copiapo-mining-accident) | Hamid Karzai | The Tea Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2011 | [[File:Marcha estudiantes Chile.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Recognizing the historic significance of many grassroots protests across the world during that year, such as the Arab Spring which started in Tunisia and those against austerity measures in Greece and later in Spain, against corruption in [India](2011-indian-anti-corruption-movement), against the drug war in Mexico, for education in [Chile](2011-2013-chilean-student-protests), for social justice in [Israel](2011-israeli-social-justice-protests), as well as the [riots in England](2011-england-riots), the anti-government protests in [Russia](2011-2013-russian-protests) and the emerging global Occupy movement | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Ai Weiwei | Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge | William McRaven | Paul Ryan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2012 | [[File:President Barack Obama (cropped) 3.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1961 | In 2012, Obama was [re-elected](2012-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States, defeating Mitt Romney. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Tim Cook | Fabiola Gianotti | Mohamed Morsi | Malala Yousafzai | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2013 | [[File:Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | 1936–2025 | [Elected](2013-papal-conclave) Pope of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, following the resignation of Benedict XVI | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Bashar al-Assad | Ted Cruz | Edward Snowden | Edith Windsor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2014 | [[File:PPE Training (2).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | "Ebola fighters" refers to health care workers who helped stop the spread of the Ebola virus during the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, including not only doctors and nurses, but also ambulance attendants, burial parties and others. | title = Those represented on the covers included | Jerry Brown, the medical director at the Eternal Love Winning Africa Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, | url=http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2040224!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/article-time2-1210.jpg | location=New York | work=Daily News | title=Image: article-time2-1210.jpg (970 × 1293 px) | access-date=December 15, 2014 | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113722/http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2040224!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/article-time2-1210.jpg | url-status=dead }} | url=http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/December/141210/1D274907403248-ella.blocks_desktop_large.jpg | title=Image: 1D274907403248-ella.blocks_desktop_large.jpg, (730 × 974 px) | publisher=media2.s-nbcnews.com | access-date=September 23, 2015 | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031021/http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/December/141210/1D274907403248-ella.blocks_desktop_large.jpg | url-status=live }} | url=http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/December/141210/1D274907403249-foday.blocks_desktop_large.jpg | title=Image: 1D274907403249-foday.blocks_desktop_large.jpg, (730 × 974 px) | publisher=media2.s-nbcnews.com | access-date=September 23, 2015 | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045415/http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/December/141210/1D274907403249-foday.blocks_desktop_large.jpg | url-status=live }} | url=http://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/December/141210/1D274907403247-salome.blocks_desktop_large.jpg | title=Image: 1D274907403247-salome.blocks_desktop_large.jpg, (730 × 974 px) | publisher=media4.s-nbcnews.com | access-date=September 23, 2015 | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304063952/http://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/December/141210/1D274907403247-salome.blocks_desktop_large.jpg | url-status=live }} | Pardis Sabeti from the Broad Institute. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | Masoud Barzani | Ferguson protesters | Jack Ma | Vladimir Putin | |||||||||||||
| 2015 | [[File:Angela Merkel Security Conference February 2015 (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1954 | Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021, recognized for leadership in the Greek debt crisis and [European migrant crisis](2015-european-migrant-crisis) | {{Collapsible list | title = 6 | Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi | Black Lives Matter | Caitlyn Jenner | Travis Kalanick | Hassan Rouhani | Donald Trump | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2016 | [[File:Donald Trump official portrait (cropped 2).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1946 | In 2016, Trump was [elected](2016-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton. | {{Collapsible list | title = 5 | Beyoncé | Hillary Clinton | The CRISPR Pioneers | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | The Hackers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2017 | [[File:MeToo logo.svg | frameless | class=skin-invert | upright=0.5]] | The Silence BreakersThe people who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment, including the figureheads of the American MeToo movement. Represented on the cover by strawberry picker Isabel Pascual (pseudonym), lobbyist Adama Iwu, actress Ashley Judd, software engineer Susan Fowler, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, and a sixth woman, a hospital worker who wished to remain anonymous and whose face cannot be seen. | title = The feature also specifically spotlights, in order: | actress Alyssa Milano | activist Tarana Burke | actress Selma Blair | the seven plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Plaza Hotel | politician Sara Gelser | entrepreneur Lindsay Meyer | dishwasher Sandra Pezqueda | actress Rose McGowan | psychotherapist and writer Wendy Walsh | blogger Lindsey Reynolds | housekeeper Juana Melara | journalist Sandra Muller | actor Terry Crews | University of Rochester professors Celeste Kidd and Jessica Cantlon | journalist Megyn Kelly | journalist Jane Merrick | producer Zelda Perkins | European Parliament member Terry Reintke | charity worker Bex Bailey | art curator Amanda Schmitt | filmmaker Blaise Godbe Lipman | last1=Zacharek | first1=Stephanie | last2=Dockterman | first2=Eliana | last3=Edwards | first3=Haley Sweetland | url=https://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/ | title=Time Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers | magazine=Time | access-date=6 December 2017 | archive-date=August 13, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813213723/http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers | url-status=live }} | {{Collapsible list | title = 6 | |||||||||||||
| 2018 | [[File:Jamal Khashoggi in March 2018.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:PH1-RAPPLER-DSCF3442.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:Police escort detained Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | title = The feature also spotlights the following journalists, in order: | Shahidul Alam of Bangladesh | Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh of Vietnam | Dulcina Parra of Mexico | Luz Mely Reyes of Venezuela | Can Dündar of Turkey | Tatyana Felgenhauer of Russia | Amal Habani of Sudan | Arkady Babchenko of Russia. | {{Collapsible list | title = 6 | The Activists | Ryan Coogler | Meghan, Duchess of Sussex | Moon Jae-in | Robert Mueller | Donald Trump | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2019 | [[File:Greta Thunberg at the Parliament (46705842745) (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 2003 | Swedish environmental activist and founder of the School Strike for Climate campaign. In 2019, Thunberg led the Global Week for Future with over four million protestors and addressed the [2019 UN Climate Action Summit](2019-un-climate-action-summit) with her "How Dare You" speech. | {{Collapsible list | title = 4 | [The Hong Kong protesters](2019-20-hong-kong-protests) | Nancy Pelosi | Donald Trump | Whistleblower in Trump–Ukraine scandal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2020 | [[File:President Biden (2021).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1942 | In 2020, Biden and Harris were [elected](2020-united-states-presidential-election) President and Vice President of the United States respectively, defeating incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. In January 2021, Harris became the first woman, first African American, and first Asian American vice president. | {{Collapsible list | title = 3 | Anthony Fauci and the Front Line Health Workers | The Movement for Racial Justice | Donald Trump | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:Kamala Harris Vice Presidential Portrait (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1964 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2021 | [[File:Elon Musk Colorado 2022 (cropped2).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1971 | CEO of Tesla, Inc., founder and CEO of SpaceX. In 2021, Musk had become the richest person in the world and first person reported to have a net worth of over 300 billion US dollars. Recognized for the achievements of stated companies in the prior years, including the first all-civilian orbital flight, as well as his public image and controversies. | *Time* did not release a shortlist for 2021. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | [[File:Volodymyr Zelensky 2022 official portrait (cropped).jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1978 | President of Ukraine since 2019, and supreme commander-in-chief during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine | {{Collapsible list | title = 9 | Liz Cheney | Ron DeSantis | Gun safety advocates | Elon Musk | [Protesters in Iran](2021-2022-iranian-protests) | MacKenzie Scott | Supreme Court of the United States | Xi Jinping | Janet Yellen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "The Spirit of Ukraine" represents the "resilience of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian resistance, as well as foreign aid to Ukraine". | title = The feature spotlights the following people and organizations, in order: | Surgeon David Nott and the David Nott Foundation | Chef José Andrés and the World Central Kitchen | Restaurant owner Ievgen Klopotenko | Opera singer Sergiy Ivanchuk | Anesthetist Iryna Kondratova | Actor Liev Schreiber and BlueCheck Ukraine | Entrepreneur Oleg Rogynskyy | Entrepreneur Elon Musk, engineer Oleg Kutkov and Starlink | Medic Yuliia Paievska | Journalist Olga Rudenko and the *Kyiv Independent* | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | [[File:Taylor_Swift_at_the_2023_MTV_Video_Music_Awards_(3).png | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1989 | Singer-songwriter whose 2023–2024 Eras Tour became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. The tour had a significant cultural and economic impact in 2023. *Time* described Swift as the first Person of the Year to be recognized for their "achievement in the arts". Swift was also on the 2017 Person of the Year cover, called "The Silence Breakers". She was noted by the magazine as the first woman to appear twice on a Person of the Year cover. | {{Collapsible list | title = 8 | Sam Altman | Barbie | Charles III | [Hollywood strikers](2023-hollywood-labor-disputes) | Jerome Powell | Vladimir Putin | Trump Prosecutors | Xi Jinping | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | [[File:January 2025 Official Presidential Portrait of Donald J. Trump.jpg | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Born 1946 | In 2024, Trump was [elected](2024-united-states-presidential-election) President of the United States for the second time, defeating incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris and becoming the second president to win two nonconsecutive terms after Grover Cleveland in 1892. He survived an assassination attempt in the summer while on the campaign trail. | {{Collapsible list | title = 9 | Kamala Harris | Catherine, Princess of Wales | Elon Musk | Yulia Navalnaya | Benjamin Netanyahu | Jerome Powell | Joe Rogan | Claudia Sheinbaum | Mark Zuckerberg}} | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2025 | [[File:Dall-e 3 (jan '24) artificial intelligence icon.png | frameless | upright=0.5]] | Highlights the "architects" behind the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, resulting in the AI boom. | title = The feature spotlights the following people, in alphabetical order: | Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI | Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic | Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind | Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia | Fei-Fei Li, known for establishing ImageNet | Elon Musk, CEO of xAI (2) | Lisa Su, CEO of AMD | Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms (2) | *Time* did not release a shortlist for 2025. |
Other categories
Every year, in addition to the main Person of the Year, Time (sometimes alongside a partner company) acknowledges impactful people or groups in other categories. This is a relatively recent practice, beginning in 1998 when Mark McGwire was awarded the title of Hero of the Year and becoming a regular event in 2018 with the re-introduction of the Heroes of the Year award. Heroes of the Year was joined by Athlete of the Year, CEO of the Year, Entertainer of the Year and Guardians of the Year in 2019, Kid of the Year in 2020, Breakthrough of the Year, Dreamer of the Year, Icon of the Year and Innovator of the Year in 2022, Team of the Year in 2023 and Community of the Year in 2024. In line with the introduction of these new categories, Time has expanded their annual Person of the Year private event to include and celebrate their recipients. The event, titled A Year in TIME beginning in 2023, has been held at Plaza Hotel since 2022. A Year in TIME typically features interviews, speeches and performances from some of the categories' winners, as well as winners of other Time awards. Some of these are then posted to Time official YouTube channel.
Athlete of the Year
Athlete of the Year was awarded in partnership with Oura Health in 2021, and with LG in 2022.
| Year | Choice | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | United States women's national soccer team | The international women's soccer team for the United States, who won the [2019 FIFA Women's World Cup](2019-fifa-women-s-world-cup). | |||
| 2020 | American basketball player, won the [2020 NBA Finals](2020-nba-finals) with his Los Angeles Lakers. | ||||
| 2021 | American gymnast, pulled out of multiple gymnastics events during the [Tokyo Olympics](2020-summer-olympics) for mental health concerns. | ||||
| 2022 | American baseball outfielder, hit the most home runs in a season in the history of the American League with 62. | ||||
| 2023 | Argentine footballer, won the [2022 FIFA World Cup](2022-fifa-world-cup) with Argentina national team and record eighth Ballon d'Or.{{cite magazine | last1=Gregory | first1=Sean | title=Lionel Messi is *Time* 2023 Athlete of the Year | |
| 2024 | American women's basketball player, was the All-WNBA, 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year with the Indiana Fever. | ||||
| 2025 | American women's basketball player, won the [2025 WNBA season](2025-wnba-season) with the Las Vegas Aces and was that year's WNBA Most Valuable Player, WNBA Finals Most Valuable Player and WNBA Defensive Player of the Year |
Breakthrough of the Year
In 2022, this selection was called Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Mickey Guyton | American country music artist |
| 2023 | Alex Newell | American actor |
| 2025 | KPop Demon Hunters | American animated film |
CEO of the Year
In 2019 and 2020, this selection was called Businessperson of the Year.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | CEO and executive chairman of The Walt Disney Company | |
| 2020 | CEO and founder of Zoom Video Communications | |
| 2023 | CEO and co-founder of OpenAI | |
| 2024 | CEO, president and chair of AMD | |
| 2025 | CEO of YouTube |
Community of the Year
Community of the Year is awarded in partnership with Land O'Lakes.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | People of Agriculture | Representing the global rural farming community |
Dreamer of the Year
Dreamer of the Year is awarded in partnership with American Family Insurance.
| Year | Choice | Notes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Donnel Baird | American entrepreneur and CEO of BlocPower | ||||||
| 2023 | Syd Kitson | Chairman and CEO of Kitson and Partners and former professional American football guard | ||||||
| 2024 | title=Fearless First Responders of Disaster Recovery: 2024 Dreamer of the Year | url=https://partners.time.com/partners/american-family-insurance/2024-dreamer-of-the-year-revealed-fearless-first-responders-of-disaster-recovery/?prx_t=u34JAOb1sAVgwQA&utm_campaign=214855&ntv_ui=beb065a4-3247-4400-8dfc-a587ac7cc320&ntv_ht=ZvpZZwA | access-date=2024-12-11 | magazine=Time | archive-date=December 11, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241211204822/https://partners.time.com/partners/american-family-insurance/2024-dreamer-of-the-year-revealed-fearless-first-responders-of-disaster-recovery/?prx_t=u34JAOb1sAVgwQA&ntv_ui=beb065a4-3247-4400-8dfc-a587ac7cc320&ntv_ht=ZvpZZwA | url-status=live }} | The fire and rescue department of Portland, which helped combat the [2024 Oregon wildfires](2024-oregon-wildfires). |
| American Family Insurance Claims and Sales Teams, Omaha | American Family Insurance's claims support team, which provided crucial support in the aftermath of a tornado outbreak in April 2024 in Blair, Nebraska. | |||||||
| Rebuilding Together, Tampa Bay | American non-profit organization that provided relief in the Tampa Bay area following the destruction of hurricanes Helene and Milton. | |||||||
| 2025 | Direct Relief | American non-profit organization that provided relief during the January 2025 Southern California wildfires. |
Entertainer of the Year
In 2022, Entertainer of the Year was awarded in partnership with Montblanc.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Lizzo | American rapper and singer-songwriter |
| 2020 | BTS | South Korean K-pop boy band |
| 2021 | American singer-songwriter | |
| 2022 | Blackpink | South Korean K-pop girl group |
| 2025 | American actor and film producer |
Guardians of the Year
In 2020, Guardians of the Year was awarded in partnership with Amazon.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | American public servants | The feature spotlights those involved in that year's impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, particularly Marie Yovanovitch, William Taylor, Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, Mark Sandy, Jennifer Williams, David Holmes, Laura Cooper and the original whistleblower. |
| 2020 | Anthony Fauci and frontline health workers | Recognising the actions of frontline health workers around the world that helped contain and reduce the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, and is credited with being a pivotal figure in the United States' fight against the pandemic. |
| Porche-Bennett-Bey, Assa Traoré and racial justice organizers | Recognising the actions of those who organized racial justice movements such as the George Floyd protests. Bennett-Bey, a resident of Kenosha, Wisconsin, gained media attention for her activism following the shooting of Jacob Blake. Traoré is an activist and the sister of Adama Traoré, a black French man who died in police custody in 2016. The police officers accused of brutality were cleared of blame on May 29, 2020, triggering a new wave of protests against police brutality in solidarity with the at the time ongoing George Floyd protests. |
Hero(es) of the Year
In 2020, Heroes of the Year was awarded in partnership with State Farm.
| Year | Choice | Notes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Mark McGwire | Baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals, who hit 70 home runs in 1998, [breaking the single-season home run record](1998-major-league-baseball-home-run-record-chase). In 2010, McGwire admitted he used steroids during the 1998 season. | |||||||
| 2018 | date=2018-12-12 | title=From Cave Divers to a Fearless Flier, Here Are the Heroes of 2018 | url=https://time.com/5477713/2018-heroes-of-the-year/ | access-date=2023-12-05 | magazine=Time | archive-date=December 5, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205235933/https://time.com/5477713/2018-heroes-of-the-year/ | url-status=live }} | The Tham Luang cave rescue took place during June and July 2018, where a group of 12 boys and their junior soccer team's assistant coach Ekkapol Chantawong, who had been trapped in a cave for over two weeks, were successfully located and rescued through an operation involving over 10,000 people. Time's corresponding article highlights the heroic actions of Chantawong, Narongsak Osottanakorn (the governor of Chiang Rai province at the time and overseer of the rescue operation), John Volanthen and Rick Stanton (two divers who first found the group alive), Saman Kunan (the rescue's only immediate casualty) and Richard Harris (the anaesthesiologist and cave diver who played a crucial role in the rescue). |
| James Shaw Jr. | Shaw disarmed a gunman during the Nashville Waffle House shooting on April 22, 2018, preventing the death toll from going above 4, and started a GoFundMe campaign the following day which went on to raise over $240,000 for the families of the shooting's 4 fatalities. | ||||||||
| Brad Brown | Brown, a hospital chaplain at Feather River Hospital in Paradise, California, assisted with the evacuation of the hospital during Camp Fire and personally drove three immobile patients out of town, successfully getting them to a hospital in Chico after hours of potentially fatal road delays. | ||||||||
| Tammie Jo Shults | Shults was the pilot of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 on April 17, 2018, who, along with her first officer Darren Lee Ellisor, saved the lives of 143 following the failure of an engine which had fragments break off that damaged other parts of the plane and killed 1 passenger. | ||||||||
| Mamoudou Gassama | On May 26, 2018, Gassama scaled four floors of an apartment building in Paris in under a minute, saving the life of a four-year-old boy dangling from a balcony and drawing comparisons to Spider-Man. | ||||||||
| 2019 | |||||||||
| date=2019-12-12 | title=These Heroes Went Above and Beyond in 2019 | url=https://time.com/5748873/2019-heroes/ | access-date=2023-12-05 | magazine=Time | archive-date=December 5, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205235933/https://time.com/5748873/2019-heroes/ | url-status=live }} | Time's corresponding article discusses the actions of those who saved Notre-Dame's sacred treasures during the fire on April 15, 2019 (particularly Antoine-Marie Préaut, a conservator of Paris's historic monuments, and Laurent Prades, Notre-Dame's operational director), the ~400 firefighters who combatted the fire, and those who had begun preparing for the cathedral's reconstruction. | |
| Ryan Kyote | Kyote, a nine-year-old resident of Napa, California, used his allowance to pay off his grade's $74 lunch debt. His mother posted about it on social media and the story went viral, starting a wider national movement against school lunch debt. As a result, Kyote's school district reversed their lunch debt policy and a law was passed in California banning "lunch shaming" (a term for giving worse food to students with debt). | ||||||||
| Satchel Smith | Smith, a 21-year-old student in Beaumont, Texas, was the sole employee trapped in a hotel alongside 90 guests for over 30 hours during Tropical Storm Imelda. He stayed awake during the whole ordeal, and was assisted by guests in making dinner and providing stranded truckers with food and water. | ||||||||
| Nicole Chamberlain | On November 11, 2019, Chamberlain, a bus driver in Waukesha, Wisconsin, saw a two-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother alone in temperatures below 20 °F near a busy intersection. She brought them on board her bus, warmed them up and stayed with them until their grandmother showed up alongside police officers. | ||||||||
| Keanon Lowe | On May 19, 2019, Lowe, a teacher at Parkrose High School in Portland, Oregon, saw a student armed with a shotgun and successfully disarmed him, preventing his suicide and a school shooting. Immediately after, he gave the student a sympathetic hug and provided him with comforting words. | ||||||||
| Chella Phillips | Phillips, who runs a dog refuge in Nassau, Bahamas, managed to protect the refuge's 82 dogs, alongside 15 other dogs, from Hurricane Dorian in her own home. During the week following the hurricane, she sent 68 of those dogs to homes and rescue groups in the United States after her story went viral there. | ||||||||
| 2020 | Australia's Volunteer Firefighters | Time's corresponding article highlights the work done by volunteer firefighters during the [2019–20 Australian bushfire season](2019-20-australian-bushfire-season), including three that died on the job. | |||||||
| Jason Chua and Hung Zhen Long | Chua and Hung, co-owners of the Beng Who Cooks food stall in Singapore, committed to delivering free food to those who could not afford it during COVID-19 lockdowns from April to June 2020. In total, they spent $11,000 on ~2,500 free meals. | ||||||||
| Greg Dailey | Following the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Dailey, a newspaper deliveryman in Mercer County, New Jersey, began a new service of dropping off goods free of charge. During the rest of the year, he, with the help of his family, supplied over 140 homes and conducted over 1000 grocery runs in his local area. | ||||||||
| Rahul Dubey | On June 1, 2020, during the George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., Dubey provided refuge in his home to ~70 protestors who were being barricaded and pepper-sprayed by police, even letting them stay overnight to avoid curfew breaches. | ||||||||
| Pastor Reshorna Fitzpatrick and Bishop Derrick Fitzpatrick | In April 2020, Reshorna and Derrick Fitzpatrick, a married couple who run Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, began providing ~300 food boxes per week to people who became unemployed following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. They expanded their operation throughout the year, obtaining a supply of fresh produce from a local Black- and women-led nonprofit farm, providing hot soup every week and giving out supplies such as face masks and hand sanitizer. | ||||||||
| 2021 | Vaccine scientists | The feature is dedicated to those that contributed to the creation of COVID-19 vaccines, and in particular spotlights Katalin Karikó, Barney S. Graham, Kizzmekia Corbett and Drew Weissman, pioneers of mRNA vaccine technology. | |||||||
| 2022 | Women of Iran | After the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, who was arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly and later died after she had been —according to eyewitnesses— severely beaten by religious morality police officers, massive global protests began. Initial protests, mostly led by women, demanded an end to the mandatory hijab law, which has been in place since the 1979 Islamic revolution. According to Iran Human Rights, at least 481 protesters including 64 minors have been killed in these protests as of January 9, 2023. |
Icon of the Year
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Michelle Yeoh | Malaysian actress |
| 2024 | Elton John | British singer-songwriter |
Innovator of the Year
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Gregory Robinson and the James Webb Space Telescope team | Robinson was the telescope's program director from 2018 to 2022. |
Kid of the Year
In 2020 and 2021, Kid of the Year was awarded in partnership with Nickelodeon.
| Year | Choice | Notes | Runners-up | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Scientist and inventor | {{Collapsible list | ||
| 2021 | Humanitarian | {{Collapsible list | ||
| 2024 | Heman Bekele | Scientist and inventor | {{Collapsible list | |
| 2025 | Tejasvi Manoj | Cybercrime activist | *Time* did not release a shortlist for 2025. |
Team of the Year
Team of the Year is awarded in partnership with Smartsheet.
| Year | Choice | Notes | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | HP's Social Impact team | The team consists of Michele Malejki, Mariama Kabia, Anshu Grover, Ina Progonati, Stephanie Bormann and Julio Vera Barajas. | {{Collapsible list |
Online poll
From 2010 to 2022, Time held an annual online poll for the readers to vote for who they believed to be the Person of the Year. While many mistakenly believed the winner of the poll to be the Person of the Year, the title, as mentioned above, is decided by the editors of Time.
| Year | Readers' Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Founder of WikiLeaks | |
| 2011 | Prime Minister of Turkey | |
| 2012 | Supreme Leader of North Korea | |
| 2013 | President of Egypt | |
| 2014 | Prime Minister of India | |
| 2015 | United States Senator from Vermont and 2016 presidential candidate | |
| 2016 | Prime Minister of India | |
| 2017 | Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia | |
| 2018 | BTS | K-pop band |
| 2019 | [Hong Kong Protesters](2019-2020-hong-kong-protests) | Protesters in Hong Kong in response to the [extradition bill](2019-hong-kong-extradition-bill) |
| 2020 | Essential Workers | Those who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2021 | President of Brazil | |
| 2022 | Women Protesters in Iran | Women protesters in Iran who took part in the Mahsa Amini protests |
An online reader's choice poll was also held in 1998, with professional wrestler Mick Foley and murdered college student Matthew Shepard as the top vote-getters, although the final result is unknown.
References
References
- Gray, Eliza. (June 26, 2015). "Inside the Love Story That Changed the Gay Marriage Battle".
- (2002). "Person of the Year: 75th Anniversary Celebration". Time Books.
- "Here's Who Won Time's 2019 Person of the Year Reader Poll".
- Rothman, Lily. (2023). "How Person of the Year Came to Be".
- ''Time'' (2002), "Person of the Year: 75th Anniversary Celebration", p. 1.
- Levenstein, Joan. (December 16, 2006). "Mme Chiang Kai-Shek: 1937".
- Rothman, Lilly. (December 5, 2017). "Here's the History of ''Time''{{'s}} Person of the Year Franchise".
- "100 Women of the Year".
- "Women of the Year".
- . (January 2, 1950). ["Through War & Peace"](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,780196,00.html).
- Morrow, Lance. (January 1, 1990). "Gorbachev: The Unlikely Patron Of Change".
- Golden, Frederic. (January 3, 2000). "Person of the Century: Albert Einstein".
- Isaacson, Walter. (December 27, 1999). "Who mattered and why".
- (December 31, 1999). "Person of the Century".
- ''Time'' (2002), ''Person of the Year: 75th Anniversary Celebration'', pp. 2, 79.
- (December 16, 2006). "Person of the Year: A Photo History – Notorious Leaders: Controversial Choices".
- ''Time'' (2002), ''Person of the Year: 75th Anniversary Celebration'', p. 79.
- Pooley, Eric. (December 31, 2001). "Mayor of the World".
- Chowdhury, Prasenjit. (June 5, 2012). "The test of time". The Times of India.
- (September 16, 2006). "Michael Moore Defends Cruise, Slags Gibson". Infectious Greed.
- Ball, Molly. (6 December 2017). "Donald Trump: Time Person of the Year Runner Up".
- (January 4, 1932). "A severe correctional and disciplinary period is indicated".
- Kluger, Jeffrey. "130 Years After Hitler's Birth, He Continues to Live as a Symbol of Evil".
- (May 16, 2011). "The Timely "Dumbo": Almost a Cover Boy". [[Walt Disney Family Museum]].
- "General Article: Presidential Politics". PBS.
- Rosegrant, Susan. (April 18, 2012). "ISR and the Truman/Dewey upset". isr.umich.edu.
- Cosgrove, Ben. (October 21, 2012). "Behind the Picture: 'Dewey Defeats Truman'".
- (4 January 1954). "MAN OF THE YEAR: We Belong to the West". TIME.
- (November 4, 1962). "Harlow H. Curtice is dead at 69". [[The New York Times]].
- (4 January 1960). "THE PRESIDENCY: Man of the Year". Time.
- (2 January 1961). "Men of the Year: U.S. Scientists".
- (6 January 1967). "Man Of The Year: The Inheritor". Time.
- (December 11, 2019). "When Young Americans Were ''Time''{{'s}} Person of the Year, This Man's Face Helped Inspire a 'Portrait of a Generation'".
- (5 January 1968). "Man Of The Year: Lyndon B. Johnson, The Paradox of Power". Time.
- Larsen, Roy. (January 5, 1970). "A Letter From The Publisher".
- (5 January 1970). "Man and Woman of the Year: The Middle Americans". Time.
- (January 4, 1971). "Man Of The Year: On the Road to a New Reality". Time.
- (3 January 1972). "Man of the Year: Nixon: Determined to Make a Difference". Time.
- (January 6, 1975). "An Uncertain Year for Leaders".
- (6 January 1975). "Man Of The Year: An Uncertain Year for Leaders".
- (January 5, 1976). "Women of the Year: Great Changes, New Chances, Tough Choices". Time.
- (5 January 1976). "National Affairs: The Men Who Almost Made It".
- (January 5, 1976). "The Men Who Almost Made It".
- (January 1, 1979). "Four Who Also Shaped Events".
- (1 January 1979). "Man Of The Year: Four Who Also Shaped Events".
- (January 1, 1979). "Four Who Also Shaped Events".
- (January 5, 1981). "Others Who Stood in the Spotlight".
- (4 January 1982). "Others Who Stood in the Spotlight".
- (January 4, 1982). "Others Who Stood in the Spotlight".
- (January 3, 1983). "A New World Dawns".
- (3 January 1983). "The Updated Book off Jobs".
- (3 January 1983). "Other Maestros of the Micro".
- (January 3, 1983). "Four Who Also Shaped Events".
- (January 3, 1983). "Machine of the Year: The Computer Moves In".
- (2 January 1984). "Four Who Also Shaped Events".
- (January 2, 1984). "Four Who Also Shaped Events".
- (January 7, 1985). "They Also Made History".
- (January 7, 1985). "Man of the Year: Peter Ueberroth".
- (6 January 1986). "China: Old Wounds Deng Xiaoping". Time.
- (January 6, 1986). "Four in the Spotlight".
- (January 6, 1986). "Man of the Year: Deng Xiaoping".
- (January 5, 1987). "Others in History's Spotlight".
- (January 5, 1987). "Woman of the Year: Philippine President Corazon Aquino".
- (January 4, 1988). "'The Roughest Year'".
- (4 January 1988). "The Roughest Year".
- Sancton, Thomas. (2 January 1989). "Planet Of The Year: What on Earth Are We Doing?".
- (January 7, 1991). "They Also Made History".
- (January 7, 1991). "The Two George Bushes".
- (January 6, 1992). "From the Managing Editor".
- (6 January 1992). "From The Managing Editor: Jan. 6, 1992".
- (26 December 1994). "John Paul II: Empire of the Spirit". Time.
- (30 December 1996). "Dr. David Ho: The Disease Detective". Time.
- "Man of the Year 1997".
- (27 May 1999). "Time's Men of the Year (Just in time)".
- (December 25, 2000). "President-elect George W. Bush".
- Grossman, Lev. (December 13, 2006). "You – Yes, You – Are Time's Person of the Year".
- NBC News Staff. (December 17, 2006). "Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' is ... You". Time.
- (2007). "Person of the Year 2007".
- Time Staff. (December 19, 2007). "Complete List – Person of the Year 2007". Time.
- Von Drehle, David. (December 17, 2008). "Person of the Year 2008".
- Time Staff. (December 17, 2008). "Person of the Year 2008". Time.
- Grunwald, Michael. (December 16, 2009). "Person of the Year 2009".
- Time Staff. (December 16, 2009). "Person of the Year 2009". Time.
- Grossman, Lev. (December 15, 2010). "Person of the Year 2010".
- Time Staff. (December 15, 2010). "Complete List – Person of the Year 2010". Time.
- Andersen, Kurt. (December 14, 2011). "The Protester".
- . (n.d.). ["Full List"](https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2101745,00.html).
- Scherer, Michael. (December 19, 2008). "Person of the Year 2012".
- (December 19, 2012). "Person of the Year 2012".
- (December 11, 2013). "Pope Francis, The People's Pope".
- (December 11, 2013). "Pope Francis: Person of the Year 2013".
- (December 10, 2014). "The Choice".
- McLaughlin, Eliott C.. (December 10, 2014). "Ebola fighters are Time's 'Person of the Year'". CNN.
- "Image: 1418243285733.jpg, (300 × 400 px)". The Sydney Morning Herald.
- (December 10, 2014). "Time Person of the Year 2014: Ebola Fighters".
- "Image: article-time2-1210.jpg (970 × 1293 px)". Daily News.
- "Image: 1D274907403248-ella.blocks_desktop_large.jpg, (730 × 974 px)". media2.s-nbcnews.com.
- "Image: 1D274907403249-foday.blocks_desktop_large.jpg, (730 × 974 px)". media2.s-nbcnews.com.
- "Image: 1D274907403247-salome.blocks_desktop_large.jpg, (730 × 974 px)". media4.s-nbcnews.com.
- Gibbs, Nancy. (December 9, 2015). "The Choice: Why Angela Merkel is Time's Person of the Year 2015". Time.
- (December 9, 2015). "Time Person of the Year 2015 Runner-Up: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi". Time.
- (December 9, 2015). "Time uPerson of the Year 2015 Runner-Up: Donald Trump". Time.
- (December 9, 2015). "Time Person of the Year 2015 Runner-Up: Black Lives Matter". Time.
- (December 9, 2015). "Time Person of the Year 2015 Runner-Up: Hassan Rouhani". Time.
- (December 9, 2015). "Time Person of the Year 2015 Runner-Up: Travis Kalanick". Time.
- (December 9, 2015). "Time Person of the Year 2015 Runner-Up: Caitlyn Jenner". Time.
- (December 7, 2016). "Hillary Clinton: Time Person of the Year 2016 Runner Up". Time.
- (December 7, 2016). "Hackers: Time Person of the Year 2016 Runner Up". Time.
- (December 7, 2016). "Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkish President Who Resisted a Coup". Time.
- (December 7, 2016). "CRISPR Technology Scientists on Their Gene Editing Tool". Time.
- (December 7, 2016). "Beyonce: Time Person of the Year 2016 Runner Up". Time.
- "Time Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers".
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkR8GY2YBAU Time Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers], POY video posted by Time to YouTube on Dec 6, 2017
- "Donald Trump: Time Person of the Year 2017 Runner Up".
- "Xi Jinping: Time Person of the Year 2017 Runner Up".
- "Robert Mueller: Time Person of the Year 2017 Runner Up".
- "Kim Jong Un: Time Person of the Year 2017 Runner Up".
- "Colin Kaepernick: Time Person of the Year 2017 Runner Up".
- "Patty Jenkins: Time Person of the Year 2017 Runner Up".
- Kim, Eun Kyung. (December 11, 2018). "Time's 2018 Person of the Year: 'The Guardians and the War on Truth'". Today Show.
- "Time Person of the Year 2018: The Guardians".
- (11 December 2018). "Donald Trump: Time Person of the Year 2018 Runner Up".
- (11 December 2018). "Robert Mueller: Tine Person of the Year 2018 Runner Up".
- (10 December 2018). "The Activists: Time Person of the Year 2018 Runner Up".
- (10 December 2018). "Moon Jae-in: Time Person of the Year 2018 Runner Up".
- (10 December 2018). "Ryan Coogler: Time Person of the Year 2018 Runner Up".
- (10 December 2018). "Meghan Markle: Time Person of the Year 2018 Runner Up".
- "Greta Thunberg: Time's Person of the Year 2019".
- "Final 5 candidates for Time Person of the Year revealed on Today".
- (December 11, 2020). "2020 Person of the Year – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris".
- (2020-11-03). "Presidential Election Results: Biden Wins". The New York Times.
- Stump, Scott. (December 10, 2020). "Who will be Time's 2020 Person of the Year? See the shortlist".
- "Elon Musk Is Time's 2021 Person of the Year".
- Brito, Christopher. (2021-12-13). "Elon Musk has been named Time's 2021 Person of the Year – CBS News".
- (December 13, 2021). "Time Person of the Year: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, named most influential of 2021".
- "Volodymyr Zelensky Is Time's 2022 Person of the Year".
- "Who will be Time's 2022 Person of the Year? See the contenders".
- "The Spirit of Ukraine and Time's 2022 Person of the Year".
- Gensler, Andy. (December 8, 2023). "Taylor Swift Sets All-Time Touring Record With $1 Billion Gross".
- (6 December 2023). "Taylor Swift Makes History as Person of the Year".
- (December 6, 2023). "Taylor Swift is Time's person of the year".
- (December 12, 2024). "Trump named Time's 'Person of the Year' for second time". CNN.
- Cortellessa, Eric. (December 12, 2024). "Donald Trump 2024 TIME Person of the Year".
- (9 December 2024). "Who Will Be TIME's Person of the Year for 2024? See the Shortlist".
- "The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year".
- (2022-12-08). "Here Are the Biggest Moments From ''Time''{{'s}} 2022 Person of the Year Reception".
- (2023-12-12). "Sam Altman on OpenAI and Artificial General Intelligence".
- "Simone Biles Is Time's 2021 Athlete of the Year".
- "Aaron Judge Is ''Time''{{'s}} 2022 Athlete of the Year".
- "The U.S. Women's Soccer Team Is Time's 2019 Athlete of the Year".
- "LeBron James Is Time's 2020 Athlete of the Year".
- (December 10, 2024). "Caitlin Clark: Athlete of the Year 2024".
- (December 9, 2025). "A'ja Wilson: Athlete of the Year 2025".
- (2022-12-05). "Mickey Guyton: ''Time''{{'s}} 2022 Breakthrough Artist of the Year".
- (2023-12-05). "Alex Newell is ''Time''{{'s}} 2023 Breakthrough of the Year".
- (2025-12-09). "KPop Demon Hunters: Breakthrough of the Year 2025".
- "Bob Iger Is Time's 2019 Businessperson of the Year".
- "Eric Yuan Is Time's 2020 Businessperson of the Year".
- (December 6, 2023). "CEO of the Year 2023: Sam Altman".
- (December 10, 2024). "Lisa Su: CEO of the Year 2024".
- (December 4, 2025). "Neal Mohan: CEO of the Year 2025".
- (2024-12-11). "Rooted in Resilience, Growing the Future: The Community of the Year".
- (2022-12-15). "Meet the First-Ever Dreamer of the Year". Time.
- "Congratulations to Syd Kitson, 2023 ''Time'' Dreamer of the Year".
- "Fearless First Responders of Disaster Recovery: 2024 Dreamer of the Year".
- "Restoring Dreams, Rebuilding Dignity".
- "Blackpink is Time's 2022 Entertainer of the Year".
- "Lizzo Is Time's 2019 Entertainer of the Year".
- "BTS Is Time's 2020 Entertainer of the Year".
- "Olivia Rodrigo Is Time's 2021 Entertainer of the Year".
- (December 4, 2025). "Leonardo DiCaprio: Entertainer of the Year 2025".
- "Anthony Fauci, Frontline Workers: Guardians of the Year 2020".
- "Public Servants: ''Time''{{'s}} Guardians of the Year 2019".
- "Racial-Justice Organizers: ''Time''{{'s}} Guardians of the Year 2020".
- "Time's Heroes of 2020".
- "Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr".
- (28 December 1998). "Mark McGwire': A Mac For All Seasons".
- (January 11, 2010). "Mark McGwire Admits Using Steroids".
- (2018-12-12). "From Cave Divers to a Fearless Flier, Here Are the Heroes of 2018".
- (2023-06-23). "Thai cave rescue: Official hailed as hero of cave rescue dies".
- (2018-07-02). "Thailand cave rescue: Boys found alive after nine days".
- (2019-12-12). "These Heroes Went Above and Beyond in 2019".
- (2019-06-11). "9-year-old uses own allowance to cover school lunch debts for his entire 3rd grade class".
- (2020-12-10). "Australia's Volunteer Firefighters Risked Everything to Keep Their Country Safe".
- (2020-12-10). "The Food-Stall Owners Who Wouldn't Let Anyone Go Hungry".
- (2020-12-10). "A Paper Route Driver Who Brought More Than the News".
- (2020-12-10). "The Man Who Gave Shelter to Those in Need".
- (2020-12-10). "The Pastors Who Transformed Their Church to Support Their Community".
- (2021-12-13). "Vaccine Scientists: Heroes of the Year 2021".
- (2022-12-07). "The Women of Iran Are ''Time''{{'s}} 2022 Heroes of the Year".
- (2022-09-16). "Iranian woman dies 'after being beaten by morality police' over hijab law".
- Ghattas, Kim. (2022-10-02). "A Whole Generation Revolts Against the Iranian Regime".
- "List of 109 Protesters at Risk of Execution, Death Penalty Charges or Sentences; At Least 481 Protesters Killed".
- (2022-12-06). "Michelle Yeoh: Icon of the Year 2022".
- (2024-12-11). "Elton John is TIME's 2024 Icon of the Year".
- (2022-12-07). "The James Webb Space Telescope Team: Innovator of the Year 2022".
- "Meet Time's First-Ever Kid of the Year".
- "Orion Jean Is Time's 2021 Kid of the Year".
- "Meet TIME's Top Kid of the Year Finalists".
- Kluger, Jeffrey. (August 15, 2024). "Heman Bekele Is TIME's 2024 Kid of the Year".
- "Kid of the Year 2024".
- Kluger, Jeffrey. (September 9, 2025). "TIME's Kid of the Year Is Protecting Seniors From Cybercrime".
- "Meet the dream team driving HP's sustainable impact goals".
- (2022-11-18). "''Time''{{'s}} Team of the Year in partnership with Smartsheet – Meet the finalists!".
- (July 31, 2016). "Time's 'Person of the Year' is Barack Obama".
- Friedman, Megan. (2010-12-13). "Julian Assange: Readers' Choice for Time's Person of the Year 2010".
- Carbone, Nick. (2011-12-12). "And the readers' choice for Time's Person of the Year is...".
- Conniff, Kelly. (2012-12-13). "And the Winner of Time's Person of the Year Reader Poll Is …".
- Rayman, Noah. (2013-12-05). "Egypt's Sisi Wins Reader Poll for Time Person of the Year".
- "Narendra Modi Wins Reader Poll for Time Person of the Year".
- "Bernie Sanders Wins Readers' Poll for Time Person of the Year".
- "Narendra Modi Wins Reader's Poll for Time Person of the Year".
- "Here's the Winner of the Reader Poll for Time's 2017 Person of the Year".
- "BTS Wins Reader's Poll for Time Person of the Year".
- "Here's Who Won Time's 2019 Person of the Year Reader Poll".
- "Here's Who Won Time's 2020 Person of the Year Reader Poll".
- "Here's Who Won Time's 2021 Person of the Year Reader Poll".
- "Women Protesters in Iran Win ''Time''{{'s}} 2022 Person of the Year Reader Poll".
- (21 December 1998). "''Time'' Man of the Year Poll Roils Internet".
Info: Wikipedia Source
This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.
Ask Mako anything about Time Person of the Year — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.
Research with MakoFree with your Surf account
Create a free account to save articles, ask Mako questions, and organize your research.
Sign up free
Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.
Report