Time Person of the Year facts for kids

Person of the Year (called Man of the Year or Woman of the Year until 1999) is an annual issue of the United States news magazine and website Time featuring a person, a group, an idea, or an object that "for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year". Time also runs an annual reader's poll that has no effect on the selection, which is made solely by the magazine's editors.

Background

The tradition of selecting a "Man of the Year" began in 1927, with Time editors contemplating the news makers of the year. The idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year of not having aviator Charles Lindbergh on its cover following his historic trans-Atlantic flight. By the end of the year, it was decided that a cover story featuring Lindbergh as the Man of the Year would serve both purposes.

Selection

U.S. presidents

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 time of the first issue), Herbert Hoover (the subsequent U.S. president), and Gerald Ford. 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 is Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1944 as Supreme Commander of the Allied Invasion Force, eight years before his election. He subsequently received the title again in 1959, while in office. Franklin D. Roosevelt 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).

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 the "Man and Wife of the Year", Soong Mei-ling (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) represented on the cover by a woman, 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 Person of the Year. 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 in 2015, "The Silence Breakers" in 2017, Greta Thunberg in 2019 and Kamala Harris (jointly with Joe Biden) in 2020. In 2020, to celebrate International Women's Day, Time editors released 89 new Time covers, each showing women, in addition to the 11 already chosen, as counterparts to the Person of the Year choices from the past century.

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, President-Elect and Vice President-Elect (2020)

Classes of unnamed people

• The American fighting-man / The American soldier (1950, 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)

Inanimate objects

• The Computer (Machine of the Year, 1982)
• The Endangered Earth (Planet of the Year, 1988)

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". Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi were chosen as runners-up.

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. However, Time magazine points out 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.

As a result of the public backlash it received from the United States for naming Khomeini as Man of the Year in 1979, Time has since shied away from using figures who are controversial in the United States for commercial reasons, fearing reductions in sales or advertising revenue.

Time's Person of the Year 2001, immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks, was New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. The stated rules of selection, the individual or group of individuals who have had the biggest effect on the year's news, made Osama bin Laden the more likely choice that year. The issue that declared Giuliani the Person of the Year included an article that mentioned Time's earlier decision to select Ayatollah Khomeini and the 1999 rejection of Hitler as "Person of the Century". The article seemed to imply that Osama bin Laden was a stronger candidate than Giuliani, as Adolf Hitler was a stronger candidate than Albert Einstein. The selections were ultimately based on what the magazine describes as who they believed had a stronger influence on history and who represented either the year or the century the most. According to Time, Giuliani was selected for symbolizing the American response to the September 11th attacks, and Albert Einstein selected for representing a century of scientific exploration and wonder.

Another controversial choice was the 2006 selection of "You", representing most if not all people for advancing the information age by using the Internet (via e.g. blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and Wikipedia).

Withdrawn selections

In 1941, the fictional elephant Dumbo from the Disney movie of the same name was selected to be "Mammal of the Year", and a cover was created showing Dumbo 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.

Film-maker 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."

On November 24, 2017, U.S. president Donald Trump, who had been Person of the Year in 2016, posted on the social media network Twitter 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.

Persons of the Year

Year	Image	Choice	Lifetime	Notes	Runners-up
1927		Lindbergh, CharlesCharles Lindbergh	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.
1928		Chrysler, WalterWalter Chrysler	1875–1940	In 1928, Chrysler oversaw a merger of his Chrysler Corporation with Dodge before beginning work on the Chrysler Building.
1929		Young, Owen D.Owen D. Young	1874–1962	Young chaired a committee which authored 1929's Young Plan, a program for settlement of German reparations after World War I.
1930		Gandhi, MahatmaMahatma Gandhi	1869–1948	Gandhi was the leader of the 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		Laval, PierrePierre Laval	1883–1945	Laval was first appointed Prime Minister of France in 1931. Laval 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		Roosevelt, Franklin D.Franklin D. Roosevelt	1882–1945	Roosevelt won the 1932 US presidential election by a landslide, defeating the incumbent, Herbert Hoover.
1933		Johnson, Hugh S.Hugh S. Johnson	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		Roosevelt, Franklin D.Franklin D. Roosevelt (2)	1882–1945	Roosevelt was President of the United States from 1933 to 1945. In 1934, Roosevelt's New Deal reforms were beginning to bear fruit.
1935		Selassie, HaileHaile Selassie	1892–1975	Selassie was Emperor of Ethiopia in 1935, when Italian forces invaded Ethiopia, starting the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.
1936		Simpson, WallisWallis Simpson	1896–1986	In 1936, Simpson's relationship with King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, led the king to abdicate his throne in order to marry her.
1937		Kai-shek, ChiangChiang Kai-shek	1887–1975	Chiang was Premier of the Republic of China at the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
		Mei-ling, SoongSoong Mei-ling	1898–2003	Soong was wife of Chiang Kai-shek from 1927 until his death in 1975. Addressed as Madame Chiang Kai-Shek by the magazine, she was recognized together with her husband as "Man & Wife of the Year".
1938		Hitler, AdolfAdolf Hitler	1889–1945	As Chancellor of Germany, Hitler oversaw the unification of Germany with Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938, after the Anschluss and Munich Agreement respectively. Instead of a conventional portrait, the cover was an illustration by Rudolph von Ripper entitled 'From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate'.
1939		Stalin, JosephJoseph Stalin	1878–1953	In 1939, Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and de facto leader of the Soviet Union. He oversaw the signing of a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany before invading eastern Poland.
1940		Churchill, WinstonWinston Churchill	1874–1965	Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain.
1941		Roosevelt, Franklin D.Franklin D. Roosevelt (3)	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		Stalin, JosephJoseph Stalin (2)	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		Marshall, George C.George C. Marshall	1880–1959	As United States Army Chief of Staff in 1943, General Marshall was instrumental in organizing US actions in World War II.
1944		Eisenhower, Dwight D.Dwight D. Eisenhower	1890–1969	General Eisenhower was Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during 1944's Operation Overlord.
1945		Truman, Harry S.Harry S. Truman	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		Byrnes, James F.James F. Byrnes	1879–1972	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		Marshall, George C.George C. Marshall (2)	1880–1959	Appointed United States Secretary of State in 1947, Marshall was the architect of the Marshall Plan.
1948		Truman, Harry S.Harry S. Truman (2)	1884–1972	Truman was elected in his own right as President of the United States in 1948, which is considered to be one of the greatest election upsets in American history.
1949		Churchill, WinstonWinston Churchill (2)	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		American fighting The American fighting-man		Representing U.S. troops involved in the Korean War (1950–1953).
1951		Mossadegh, MohammadMohammad Mossadegh	1882–1967	In 1951, Mossadegh was appointed Prime Minister of Iran and expelled western oil companies, starting the Abadan Crisis.
1952		Elizabeth Elizabeth II	Born 1926	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		Adenauer, KonradKonrad Adenauer	1876–1967	In 1953, Adenauer was re-elected as Chancellor of West Germany.
1954		Dulles, John FosterJohn Foster Dulles	1888–1959	As United States Secretary of State in 1954, Dulles was architect of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
1955		Curtice, HarlowHarlow Curtice	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		Hungarian The Hungarian freedom fighter		Representing Hungarian revolutionaries involved in the failed 1956 uprising.
1957		Khrushchev, NikitaNikita Khrushchev	1894–1971	In 1957, Khrushchev consolidated his leadership of the Soviet Union, surviving a plot to dismiss him by members of the Presidium, and leading the Soviet Union into the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1.
1958		de Gaulle, CharlesCharles de Gaulle	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 President of France in December.
1959		Eisenhower, Dwight D.Dwight D. Eisenhower (2)	1890–1969	Eisenhower was President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
1960		Us Scientists U.S. Scientists		Represented by George Beadle, Charles Draper, John Enders, Donald A. Glaser, Joshua Lederberg, Willard Libby, Linus Pauling, Edward Purcell, Isidor Rabi, Emilio Segrè, William Shockley, Edward Teller, Charles Townes, James Van Allen, and Robert Woodward.
1961		Kennedy, John F.John F. Kennedy	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		John XXIII	1881–1963	Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963. In 1962, he volunteered as a mediator in the Cuban Missile Crisis, gaining praise from both sides. He also initiated the Second Vatican Council that same year.
1963		King Jr., Martin LutherMartin Luther King Jr.	1929–1968	A leader of the Civil Rights Movement, King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.
1964		Johnson, Lyndon B.Lyndon B. Johnson	1908–1973	Johnson was elected in his own right as President of the United States in 1964, before securing the passage of the Civil Rights Act, declaring a War on Poverty and escalating U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
1965		Westmoreland, WilliamWilliam Westmoreland	1914–2005	General Westmoreland was commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
1966		Inheritor The Inheritor		Representing a generation of American men and women, aged 25 and under.
1967		Johnson, Lyndon B.Lyndon B. Johnson (2)	1908–1973	Johnson was President of the United States from 1963 to 1969.
1968		Apollo The Apollo 8 astronauts	Born 1933, 1928 and 1928	In 1968, the 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 manned Moon landings in 1969.
1969		Middle America The Middle Americans		Also referred to as the silent majority.
1970		Brandt, WillyWilly Brandt	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".
1971		Nixon, RichardRichard Nixon	1913–1994	Nixon was President of the United States from 1969 to 1974.
1972		Nixon, RichardRichard Nixon (2)	1913–1994	As President of the United States, Nixon visited 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 in one of the largest landslide election victories in American history.
		Kissinger, HenryHenry Kissinger	Born 1923	Kissinger, as Nixon's National Security Advisor, traveled with the President to China in 1972.
1973		Sirica, JohnJohn Sirica	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		King Faisal Faisal	1906–1975	Faisal, King of Saudi Arabia, was acknowledged in the wake of the oil crisis of 1973–1974, caused by Saudi Arabia withdrawing its oil from world markets in protest at Western support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
1975		American women American women		Represented by Susan Brownmiller, Kathleen Byerly, Alison Cheek, Jill Conway, Betty Ford, Ella Grasso, Carla Hills, Barbara Jordan, Billie Jean King, Carol Sutton, Susie Sharp, and Addie Wyatt.
1976		Carter, JimmyJimmy Carter	Born 1924	In 1976, Carter was elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent President Gerald Ford.
1977		Sadat, AnwarAnwar Sadat	1918–1981	Sadat, as President of Egypt, traveled to Israel in 1977—the first Arab leader to do so—to discuss normalization of Egypt-Israel relations.
1978		Xiaoping, DengDeng Xiaoping	1904–1997	China's Vice Premier. Deng overthrew Hua Guofeng to assume de facto control over China in 1978, as Paramount Leader.
1979		Khomeini, RuhollahRuhollah Khomeini	1902–1989	Khomeini led the 1979 Iranian Revolution, establishing himself as Supreme Leader.
1980		Reagan, RonaldRonald Reagan	1911–2004	Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, defeating incumbent President Jimmy Carter.
1981		Wałęsa, LechLech Wałęsa	Born 1943	Leader of the Polish Solidarity trade union and architect of the Gdańsk Agreement until his arrest and the imposition of martial law in December 1981.
1982		Computer The Computer		Denoted "Machine of the Year" to herald the dawn of the Information Age.
1983		Reagan, RonaldRonald Reagan (2)	1911–2004	In 1983, as President of the United States, Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada and championed the Strategic Defense Initiative.
		Andropov, YuriYuri Andropov	1914–1984	Andropov, as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was a strong critic of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Andropov was hospitalized in August 1983 and subsequently died in 1984.
1984		Ueberroth, PeterPeter Ueberroth	Born 1937	Ueberroth orchestrated the organization of the 1984 Summer Olympics, which involved a Soviet-led boycott.
1985		Xiaoping, DengDeng Xiaoping (2)	1904–1997	As Paramount Leader of China, Deng was acknowledged for "sweeping economic reforms that have challenged Marxist orthodoxies".
1986		Aquino, CorazonCorazon Aquino	1933–2009	Aquino was a prominent figure in 1986's People Power Revolution, being elected President of the Philippines.
1987		Gorbachev, MikhailMikhail Gorbachev	Born 1931	As General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev oversaw Perestroika political reforms in 1987.
1988		Endangered The Endangered Earth		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 1988–1989 North American drought, "syringe tide", 1988 Bangladesh cyclone and 1988 Armenian earthquake, as well as ozone depletion, global warming, radioactive contamination and deforestation.
1989		Gorbachev, MikhailMikhail Gorbachev (2)	Born 1931	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 before the fragmentation of the Eastern Bloc.
1990		Bush, George H. W.George H. W. Bush	1924–2018	As President of the United States, Bush oversaw U.S. involvement in the Gulf War (1990–1991).
1991		Turner, TedTed Turner	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".
1992		Clinton, BillBill Clinton	Born 1946	Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992, defeating incumbent President George H. W. Bush.
1993		Peacemakers The Peacemakers		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. The pair worked together to end the Apartheid system. 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		John Paul II	1920–2005	Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005.
1995		Gingrich, NewtNewt Gingrich	Born 1943	Leader of the "Republican Revolution", a Republican party election landslide, which led to Gingrich being elected Speaker of the House.
1996		Ho, DavidDavid Ho	Born 1952	Ho, a scientist, pioneered much AIDS research.
1997		Grove, AndrewAndrew Grove	1936–2016	In 1997, Grove was chairman and CEO of Intel, recognized as a pioneer in the semiconductor industry.	3 Diana, Princess of Wales Alan Greenspan Ian Wilmut
1998		Clinton, BillBill Clinton (2)	Born 1946	As President of the United States, Clinton was impeached in 1998 following the Lewinsky scandal. The Senate acquitted him of the charges.
		Starr, KenKen Starr	Born 1946	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		Bezos, JeffJeff Bezos	Born 1964	Bezos is founder and was CEO of Amazon.com.
2000		Bush, George W.George W. Bush	Born 1946	In 2000, Bush was elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent Vice President Al Gore.
2001		Giuliani, RudyRudy Giuliani	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.
2002		Whistleblowers The Whistleblowers		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		American soldier The American soldier (2)		Representing U.S. forces around the world, especially in the Iraq War (2003–2011).
2004		Bush, George W.George W. Bush (2)	Born 1946	In 2004, Bush was re-elected President of the United States, defeating John Kerry and overseeing U.S. involvement in the Iraq War.
2005		Good Samaritans The Good Samaritans		Represented by Bono, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates. Bono, philanthropist and member of the rock band U2, helped to organise 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		You You		Representing individual content creators on the World Wide Web.	4 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Hu Jintao Kim Jong-il James Baker
2007		Putin, VladimirVladimir Putin	Born 1952	Putin was President of Russia from 2000 to 2008.	4 Al Gore J. K. Rowling Hu Jintao David Petraeus
2008		Obama, BarackBarack Obama	Born 1961	In 2008, Obama was elected President of the United States, defeating John McCain becoming the first African-American President of the United States in January 2009	4 Henry Paulson Nicolas Sarkozy Sarah Palin Zhang Yimou
2009		Bernanke, BenBen Bernanke	Born 1953	Chairman of the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis of 2007–08.	4 Stanley McChrystal The Chinese Worker Nancy Pelosi Usain Bolt
2010		Zuckerberg, MarkMark Zuckerberg	Born 1984	Founder of social-networking website Facebook.	4 The Tea Party Hamid Karzai Julian Assange The Chilean Miners
2011		Protester The Protester		Recognizing the historic significance of many grassroots protests across the world during that year, such as the ongoing Arab Spring and those against austerity measures in Greece and later in Spain, against corruption in India, against the drug war in Mexico, for education in Chile, for social justice in Israel, as well as the riots in England, the anti-government protests in Russia and the emerging global Occupy Movement.	4 William McRaven Ai Weiwei Paul Ryan Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
2012		Obama, BarackBarack Obama (2)	Born 1961	In 2012, Obama was re-elected President of the United States, defeating Mitt Romney.	4 Malala Yousafzai Tim Cook Mohamed Morsi Fabiola Gianotti
2013		Francis	Born 1936	Elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.	4 Edward Snowden Edith Windsor Bashar al-Assad Ted Cruz
2014		Ebola Ebola fighters		"Ebola fighters" refers to health care workers who helped stop the spread of Ebola virus disease during the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, including not only doctors and nurses, but also ambulance attendants, burial parties and others. Those represented on the covers included Dr. Jerry Brown, the medical director at the Eternal Love Winning Africa Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, Dr. Kent Brantly, a physician with Samaritan's Purse and the first American to be infected in the 2014 outbreak, Ella Watson-Stryker, a health promoter for Doctors Without Borders who is originally from the United States, Foday Gallah, an ambulance supervisor and Ebola survivor from Monrovia, Liberia, Salome Karwah, a trainee nurse and counselor from Liberia whose parents died of Ebola, Dr. Pardis Sabeti from the Broad Institute.	4 Ferguson protesters Vladimir Putin Masoud Barzani Jack Ma
2015		Merkel, AngelaAngela Merkel	Born 1954	Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021, recognized for leadership in the Greek debt crisis and European migrant crisis.	6 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Donald Trump Black Lives Matter Hassan Rouhani Travis Kalanick Caitlyn Jenner
2016		Trump, DonaldDonald Trump	Born 1946	In 2016, Trump was elected President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton.	5 Hillary Clinton The Hackers Recep Tayyip Erdoğan The CRISPR Pioneers Beyoncé
2017		Silence Breakers The Silence Breakers			6 Donald Trump Xi Jinping Robert Mueller Kim Jong-un Colin Kaepernick Patty Jenkins
2018		The Guardians		Journalists who faced persecution, arrest or murder for their reporting. Those highlighted on four different covers were: Jamal Khashoggi, Washington Post columnist Maria Ressa, editor of the Philippine news website Rappler Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Reuters journalists the staff of The Capital, a Maryland newspaper 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.	6 Donald Trump Robert Mueller The Activists Moon Jae-in Ryan Coogler Meghan Markle
2019		Greta Thunberg	Born 2003	Environmental activist and founder of the school strike for the climate campaign.	4 Donald Trump Nancy Pelosi The Hong Kong protesters Whistleblower in Trump–Ukraine scandal
2020		Joe Biden	Born 1942	In 2020, Biden and Harris were elected 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.	3 Donald Trump Anthony Fauci and the Front Line Health Workers The Movement for Racial Justice
		Kamala Harris	Born 1964
2021		Elon Musk	Born 1971	CEO of Tesla, Inc., founder and CEO of SpaceX, and the richest person in the world as of 2021	Time did not release a shortlist for 2021.

Other categories

In addition to the main Person of the Year list, Time has acknowledged other impactful people or groups in other categories.

Entertainer of the Year

Athlete of the Year

Businessperson of the Year

Online poll

Time magazine also holds an online poll for the readers to vote for who they believe to be the Person of the Year. While many mistakenly believe the winner of the poll to be the Person of the Year, the title, as mentioned above, is decided by the editors of Time. Time continues to annually run an online poll for the "People's Choice", but stresses the decision on whom the magazine recognizes is not made by the poll, but by the magazine's editors.

See also

In Spanish: Persona del año para niños