TIME Magazine Asia TIME Person of the Year 1927-Present

Ever Since Charles Lindbergh was proclaimed the Man of the Year for 1927 in the Jan. 2, 1928, issue, TIME magazine has annually designated one man, woman, couple, group, or concept that had the most influence on the world during the previous 12 months. But, according to a letter to readers that appeared in 1944’s edition (Man of the Year: Dwight Eisenhower), it all started by accident. Here’s what happened: New Year’s week of 1928 had been a string of slow news days. As the magazine’s publication date approached, the editors were at a loss over whom to put on the cover. “No one had done anything newsworthy enough to put his picture on TIME’s cover, so somebody suggested we stop looking for a Man of the Week and pick a Man…

What does it mean to be Person of the Year? The title goes to “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse,” former Managing Editor Walter Isaacson wrote in the 1998 issue. That means the person is not necessarily a hero—Adolf Hitler, for example, was Person of the Year in 1938, with a cover showing him playing a ghastly organ and a cover line touting, “From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate.” Stalin got the nod twice, while the selection of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, when the magazine called him “the mystic who lit the fires of hatred.” And some choices have been ambiguous; take Newt Gingrich, who…

May 20, 1927. New York City. Charles Lindbergh took off in The Spirit of St. Louis to make the world’s first solo nonstop flight over the Atlantic Ocean. He touched down 33½ hours later in Paris. This feat made the 25-year-old a worldwide sensation and the first Person of the Year. Lindbergh was showered with medals, honors, and parades, but he was often uncomfortable with the attention he received. He didn’t quite fit the hero aviator persona the public so craved. In his private life, he was prone to “modesty, taciturnity, diffidence (women make him blush), singleness of purpose, courage, occasional curtness,” as TIME reported in 1928. He married Anne Morrow in 1929 and they were thrust into the spotlight in 1932 when their son, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., was kidnapped…

In 1928, TIME described the quick rise of Walter Chrysler: “…twelve months of extraordinary activity. From motor man with one product, he had become one of the chief U.S. industrialists. Undeniably, he had been the outstanding businessman of the year.” That year, as the founder and first president of the Chrysler Corporation, he brought the Plymouth to market, acquired the Dodge Motor Company, and introduced an entire new line of affordable commercial automobiles, cementing his company as an auto-producing giant. The same year, he announced his plans to build the Chrysler Building, a 1,046-foot Art Deco skyscraper that was the world’s tallest building for 11 months. Of this epic endeavor, he simply said, “I like to build things. I like to do things. I am having a lot of fun going…

In 1924, Owen D. Young served on the committee of international finance experts that penned the Dawes Plan, which outlined, among other things, a staggered payment arrangement for Germany’s reparations for actions in WWI. A few years later, however, it became clear that German leaders were not willing to stick to the terms of the Dawes Plan. The Allied Reparations Committee appointed a new crew to convene in Paris in early 1929, chaired by Young. Young was a reluctant participant, but as an appointee of President Herbert Hoover, he did his civic duty. On paper, he was undoubtedly qualified: At the time of his appointment, he was chairman of the board of General Electric and the Radio Corporation of America, and he served on the Rockefeller Foundation board of trustees. But…

Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent crusade against British colonialism landed him in South African and Indian prisons many times during his life, but his arrest on May 5, 1930, was the one that prompted TIME to name him Person of the Year. In March 1930, Gandhi launched a satyagraha (passive political resistance movement) against the British salt monopoly and subsequent taxes, and he wrote a letter to the viceroy of India condemning British rule. Then, along with 78 volunteers, he marched to the salt mines of Dandi to make salt himself, a violation of law. During the 240-mile, 25-day journey, Gandhi stopped to speak to large crowds that gathered along the route. When he arrived in Dandi, thousands gathered in support. He was eventually arrested and imprisoned without trial on May 5, but…