Since 1927, TIME Magazine has chosen a man, woman, or idea that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year." Though TIME's list is not an academic or objective study of the past, the list gives a contemporary viewpoint of what was important during each year. There are many interesting facts about the list:
Charles Lindbergh (1927) was the first, and the youngest, person to receive the distinction. He was 25 years old.
Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson, the woman whom English King Edward VIII abdicated in order to marry, was the first woman to receive the honor - 1936.
Though a number of people have received the honor twice, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the only person to have been named three times: 1932, 1934, and 1941.
Adolf Hitler, the murderous leader of Nazi Germany, received the honor in 1938.
A whole generation was named in 1966 - "Twenty-five and Under."
In 1982, the computer became the first object ever to receive the distinction.
There are several years where large groups of people were nominated: the American Fighting-Man (1950), the Hungarian Freedom Fighter (1956), U.S. Scientists (1960), Twenty-Five and Under (1966), the Middle Americans (1968), and American Women (1975).
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