Time's 'Person of the Year' List

Since 1927, Time magazine has chosen a man, woman, or idea that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year." Although Time's list is not an academic or objective study of the past, the list gives a contemporary view of what was important during each year.

In 2020, Time featured two "Person's of the Year" winners: Joe Biden, who had been elected the 46th president of the United States; and Kamala Harris, who had been elected vice president, the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be elected to the post.

TIME's 'Person of the Year' Winners

Person of the Year Fast Facts

• Charles Lindbergh (1927) was the first and youngest person to receive the distinction at 25 years old.
• Wallis Warfield Simpson, the woman whom English King Edward VIII abdicated in order to marry, was the first woman to receive the honor (1936).
• Although 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—before he started World War II. Hitler's Time cover, however, shows him with dead bodies hanging above him.
• Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who was a U.S. ally during World War II but who was ultimately responsible for the deaths of approximately 20 to 60 million of his own people, was awarded the honor twice.
• 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).
• The winner in 2006 was even more unusual. The winner was "you." This choice was meant to draw attention to the impact of the World Wide Web, which had made each of our contributions both relevant and important.