#5Things: TIME’s Person of the Year

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#5Things: TIME’s Person of the Year

José Díaz-Balart shares moments in TIME’s Person of the Year franchise that caught the world’s attention, from its first honoree to some controversial choices.

5 Things: TIME’s Person of the Year December 10, 2014 / 01:45

Dec. 10, 2014, 9:13 AM EST

By the Jose Diaz-Balart staff

There is no doubt the fight against Ebola has dominated the 2014 headlines, and it is those heroic individuals that were honored by TIME Magazine this year.

In honor of that honor, we’re running through five things this morning that caught the world’s attention about TIME’s franchise over the years:

Charles Lindbergh in 1927 claimed TIME’s first honor for his nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris, making Lindbergh the first person to be in New York and Paris on the same day.
Who received the most “Person of the Year” titles? That would be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose influence over the New Deal in the 1930s and over World War II in 1941 earned him the honor three times.
The Person of the Year was not always a good thing: Hitler, Stalin, and the Ayatollah were among the despots of distinction.
“Person of the Year” was not always called that — it was known as “Man of the Year” until 1999, when the magazine changed its title. (The winner that year was still a man though: Amazon pioneer Jeff Bezos.)
Who needs people? The computer claimed the 1982 honor, Mother Earth was honored in 1988, and in 2006 the winner was “YOU” as the user-generated Internet era exploded.

the Jose Diaz-Balart staff