The 75th Anniversary Of Person of the Year

One of the hallmarks of the newsmagazine format that Henry Luce and Briton Hadden created in 1923 was a penchant for telling stories through people. Carlyle defined history as "the biography of great men." Similarly, Luce and Hadden's TIME showed that journalism, the rough draft of history, could illuminate momentous events by profiling the gifted and powerful personalities who helped shape them. Nowhere more so than in TIME's selection of a Person of the Year, which has been a highlight since 1927. These iconic figures--statesmen, visionaries, tyrants, unexpected heroes like New York City Mayor RUDY GIULIANI--were singled out because they put...

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