Six Degrees of Obama

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What connects Barack Obama to every one of our previous Persons of the Year?

Ever play that game in which you try to connect disparate people using as few links as possible? We wondered what it would take to connect Barack Obama to each and every one of our previous Persons of the Year—going all the way back to our initial honoree, Charles Lindbergh, in 1927, and including inanimate winners like the Personal Computer (1982) and the Earth (1988). Some links are more direct than others, but you can get from the Pope to Obama via Queen Elizabeth II. And, yes, there’s even a link to You (2006).

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TIME Graphic by Feilding Cage, Jeremy Caplan, Kristina Dell, Caitlin Thompson