Time Magazine Trivia

1. Who was Time Magazine's very first Person of the Year, awarded in 1927?

From Quiz Time of the Year

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh was an easy choice for the magazine's editors. Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 33 hours and 39 minutes. As of 2023, he also remains the youngest recipient.

From Quiz Time Person of the Year - The 1970s

Answer: Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt was selected for his efforts to improve the relationship between East and West Germany. He had a bold approach to the Soviet Union and the Eastern Block called Ostpolitik, which called for openness and normal relations. Willy was the Chancellor of Germany (West Germany) from October, 1969 to May, 1974.

From Quiz Time's (Non) Person of the Year

Answer: Ebola

Ebola is a highly infectious disease, and the outbreak in western Africa was a matter of major concern. It appears to have started in late 2013 in Guinea, when a young child was infected by a bat. The disease spread rapidly through neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia and claimed about 10,000 lives in a 2.5-year period. The epidemic was difficult to control for many reasons including lack of medical facilities and trained medical staff, poor training, language barriers, and even religious beliefs. Assistance from WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières and other aid agencies managed to stop the spread, but the prospects of further outbreaks is high, and no efficient preventative vaccine exists. The editor of 'Time' magazine, Nancy Gibbs, said, "The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are 'Time's' 2014 Person of the Year." That says it all, wouldn't you agree? The name of the five different cover pictures was 'Ebola Fighters', one of which depicted Foday Gallah, a Liberian ambulance driver.

From Quiz Time Magazine Reports: The 1950s

Answer: First jet-to-jet dogfight

'Time' continued, "fighter planes in history's first jet dogfight streaked across the morning sky. Eight or more Russian-made MIG-15s tangled for a deadly moment with four U.S. Lockheed F-80s. The score: one Communist jet shot down, another damaged; U.S. fighters, untouched." Despite the magazine's optimism, American planes did not remain untouched for long (they actually suffered losses on the day 'Time's report discussed) and the Russian MIG-15 proved to be arguably the best fighter jet of the era. American and Russian/Chinese/North Korean pilots battled for the duration of the war over the stretch of the Korean-Chinese border known as "MIG Alley". Also in 1950: median annual US family income $3,300, Communist China invades Tibet, Minneapolis Lakers win NBA championship defeating Syracuse Nationals.

From Quiz Time Magazine Reports: The 1940s

Answer: Military Draft

Burke-Wadsworth was better known as the Selective Service Act of 1940. 'Time' explained in detail 'THE DRAFT: How It Works'. "A new thing had entered U. S. life: although the U. S. had conscripted its citizens in two wars, never before had it conscripted them in peace. Some 16,500,000 men, aged 21 to 36, forthwith became liable to compulsory military service. How, when, whether conscription would actually touch them was prescribed in 1) the bill, and 2) the selective system which the Army & Navy had long since prepared against a martial day." Also in 1940: Indiana wins NCAA Basketball championship over Kansas, Leon Trotsky assassinated, Lascaux prehistoric cave paintings discovered in France.

From Quiz Time Magazine Reports: The 1930s

Answer: 2000

After a year of reporting on bank closures as the American economy plunged, 'Time' finished 1930 with the closing of two major big city institutions. The December 22 issue brought news of the closing of the Bank of the United States in New York City after a run by depositors left it insolvent. A week later, 'Time' reported that customers of Bankers Trust Co. in Philadelphia found a sign on the door stating that the bank was closed and "in the possession of Peter G. Cameron, Secretary of Banking of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania". The bleeding didn't stop in 1930. By 1933, 11,000 of the nation's 25,000 banks had disappeared. It was only after the election of Franklin Roosevelt and the enactment of major reforms that the banking industry in the US began to stabilize. Also in 1930: cost of a loaf of bread $.09, a new Pontiac $745, Born August 21, Princess Margaret.

From Quiz 'Time' Magazine Reports: The 1920s

Answer: Smoking in public

According to 'Time' "The Freeman's League is agitating for the repeal of the law. The Mormon Church is in favor of the anti-tobacco legislation." Anti-smoking laws were passed by 15 U.S. states between 1890 and 1920.

From Quiz A Brief History of Time

Answer: Britton Hadden & Henry Luce

Hadden and Luce were former students of Yale University where they both worked on the student newspaper the 'Yale Daily News'. Initially intending to call the magazine 'Facts', 'Time' became the first news magazine to be published on a weekly basis.

From Quiz Time Magazine Person of the Year 1964-1978

Answer: Lyndon Johnson

There is little doubt that Johnson brought energy and strong leadership to the Presidency. He was the first President to surround himself with the latest electronic communications equipment. And he did not fear 'button-holing' legislators on key issues. "Time" said: "[Johnson] brought to the office of the presidency a concept not favored by his immediate predecessors who, except for Dwight Eisenhower, felt that a "strong" President had to fight with Congress. Always mindful of the presidency's great power, Johnson put into effect a new relationship with the other "co- equal" branches of Government, this achieving the truest partnership with Congress-in the checks-and-balances sense envisaged by the Constitution-in well over a century. His remarkable legislative record was crowned by the historic Civil Rights Act." Johnson was similarly honored again in 1967.

From Quiz Time Magazine Person of the Year 1953-1963

Answer: Konrad Adenauer

Although he was not a Nazi, Adenauer was a skilled administrator. He is given credit for the by-pass or belt line highway system. The Nazis respected Adenauer but twice he was imprisoned by them. "Time" said this: "Konrad Adenauer had already guided the hated land of the Hun and the Nazi back to moral respectability... Though she still lacked a formal peace treaty, and the Iron Curtain fenced her off from half her land and from 18 million countrymen... Adenauer's West Germany last year emerged as the strongest country on the Continent save Soviet Russia."

From Quiz Time Magazine-Man of the Year 1927-1937

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh, also known as 'Lucky Lindy' and the 'Lone Eagle', gained fame as a daredevil pilot who flew solo from the US to France. Later he became a political activist whose opinions were sometimes controversial. The kidnapping of his son has been called the 'crime of the century'. Post and Corrigan were also early pilots. Wright, along with his brother Orville, is given credit for the first heavier-than-air powered flight.

From Quiz Time Magazine Person of the Year

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

On May 20-21, 1927 Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic prior to him but Lindbergh was the first to do it alone. Lindbergh's feat resulted in immediate international fame. During his life, Lindbergh served as an advisor in the aviation industry.

From Quiz History Through TIME Magazine Covers

Answer: Joseph Cannon, the retiring Speaker of the House fondly called "the grand old man of Congress"

In the cover story, TIME called the 86-year-old Joseph Gurney Cannon the "grand old man of Congress," and wrote the following: "Uncle Joe is something more than a politician with an age-record. He is the embodiment of a tradition, a political theory, a technique of party government and discipline that is fast perishing. He represents the Old Guard in the very flower of its maturity, in the palmy days of McKinley and Mark Hanna, when 'a little group of wilful men' did more than make gestures of government; they actually ruled Congress, shrewdly, impregnably, and without too much rhetoric."

From Quiz The Best of "Time" Magazine

Answer: Joseph G. Cannon (US politician)

"Time" magazine, created by Britton Haden and Henry Luce, put out its first issue on March 3, 1923. The cover featured politician Joseph G. Cannon, who had served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1903 to 1911. In addition to its U.S. edition, "Time" also publishes versions of its magazine in Europe ("Time Europe", out of London), Asia ("Time Asia", out of Hong Kong), and an Oceania edition out of Sydney.

From Quiz Time Magazine's Person of the Year

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

"Lucky Lindy" was the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, in his plane 'The Spirit of St. Louis' (a single-engine monoplane). He took off from Long Island on May 20, and thirty-three and a half hours later he landed in Paris, where jubilant spectators hauled him out of his plane and carried him around in triumph for half an hour.

From Quiz "Time" Magazine's Person of the Year

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh, also known as 'Lucky Lindy' and the 'Lone Eagle', gained fame as a daredevil pilot who flew solo from the US to France. Later he became a political activist whose opinions were sometimes controversial. The kidnapping of his son has been called the 'crime of the century'. Babe Ruth was an outstanding baseball player; Al Smith was a defeated democratic candidate for President; Leon Trotsky was a Communist leader who was assassinated in Mexico in 1940.

From Quiz "Time" Magazine's Person of the Year

Answer: As a young man.

"Time" began the nominations in 1927 and Charles Lindbergh was the first and the youngest person to receive the distinction. He was just 25 years old. Nicknamed "Lucky Lindy" or "the Lone Eagle", he captured the imagination of the public by flying across the Atlantic on a non-stop flight in "The Spirit of St. Louis".

From Quiz Pre-Second-World-War Celebrities

Answer: Adolf Hitler

The putsch had been the so-called beerhall putsch in which also Goering had participated. Bruening (1885-1970) was the leader of the Catholic Centre Party. In 1930 he became Chancellor of Germany. He was forced to resign by President Hindenburg in 1932, and was replaced by von Papen (1879-1969) who later was to become the man who smoothed the road to Hitler's Chancellorship. Other celebrities on the "Time Magazine" cover that year were Sir Oswald Mosley, Pierre Laval (1883-1945, a key figure in the Vichy government) and Lyautey (1854-1934, Marshal of France and colonial administrator. 1931 also was the year of Boris Karloff in 'Frankenstein' and Bela Lugosi as 'Dracula'. These movie-monsters did not make it to the cover of "Time" however.

From Quiz More 'Time' On My Hands

Answer: Italy

Benito Mussolini, still sore about Italy's defeat at the hand's of Ethiopia in the First Italo-Ethiopian War in 1895, set his sights on Ethiopia again in the early 1930s. In 1937, Italy succeeded in occupying Ethiopia and sent Haile Selassie into exile in Bath, England. Haile Selassie's legacy would find new life among the citizens of Jamaica who regarded him as the second coming of Jesus. Selassie remains the central figure in Rastafarianism to this day.

From Quiz 'Time' On My Hands

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

Lindbergh won the title in honor of his historic solo flight across the Atlantic.

From Quiz Time of the Year

Answer: Wallis Simpson

Wallis Simpson was a twice-divorced American woman who was responsible for King Edward VIII's abdication of the British throne. Simpson and Edward met in 1931 and he became infatuated with her. They carried on an affair until 1936 when, following the death of his father, King George V, Edward became king. At the time, it would have been unacceptable for the king to marry a divorcee, especially one whose previous husband was still alive. He was faced thus with a choice to end the affair, continue the affair under a threat of the resignation of the government, or give up the throne. On 1 December 1936, Edward chose abdication.

From Quiz Time Person of the Year - The 1970s

Answer: Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon was President of the United States from January, 1969 until his resignation in August, 1974. His 1971 selection was for the opening of communications with the People's Republic of China (Communist China) and for improving the US economy. At the time the United States recognized the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the legitimate Chinese government and would do so until 1979. Economically, Nixon instituted a wage and price freeze and took the US off the gold standard.

From Quiz Time's (Non) Person of the Year

Answer: Sexual harassment

The issue was brought to a head with the revelations about the actions of Harvey Weinstein. Unwanted sexual advances by men in positions of authority were exposed in many walks of life, and the world started to listen. The #MeToo hashtag became a rally call for women everywhere. The women depicted are actress Ashley Judd, Isabel Pascual, a fruitpicker, engineer Susan Fowler, Adama Iwu, a lobbyist and an anonymous Texan nurse.

From Quiz Time Magazine Reports: The 1930s

Answer: Hawke's Bay earthquake

'Time' began by describing a normal, uneventful Tuesday morning in Napier, on New Zealand's North Island. "Then the earth wobbled; stone buildings fell apart; wooden ones crumpled: Earthquake. A tidal wave tore over the sea wall, sucked the low-lying shore buildings into its wash. Fire broke out, swept over the debris, for scarcely one building remained erect in Napier". Also in 1931: Price of gasoline $.10 per gallon, average price of a house in UK 600 Pounds, GM introduces Frigidaire, the first home refrigerator.

From Quiz A Brief History of Time

Answer: 1923

At the princely sum of fifteen cents, the first edition of 'Time' featured an image of Joseph G. Cannon, the former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives, on the front cover. In commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary of 'Time', facsimiles of the entire first edition were included with the issue released on 28th February 1938.

From Quiz Time Magazine Person of the Year 1953-1963

Answer: John Foster Dulles

Dulles believed that the best way to combat the spread of communism was not by trying to contain it but it meet it head-on even if that meant to the brink of war. He was not above CIA foreign operations into countries with communist threats. It was the efforts of Dulles at 1954's Berlin Conference, a rare coming together of the foreign ministers of the world's powers, that prompted "Time" to grant the award. Here is what "Time" said: "[At Berlin], Dulles pressed Molotov with greater skill and force than any U.S. diplomat had ever shown in dealing with the Communists. With one sharp stroke after another, he stripped the Communists naked of the pretense that they really wanted peace at anything less than their own outrageous price. If millions remained deluded by... the Malenkov line, that was not the fault of Dulles..."

From Quiz Time Magazine Person of the Year 1938-1952

Answer: Joseph Stalin

Although his tactics in his control of Russia are not admirable, during World War Two he was the key to the eastern front diverting Axis forces to the Eastern front. The 'big three' were Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, a stout alliance that determined the course of the war and the concessions made that the world dealt with for decades.

From Quiz Time Magazine-Man of the Year 1927-1937

Answer: Walter Chrysler

"Time" selected him based on what they called "twelve months of extraordinary activity". He produced the first Plymouth and added DeSoto to his line. He announced that he was going to make his headquarters in New York by building the Chrysler Building which was for a short time the tallest building until the Empire State Building in 1933. Before leaving General Motors, he led the production of the Buick line.

From Quiz Time Magazine Person of the Year

Answer: Franklin Roosevelt

FDR was elected as president in 1932 during a time of global economic crisis. He was credited with leading the USA out of depression during the dirty thirties through a complex set of programs called the New Deal. Roosevelt was in office during WW2 working closely with Churchill and Stalin in leading the allies against Germany and Japan.

From Quiz History Through TIME Magazine Covers

Answer: Hugo Stinnes, German coal magnate, attempting to control all European steel

TIME, while writing from a U.S. point of view, has always attempted to be an international news magazine. Stinnes was featured on the cover of the third issue released, very early indeed. The cover story opens: "Crafty, potent, indurate, Herr Hugo Stinnes, coal magnate, multimillionaire, present 'All-Highest' of Germany, plots a coal victory in the Ruhr. His aim is the control of the European steel industries, and, like all mysterious figures who move in the no-man's-land of international politics, he stands to win whichever side comes out on top. At present it suits Stinnes to back his own country."

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