Man of the Year Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

In 1927, the American news magazine, "Time" introduced the concept of the "Man of the Year" or "Woman of the Year" (The event was called Person of the Year from 1999 onwards). In the respective installment of the magazine, a feature was made about a "person, a group, an idea, or an object that for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year"

In 1927 Charles Lindbergh won the Orteig prize and rose from being an unknown US Mail pilot to instant worldwide recognition when he became the first person to fly across the Atlantic from Long Island to Paris in 33 hours in 1927 He also flew solo). As Mr Lindbergh was a reserve officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he received the United States' the Medal of Honor, for the achievement.
He was featured in the January 2 1928 version of the magazine and hence his portrait featured on the cover, whereas it did not when the event occurred in May 1927.

Answer: None of them won

When Donald Trump had been named in 2016, every serving President of the US had been a "Man or Person of the Year" but not Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover nor Gerald Ford. Mr Coolidge was in office at the time of the first award, Mr Hoover was the next US President and Mr Ford was President from 1974-1977. During this period Dwight Eisenhower was the only US President who was elected before he became President.

He was named in 1944 when he was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Invasion Force in World War II as well as in 1959 when he was president..

Answer: True

Adolf Hitler (1938), Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Nikita Khrushchev (1957) and Ayatollah Khomeini (1979) have all been named "Man of the Year". Despite the title being universally viewed as an honour, the wording of the award states "for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year".
One view that does need to be considered is that while history has seen these men as dictators and/or tyrants, they were viewed with admiration in contemporaneous times.

Answer: 1953 soon after she became Queen after the death of her Father King George VI

Queen Elizabeth was not the first woman to win the "Woman of the Year" Award (There were only three recipients in the 20th Century). Queen Elizabeth came to the throne when Great Britain was still reeling from the aftermath of the second World War, the British Empire was crumbling and the Cold War was biting.

The ascendancy of Queen Elizabeth in 1952 was seen as a fresh start. "Time" described the occasion as "of a fresh young blossom on roots that had weathered many a season of wintry doubt. The British, as weary and discouraged as the rest of the world in 1952, saw in their new young Queen a reminder of a great past... and dared to hope that she might be an omen of a great future.". Under Queen Elizabeth the United Kingdom has flourished to become a world force again in the 21st Century.

Answer: Gang of Four

The Gang of Four was a Chinese Communist Party political faction who in 1976 controlled the power organs of the Party during the later stages of the Cultural Revolution. The four were charged with treason and received sentences from 20 years to life.
In 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of William Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell were the first people who travelled beyond Earth's orbit and subsequently orbited the Moon. They won the award the same year.
In 2014, the award went to The Ebola Fighters. The article featured Dr. Jerry Brown, Dr. Kent Brantly, Ella Watson-Stryker, Foday Gallah, an Ebola survivor from Monrovia, Liberia,and Salome Karwah, a trainee nurse. However the award is dedicated to all health care workers contained spread of Ebola Virus disease in West Africa in 2012-14.
In 2017, the award was won by the Silence Breakers, who were a diverse group of American women who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment. They included the leaders of the of the "Me Too" movement. Some of the women chose to remain anonymous but some of the women featured in the corresponding Time article included Ashley Judd, Susan Fowler, Taylor Swift, Alyssa Milano, Tarana Burke, and Selma Blair.

Answer: True

To understand this award, one must understand it was not awarded for achievement, but awarded to the person who had the most impact on news. To avoid a constitutional crisis, if King Edward VIII wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorcee, a constitutional crisis would have occured because of the dim view of divorce held by the nobility and political systems of Great Britain.

The King had to choose between remaining King or marrying the love of his life. He chose the latter, and while a constitutional crisis was avoided, it thrust an unprepared King, King George VI, father of upcoming Queen Elizabeth II into the royal spotlight. Wallis and Edward, later Duke and Duchess of York, led a fairly quiet but social life in France and the US.

Answer: Bill Clinton

US President Bill Clinton won the award in the preceding year.

Yitzhak Rabin, as Prime Minister of Israel, and Yasser Arafat, as President of the Palestinian National Authority, signed the 1993 Oslo Accord. This was the first face-to-face agreement between Palestine and Israel.

F.W. De Klerk, as President of South Africa, approved and mandated Nelson Mandela's 1990 prison release. The two then worked together for the next three years to end the Apartheid system in South Africa.

Answer: True

Corazon Aquino was a self-confessed "plain housewife" but took action when her husband, who was returning to the Philippines after being in exile in the US, was assassinated due to his opposition to President Ferdinand Marcos.
His widow then returned to Manila, from the US, to lead his funeral procession. She then stood against Marcos in the 1986 elections after she read a petition of one million signatures urging her to run. She won the 1986 election and became the 11th Philippine President. She won the award the same year. She died in 2009.

Answer: True

Richard Nixon, US President from 1969 to 1974 won "Man of the Year" during his first term in 1972. The following year he won the award jointly with Henry Kissinger, his National Security Advisor. Mr Nixon was the first US President to visit China in 1972.

The visit was the main step in normalising relations between the US and China after 25 years of no diplomatic ties (Previously the US recognised the Nationalists in Taiwan as the "real China"). Mr Kissinger had travelled to China several times before Mr Nixon to commence the resumption of diplomatic ties.

The Presidential visit was seen as a massive coup and at his subsequent 1972 election, Nixon won over 60% of the popular vote and 49 states. He had to resign two years later. Four other US Presidents have won the award twice and FDR three times.

Answer: Albert Einstein

Winston Churchill was named as "Man of the Half-Century" in 1949. In the last "Time" edition for 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev was named as "Man of the Decade". In 1999 Mahatma Gandhi and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were named as runners-up and Albert Einstein won the "Person of the Century" Award.

Interestingly, whilst Mr Einstein died in 1955, 28 years after the inauguration of the "Man of the Year" Awards, he never won an annual award in this time. The "Time" editors explained he was the most preeminent scientist in a century dominated by science and that Albert Einstein "serves as a symbol of all the scientists such as Fermi, Heisenberg, Bohr, Richard Feynman, ... who built upon his work".