Time magazine has been naming someone as the Person of the Year since 1927.The honor is not necessarily a medal or an honorary title; rather, Time magazine has described its picks in terms of influence and significance. Time selects a person, a group, an idea, or an object that has had the greatest impact on events over the past 12 months, for better or worse.It was previously known as Man of the Year or Woman of the Year. To make it sound gender-neutral, Man and Woman of the Year were changed to Person of the Year. It’s a clear-eyed assessment of the world as it is, as well as the most influential people and forces driving it.The end of the year edition of the magazine has become a powerful gauge of power, featuring many of history’s most notable characters.Time magazine named Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, its Person of the Year for 2007, claiming that he had brought Russia back from the brink of disaster to the summit of world power, albeit at the expense of democratic norms.Why not also check out our informative articles 2013 technology inventions and 2012 inventions?Who lost to Putin for Time’s 2007 Person of the Year?The Russian President beat out four other candidates for the distinction offered by Time magazine. He is famous for making positive changes in Russia’s economy and administration.Time’s second choice was former US Vice President Al Gore, who was followed by British author J.K. Rowling, Chinese President Hu Jintao, and US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.Albert Arnold Gore Junior is a politician and environmentalist who served as the United States’s 45th Vice President under President Bill Clinton from 1993-2001. J. K. Rowling is a British novelist, philanthropist, screenwriter, film producer, and television producer. She is well-known for her Harry Potter novels. Hu Jintao is a former Chinese politician who served as the Chinese Communist Party’s General Secretary (2002-2012), the People’s Republic of China’s President (2003-2013), and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (2004-2012). David Howell Petraeus is a former general in the United States Army and a public figure. He served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Petraeus served in the US Army for 37 years before taking over as director of the CIA.Who exactly was the Time magazine Person of the Year 2007?Putin was featured on the cover as Time magazine’s Person of the Year in the final year of his first term as Russian President.Putin, the 69-year-old Russian President whose party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, was riding high on oil-fueled economic growth and rising popularity thanks to a no-nonsense strategy that revived national pride. There was a massive military build-up and Cold War-style verbal attacks on the West. History shows that if it were not for him, the country would have been in a worse situation.The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report that included a letter from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin congratulating him on being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. Donald Trump has always had a fascination with Russia and has sought various prospective businesses there.Putin’s final year as Russia’s President secured his future in politics.Things We Did Not Know About PutinLet’s discover some interesting and unknown facts about the Russian President, Putin.Vladimir Putin was a former Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (translated in English as Committee for State Security) spy in East Germany who ascended through the ranks of the KGB’s successor agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), before being appointed Prime Minister in August 1999 by the late President Boris Yeltsin. When Boris Yeltsin stepped down in December 1999, he became acting President. He was elected President in March 2000 after a massive public relations operation to raise his profile from a relatively unknown figure.With the idea of cultivating a tough-guy image, he has played to his power base in the security authorities and military. Although his years in leadership have seen a major boost in living standards, because of rising oil prices, vast segments of the population remain impoverished.After the zigzags of the Yeltsin years, he delivered stability and predictability to many people in Russia.He has presided over a growing concentration of power behind the Kremlin walls, effectively marginalizing political opponents and tightening control over the media. His democratic credentials have been questioned by his Western adversaries as a result of this.Putin And The Secret ServicesThe narrative of how the KGB shaped Putin and modern Russia has been shared by a few individuals.The Time’s Person of the Year’s career began in the KGB of Russia.He worked for the Soviet KGB’s foreign intelligence division for 17 years, only rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He later made a point of remaining in the background as an advisor to a prickly, contentious mayor of St. Petersburg, the second-largest city in Russia and Putin’s hometown.Vladimir Putin’s career, on the other hand, shows that he observed the Cold War’s historic end firsthand. From the front lines in East Germany, Putin witnessed the collapse of the East’s centrally planned economies. He got a taste of Russia’s rocky early transition to a free-market, democratic regime in St. Petersburg.It’s unclear what Putin learned from these encounters. He accepted the belief that market democracy is the only option and openly acknowledged Russia’s economic shortcomings.Putin And The KGBRussia’s President, Vladimir Putin, had a history that was obscure and debatable.Vladimir Putin joined the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB) in 1975 and attended the 401st KGB school in Okhta, Leningrad, where he received his training. He began his career as a counter-intelligence officer in the Second Chief Directorate, before being transferred to the First Chief Directorate, where he observed foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad. Putin was dispatched to Moscow in September 1984 for additional training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute. He served in Dresden, East Germany, from 1985-1990, under the guise of a translator. This stage of his career is hazy and contentious.Though the KGB and the Soviet army still operated in Germany, Putin was forced to resign from active KGB service due to suspicions raised about his loyalty during demonstrations in Dresden and elsewhere, and he returned to Leningrad in early 1990, where he worked for about three months with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov.Did You Know…Since 1927, Time has chosen the most influential Person of the Year.Following the naming of Vladimir Putin as the Person of the Year by Time magazine, many more eminent personalities have been named in the subsequent years.Barack Obama was named Person of the Year in 2008. Obama slammed into the American scene like a tonne of bricks, upending American politics, shattering decades of conventional wisdom, and defying centuries of the social hierarchy of the country. Interestingly Obama was named Person of the Year for the second time in 2012 by Time magazine.The magazine named Ben Bernanke as the Time Person of the Year in 2009. He was in charge of a mission to preserve the global economy.Mark Zuckerberg was the Person of the Year for 2010. The Facebook era had arrived, and Mark Zuckerberg was the man who has led us there.The situation for 2006 was a bit different. ‘You’ was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2006. The publication’s objective was to pay gratitude to the millions of people who contribute anonymously to websites like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia, and a plethora of others. This came as a disappointment to many after the wise choice of 2005, which was The Good Samaritans (Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Bono).Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been named the Time’s Person of the Year 2020 for altering the American story, for demonstrating that the powers of empathy are bigger than the furies of the divide, and for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both believe that a sympathetic government might help reclaim unity. Frontline healthcare workers and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the racial justice movement, and President Donald Trump, who lost the White House race, were the other nominees.One of the most significant and memorable Person of the Year selections was the Ebola fighters team. In 2014, the title was shared by health care workers, scientists, nurses, ambulance drivers, and others who fought the terrible Ebola virus outbreak that killed many. Dr. Jerry Brown, a medical director; Dr. Kent Brantly, the first American to contract Ebola during the 2014 outbreak; Ella Watson-Stryker, a health promoter for Doctors Without Borders; Foday Gallah, an ambulance supervisor and Ebola survivor; and Salome Karwah, a Liberian trainee nurse whose parents died of Ebola were featured in five Time magazine covers.Apart from naming the Person of the Year annually, Time magazine has also named Albert Einstein as the Person of the century in the past.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked reading about the 2007 Time Person of the Year, then why not take a look at 2010 inventions or 2009 inventions.
Time magazine has been naming someone as the Person of the Year since 1927.
