Person of the Century

"Time" Person of the Century was created to honor one of the . On December 31, 1999, the magazine published a special edition of its magazine naming Albert Einstein as "Person of the Century". Because the editors of "TIME" believed the twentieth century would be remembered most for its advances in science and technology, they thought Einstein would serve as a symbol for the scientists Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, and Stephen Hawking and the others who have built upon his work.cite journal | author=Editors | title=Einstein as Person of the Century (or Not?) |url=http://www.aip.org/history/newsletter/spring2000/einstein.htm | publisher=American Institute of Physics | journal=Center for History of Physics Newsletter | volume=32 | issue=1 | date=Spring 2000 | accessdate=2008-03-01]

The cover of the magazine featured the 1947 image of Einstein taken by American portrait photographer Philippe Halsman. It was during this photo session that Einstein spoke to Halsman of his despair over how his special theory of relativity and letter to Roosevelt led to the creation of the atomic bomb. It was at this point of immense sadness for Einstein that Halsman took the picture.cite news | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993008,00.html?iid=chix-sphere | title=Contributors | work=Time | date=31 December 1999 | accessdate=2008-03-01]

The runners-up for Person of the Century were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi."cite news | url=http://www.time.com/time/time100/poc/home.html | title=Person of the Century | work=Time | date=3 January 2000 | accessdate=2008-03-01]

A poll carried out by "Time Online" suggested that Elvis Presley was Person of the Century with Yitzhak Rabin and Adolf Hitler as runners-up. [cite news | title=Albert Einstein: Person of the Century | ur=http://www.time.com/time/time100/poc/century.html | title=The Person of the Century Poll Results | date=2000 | accessdate=2008-03-01] .

According to hundreds amongst those posters online who participated in the poll, the reason for the inordinate amount of people who voted for Elvis Presley as Person of the Century (in excess of 675,000), was TIME's decision, later regretted, also online, by then-Managing Editor Walter Isaacson, not to include the singer in either one of two lists (there were five, each comprising 20 people), namely those in the "Artists and Entertainers" and "Icons" categories where Presley was not just clearly qualified for inclusion, but would be one of the main runners-up, no matter which of the two lists was being the subject of appraisal. As a result, and notwithstanding the inclusion of a cartoon character, in the "Artists and Entertainers" category (Bart Simpson), Presley was not included in the TIME 100. As fans of the rock singer realized he had not been included because of a nasty, "do this or else.." type of telephone exchange, at CBS Headquarters in New York, between Mike Wallace, who feared his idol Frank Sinatra, could end up being left out because of Presley's inclusion, and Erickson, who was privy to Presley's having been already chosen to appear in the "Artists and Entertainers" category (as told by a very reliable, albeit extremely uncomfortable eye-witness, director Steven Spielberg who, by mere chance, was at Wallace's office at the time), they in turn decided to send Wallace, TIME, and Isaccson in particular, an extremely powerful message, which neatly translated in Elvis' winning the three online polls, which included the "Event", and "Person" of the Century. The information about the meeting between Wallace and Erickson briefly appeared, online, on the day after the meeting as Spielberg, matter of factly, leaked it to an unidentidied member of the press at the CBS entrance lobby. It was then immediately taken out of the internet when both CBS and TIME found out about its having been leaked to users, including many fans of Presley who then mounted the campaign and which resulted in TIME having to publish the results of the three online polls, with the added disadvantage, and embarrassment, of not being "able", nor willing to properly explain them.

Adolf Hitler

It appears that "TIME" originally chose Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany, as Person of the Century, but decided to give it to Einstein because of the controversy that ensued when word leaked out (consisting in part of many threats to cancel subscriptions if Hitler were given the distinction and his image put on the cover of the magazine.)

In 1979 "TIME" named Ayatollah Khomeini as "Man of the Year", which generated massive public backlash. [cite book | author=Time | title=Person of the Year: 75th Anniversary Celebration | edition=Special Collector's Edition | location=New York | publisher=Time Books | page=79 | year=2002 | oclc=52817840] Since then "TIME" has avoided naming anti-Americans "Person of the Year". However, controversy arose when Rudolph Giuliani was declared "Person of the Year 2001" over Osama Bin Laden. In the same issue, there was an article that mentioned "TIME"'s earlier decision to make Ayatollah Khomeini as "Man of the Year" in 1979 and the 1999 rejection of Hitler as "Person of the Century". The article seemed to imply that Osama bin Laden "was" a stronger candidate than Giuliani for "Person of the Year" and Hitler was a stronger candidate than Albert Einstein for "Person of the Century", but they were not ultimately selected due to what the magazine described as their negative influence on history.

ee also

* "Time" Person of the Year.
* The Time 100. "Time" magazine's list of currently influential people, published annually beginning in 2004, following the success of 1999's "20th century" list.

References

External links

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601991231,00.html "Time", December 31, 1999.]