The shortlist included Hong Kong protesters and politicians.
December 11, 2019, 12:44 PM
3 min read
Greta Thunberg was named Time magazine's 2019 Person of the Year on Wednesday morning.
Known as "Man of the Year" or "Woman of the Year" until 1999, the annual issue of Time magazine profiles a person or group, idea or object, that "most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse," former Time Managing Editor Walter Isaacson wrote in the 1998 issue. Though the outlet runs an online poll for People's Choice, the final decision is made by editors.
The other finalists for the magazine's annual title this year were President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the whistleblower and the Hong Kong protesters.
The top 10 contenders included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, U.S. Women's National Team Captain Megan Rapinoe, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and Trump's personal lawyer.
Time's 2018 Person of the Year was "The Guardians" -- journalists who have faced persecution, arrest or murder for their reporting -- including Jamal Khashoggi, Maria Ressa and the staff of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland.
Time's first Man of the Year was aviator Charles Lindbergh following his trans-Atlantic flight in 1927.
