20th-Century Time Person of the Year Quiz

Gandhi (1869-1948) led India to independence in August 1947. In early 1930, he mounted a campaign against the imposition of taxes on salt by the British. He led a salt march through the western Indian state of Gujarat from his religious retreat at Sabermati (near Ahmadabad) to the town of Dandi (near Surat) on the Arabian Sea coast.

George C. Marshall (1880-1959) was the U.S. Army of Chief of Staff from 1939 to 1945. During WWII, he coordinated Allied operations in both Europe and the Pacific. In 1943, he attended the Casablanca Conference in January, the Tehran Conference in November and December, together with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was characterized as the organizer of Allied victory by Churchill.

Churchill (1874-1965) was named "Man of the Half-Century" by "Time" in 1949 for leading Britain and the Allies to victory in World War II. At that time, he was the leader of the opposition. His work "Finest Hour", the second volume of his war memoirs, was published that year.

Adenauer (1876-1967) was first elected as chancellor of Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. In 1953, he was re-elected as chancellor and oversaw the reconstruction of Germany and the Economic Miracle. He guided his country to moral responsibility and earned himself a seat in the highest council of the Western powers.

King (1929-1968) was the leader of the American civil rights movement. On 28 August 1963, he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech where a quarter of a million people rallied in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They demanded segregation to be ended, fair wages, economic justice, voting rights, education and civil rights protections.

Sadat (1918-1981), the third Egyptian president, was the first Arab leader to travel to Israel. During his visit on 19 to 21 November 1977, he addressed the Knesset to normalize the Israeli-Arab peace process. He met with senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

In 1978, Deng (1904-1997) overthrew Hua Guofeng to assume de facto control over China as Paramount leader. In that year, he visited three countries in South-East Asia: Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. In December 1978, he announced the "Open Door Policy" to open the door to foreign businesses that wanted to set up in China. For the first since the Nationalist era, China was opened to foreign investment.

Walesa (born 1943) was the leader of the Polish Solidarity trade union and the architect of the Gdansk Agreement. He held his position until 13 December 1981, when General Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland. He and many other Solidarity leaders were immediately arrested; he was confined for 11 months until 14 November 1982.

In 1986, Aquino (1933-2009) became the first woman to be elected as the Filipino president. She served as the 11th Filipino president from 1986 to 1992. She became a prominent figure in 1986's People Power Revolution when Ferdinand Marcos was ousted as the president. Marcos was removed from power on allegations of mass cheating, political turmoil and human rights abuse on February 1986.

Gorbachev (1931-2022), the last leader of the USSR, was acknowledged as the "Man of the Decade". In 1989, he oversaw the first free Soviet elections in history. The disintegration of the USSR led to the fragmentation of the Eastern Bloc which resulted from the overthrow of the Soviet-dominated communist governments in Eastern Europe. On 9 November 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the collapse of East Germany.