Time's (Non) Person of the Year Quiz

Answer: Ebola

Ebola is a highly infectious disease, and the outbreak in western Africa was a matter of major concern. It appears to have started in late 2013 in Guinea, when a young child was infected by a bat. The disease spread rapidly through neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia and claimed about 10,000 lives in a 2.5-year period. The epidemic was difficult to control for many reasons including lack of medical facilities and trained medical staff, poor training, language barriers, and even religious beliefs. Assistance from WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières and other aid agencies managed to stop the spread, but the prospects of further outbreaks is high, and no efficient preventative vaccine exists.

The editor of 'Time' magazine, Nancy Gibbs, said, "The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are 'Time's' 2014 Person of the Year."

That says it all, wouldn't you agree?

The name of the five different cover pictures was 'Ebola Fighters', one of which depicted Foday Gallah, a Liberian ambulance driver.

Answer: Sexual harassment

The issue was brought to a head with the revelations about the actions of Harvey Weinstein. Unwanted sexual advances by men in positions of authority were exposed in many walks of life, and the world started to listen. The #MeToo hashtag became a rally call for women everywhere.

The women depicted are actress Ashley Judd, Isabel Pascual, a fruitpicker, engineer Susan Fowler, Adama Iwu, a lobbyist and an anonymous Texan nurse.

Answer: Murdered or jailed journalists

The full name of the cover was 'The Guardians and the War on Truth' and the magazine was released with four different covers. One featured Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in an embassy in Istanbul, allegedly for criticising the Saudi monarchy. Maria Ressa is a Filipino journalist jailed for calling out the president, Rodrigo Duterte. She was also awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

Five staff at the newspaper Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, were murdered by a gunman in 2018.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are Burmese journalists who were jailed for violating state secrets.

Answer: 1950, Korean War

The December 1950 issue showed a soldier, and was titled 'The American fighting-man'. The war in Korea fought between North Korea (backed by Communist China), and South Korea (backed by many United Nations countries), resulted in a stalemate that continues to this day.

The 1964 cover showed Lyndon Johnson, who escalated US involvement in South East Asia. The 1942 Person of the Year was Joseph Stalin, and there was no Man of the Year prior to 1927, when air pioneer Charles Lindbergh started the tradition.

Three members of the 1st Armored's 3rd Field Artillery Regiment graced the front page of the issue. The journalists that wrote the story were both injured shortly after the story was published when a grenade exploded near their vehicle in Baghdad.

Answer: U.S. Scientists

From John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, who won a Nobel Prize for creating transistors, to Robert Woodward, noted for his syntheses of quinine, to physicist Charles Townes for his work with microwaves and George Beadle who experimented with bread mould. These are just a few of the scientists that helped change the world in the 1950s and 60s.

Several of the Kennedys were on weekly issue covers, but not as a group.

Answer: The younger generation of Americans

The under-25s inherited the future and rapidly shaped it. The 1960s was the start of a social revolution, with a multitude of options to explore. Spaceships, rock music, leaps and bounds in education, medicine, technology, even fashion. The world was there to be exploited, and the up-and-comers made their mark.

The under-25 demographic group was almost 50% of the American population.

Answer: The Computer

The Machine of the Year was the Personal Computer, and was the first time that a non-human was selected.

Ironically, the article titled 'The Computer Moves In' was written on a typewriter, as the 'Time' office did not upgrade to word-processors until the following year!

Answer: Shirley Temple-Black, Maya Angelou, Carolyn Shoemaker

Betty Ford, a former First Lady, used her position to raise awareness on a whole range of social issues, including drug addiction, gun control and equal rights for all.

Alison Cheek was one of the first female deacons of the Episcopal Church.

Kathleen Byerly was a naval officer who led the charge allowing female sailors to have equal rights in the armed forces.

Billie Jean King was a champion tennis player, winning Wimbledon six times and the US Open four times. She also took on, and beat, former champion Bobby Riggs in the much publicised Battle of the Sexes.

Addie Wyatt was an influential figure in the Union movement, and was the first black woman to appear on the magazine's cover.

Susie Sharp was a Supreme Court judge in South Carolina, breaking the glass ceiling in that state.

Barbara Jordan was a Senator and Member of the House of Representatives, from Texas. She spoke powerfully at the impeachment hearings into the actions of Richard Nixon, and the Watergate scandal.

Susan Brownmiller was a journalist, best known for her controversial 1975 book 'Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape'.
Carla Hills was a lawyer and politician, occupying several senior positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations and later working under George Bush.

The three women not mentioned above are-
-Jill Conway, the Australian-born first female president of the prestigious Smith College, Massachusetts.
-Ella Grasso, the first elected female governor of an American state, heading up Connecticut.
-Carol Sutton was a journalist, the first female appointed to managing editor of a major U.S. daily newspaper, 'The Courier-Journal' in Louisville, Kentucky.

The ones that did NOT make the cover, but should have, are-
-Maya Angelou was an author ('I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings'), an actress ('Roots', among others), and was the first African-American female director in Hollywood.
-Shirley Temple-Black was a famous child actress and later an ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia.
-Carolyn Shoemaker was an astronomer who discovered 32 new comets, including the one that bore her name- Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9- which had a rather traumatic meeting with Jupiter in 1994.

Answer: Silent Majority

A bit difficult to define precisely, but Middle America were NOT radicals, intellectuals, extremists or particularly vociferous citizens; however, their influence was being felt by government and society. They are more likely to be found in smaller cities and towns, shunning the cosmopolitanism of cities like New York and Los Angeles.

Answer: You

It is supposed to reflect (pun intended) the input by millions of 'yous', who contribute to the sharing of information via sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube and others. Time's editor, Lev Grossman, said "It's about the many wrestling power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes."