<P> Person of the Year (called Man of the Year or Woman of the Year until 1999) is an annual issue of the United States news magazine Time that features and profiles a person, a group, an idea, or an object that "for better or for worse...has done the most to influence the events of the year". </P> <P> The tradition of selecting a "Man of the Year" began in 1927, with Time editors contemplating the news makers of the years . The idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year of not having aviator Charles Lindbergh on its cover following his historic trans - Atlantic flight . By the end of the year, it was decided that a cover story featuring Lindbergh as the Man of the Year would serve both purposes . </P> <P> Since the list began, every serving President of the United States has been a Man or Person of the Year at least once with the exceptions of Calvin Coolidge, in office at time of the first issue, Herbert Hoover, the next U.S. president, and Gerald Ford . Most were named Man or Person of the Year either the year they were elected or while they were in office; the only one to be given the title before being elected is Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1944 as Supreme Commander of the Allied Invasion Force, eight years before his election . He subsequently received the title again in 1959, while in office . Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person to have received the title three times, first as president - elect (1932) and later as the incumbent president (1934 and 1941). </P>

When did time magazine start person of the year