The idea for such a list started on February 1, 1998, with a debate at a symposium at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., United States. The panel participants were former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, then-Stanford Provost Dr. Condoleezza Rice, publisher Irving Kristol, and Time managing editor Walter Isaacson.
The final list was published on June 14, 1999, in a special issue titled "TIME 100: Heroes & Icons of the 20th Century".
In a separate issue on December 31, 1999, Time recognized Albert Einstein as the Person of the Century.
Person of the Century:
Of the 100 chosen, Albert Einstein was crowned the Person of the Century, on the grounds that he was the prominent scientist in a century dominated by science. The editors of Time believed the 20th century "will be remembered foremost for its science and technology", and Einstein "serves as a symbol of all the scientists—such as Heisenberg, Bohr, Richard Feynman, ...who built upon his work".The cover of the magazine featured the famous image of Einstein taken in 1947 by American portrait photographer Philippe Halsman. It was during this photo session that Einstein recounted to Halsman his despair that his special theory of relativity and his letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt had led the United States to create the atomic bomb. It was at this point of immense sadness for Einstein that Halsman took the picture.
It was debated whether Adolf Hitler, German Chancellor and Führer responsible for World War II and the Holocaust, should have been made Person of the Century for his impact on the 20th Century. The argument was based on Time's criterion that the person chosen should have the greatest impact on this century, for better or worse. However, it was decided that since Hitler's goals were defeated and the century ended on a positive note, he was not as influential as Einstein, Roosevelt, or Gandhi, though he did still make the list.
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