TIME’s editors named eight final candidates for the 2014 Person of the Year on Monday.
TIME managing editor Nancy Gibbs revealed the shortlist on NBC’s Today show. Here are the eight still in the final running, in no particular order:
- The Ferguson protesters, who took to the streets in August following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer, and again in November when a grand jury declined to indict the officer in the killing.
- The Ebola caregivers, who are still fighting the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, that has so far taken the lives of nearly 7,000 people in West Africa.
- Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who has remained in the headlines throughout this year, from his country’s stewardship of the Winter Olympics in Sochi to its annexation of Crimea, and its role in the ongoing civil strife in eastern Ukraine.
- Taylor Swift, one of the world’s top-selling pop artists, who this year shook up the music industry by pulling her music from streaming service Spotify, which she believes should compensate artists more.
- Jack Ma, an English teacher turned founder and CEO of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant which debuted a $25 billion IPO.
- Tim Cook, who introduced Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Watch, and Apple Pay this year, and whose decision to come out made him the first openly gay Fortune 500 CEO.
- Masoud Barzani, the acting president of the Iraqi Kurdish Region since 2005, who has deftly threaded the region’s push for independence with the ongoing fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.
- Roger Goodell, the National Football League commissioner whose leadership has been under great scrutiny this year as the league dealt with public incidents of domestic abuse by players such as Ray Rice, among other controversies.
MORE: Everything You Wanted to Know About TIME’s Person of the Year
Related Stories
Gibbs will unveil TIME’s Person of the Year on Today on Wednesday morning, when it will also be shared on Twitter and Facebook. Readers have already made their choice, picking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their favored candidate in TIME’s online poll.
See Every Person Of The Year Cover Ever
Photograph by Evgenia Arbugaeva for TIME
2018: The Guardians
Photographs by Moises Saman-Magnum Photos for TIME
2017: The Silence Breakers
Billy & Hells for TIME
2016: Donald Trump
TIME
2015: Angela Merkel
TIME
2014: The Ebola Fighters
TIME
2013: Pope Francis
TIME
2012: President Barack Obama
TIME
2011: The Protester
TIME
2010: Mark Zuckerberg
TIME
2009: Ben Bernanke
TIME
2008: President Barack Obama
TIME
2007: Vladimir Putin
TIME
2006: You
TIME
2005: The Good Samaritans: Bill Gates, Bono, Melinda Gates
TIME
2004: President George W. Bush
TIME
2003: The American Soldier
TIME
2002: The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins
TIME
2001: Rudy Giuliani
TIME
2000: President George W. Bush
TIME
1999: Jeff Bezos
TIME
1998: Kenneth Starr and Bill Clinton
TIME
1997: Andrew Grove
TIME
1996: Dr. David Ho
TIME
1995: Newt Gingrich
TIME
1994: Pope John Paul II
TIME
1993: The Peacemakers: Yitzhak Rabin, Nelson Mandela, F.W. De Klerk, Yasser Arafat
TIME
1992: President Bill Clinton
TIME
1991: Ted Turner
TIME
1990: President George H.W. Bush
TIME
1989: Mikhail Gorbachev
TIME
1988: Endangered Earth
TIME
1987: Mikhail Gorbachev
TIME
1986: Corazon Aquino
TIME
1985: Deng Xiaoping
TIME
1984: Peter Ueberroth
TIME
1983: President Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov
TIME
1982: The Computer
TIME
1981: Lech Wałęsa
TIME
1980: President Ronald Reagan
TIME
1979: Ayatollah Khomeini
TIME
1978: Deng Xiaoping
TIME
1977: Anwar Sadat
TIME
1976: President Jimmy Carter
TIME
1975: American Women
TIME
1974: King Faisal
TIME
1973: John Sirica
TIME
1972: President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger
TIME
1971: President Richard Nixon
TIME
1970: Willy Brandt
TIME
1969: The Middle Americans
TIME
1968: The Apollo 8 Astronauts
TIME
1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson
TIME
1966: Men and Women 25 and Under
TIME
1965: William Westmoreland
TIME
1964: Lyndon B. Johnson
TIME
1963: Martin Luther King, Jr.
TIME
1962: Pope John XXIII
TIME
1961: President John F. Kennedy
TIME
1960: U.S. Scientists
TIME
1959: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
TIME
1958: Charles de Gaulle
TIME
1957: Nikita Khrushchev
TIME
1956: The Hungarian Freedom Fighter
TIME
1955: Harlow Curtice
TIME
1954: John Foster Dulles
TIME
1953: Konrad Adenauer
TIME
1952: Queen Elizabeth II
TIME
1951: Mohammad Mossadegh
TIME
1950: The American Fighting Man
TIME
1949: Winston Churchill
TIME
1948: President Harry S. Truman
TIME
1947: George Marshall
TIME
1946: James F. Byrnes
TIME
1945: President Harry S. Truman
TIME
1944: Dwight D. Eisenhower
TIME
1943: George Marshall
TIME
1942: Joseph Stalin
TIME
1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
TIME
1940: Winston Churchill
TIME
1939: Joseph Stalin
TIME
1938: Adolf Hitler
TIME
1937: Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling
TIME
1936: Wallis Simpson
TIME
1935: Haile Selassie
TIME
1934: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
TIME
1933: Hugh S. Johnson
TIME
1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt
TIME
1931: Pierre Laval
TIME
1930: Mahatma Gandhi
TIME
1929: Owen D. Young
TIME
1928: Walter Chrysler
TIME
1927: Charles Lindbergh
TIME
Advertisement
Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.
Read next: Narendra Modi Wins Reader Poll for TIME Person of the Year
