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
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
2018: The Guardians
Photographs by Moises Saman-Magnum Photos for TIME
2017: The Silence Breakers
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2016: Donald Trump
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2015: Angela Merkel
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2014: The Ebola Fighters
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2013: Pope Francis
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2012: President Barack Obama
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2011: The Protester
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2010: Mark Zuckerberg
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2009: Ben Bernanke
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2008: President Barack Obama
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2007: Vladimir Putin
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2006: You
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2005: The Good Samaritans: Bill Gates, Bono, Melinda Gates
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2004: President George W. Bush
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2003: The American Soldier
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2002: The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins
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2001: Rudy Giuliani
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2000: President George W. Bush
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1999: Jeff Bezos
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1998: Kenneth Starr and Bill Clinton
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1997: Andrew Grove
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1996: Dr. David Ho
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1995: Newt Gingrich
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1994: Pope John Paul II
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1993: The Peacemakers: Yitzhak Rabin, Nelson Mandela, F.W. De Klerk, Yasser Arafat
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1992: President Bill Clinton
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1991: Ted Turner
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1990: President George H.W. Bush
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1989: Mikhail Gorbachev
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1988: Endangered Earth
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1987: Mikhail Gorbachev
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1986: Corazon Aquino
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1985: Deng Xiaoping
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1984: Peter Ueberroth
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1983: President Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov
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1982: The Computer
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1981: Lech Wałęsa
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1980: President Ronald Reagan
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1979: Ayatollah Khomeini
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1978: Deng Xiaoping
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1977: Anwar Sadat
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1976: President Jimmy Carter
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1975: American Women
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1974: King Faisal
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1973: John Sirica
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1972: President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger
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1971: President Richard Nixon
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1970: Willy Brandt
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1969: The Middle Americans
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1968: The Apollo 8 Astronauts
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1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson
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1966: Men and Women 25 and Under
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1965: William Westmoreland
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1964: Lyndon B. Johnson
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1963: Martin Luther King, Jr.
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1962: Pope John XXIII
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1961: President John F. Kennedy
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1960: U.S. Scientists
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1959: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
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1958: Charles de Gaulle
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1957: Nikita Khrushchev
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1956: The Hungarian Freedom Fighter
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1955: Harlow Curtice
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1954: John Foster Dulles
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1953: Konrad Adenauer
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1952: Queen Elizabeth II
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1951: Mohammad Mossadegh
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1950: The American Fighting Man
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1949: Winston Churchill
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1948: President Harry S. Truman
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1947: George Marshall
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1946: James F. Byrnes
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1945: President Harry S. Truman
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1944: Dwight D. Eisenhower
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1943: George Marshall
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1942: Joseph Stalin
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1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
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1940: Winston Churchill
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1939: Joseph Stalin
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1938: Adolf Hitler
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1937: Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling
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1936: Wallis Simpson
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1935: Haile Selassie
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1934: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
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1933: Hugh S. Johnson
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1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt
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1931: Pierre Laval
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1930: Mahatma Gandhi
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1929: Owen D. Young
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1928: Walter Chrysler
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1927: Charles Lindbergh
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Read next: Narendra Modi Wins Reader Poll for TIME Person of the Year
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