OZZIE SWEET
The July 26, 1954, cover of TIME

“Willie Mays is only 23, and he is playing only his third season (and first full one) in the major leagues. There are other major leaguers, even centerfielders, who stand above him in the statistics (e.g., Brooklyn's Duke Snider, who is fielding as flawlessly as Mays and is batting .359 to Willie's .331). But with his showman's manner and his in-the-clutch timing, Willie Mays is baseball's sensation of the season. To the scandal of some sentimentalists, he is already being talked of as the equal or even the better of the great Tris Speaker and Joe DiMaggio. He has hit 33 home runs in 89 games—a pace which puts him six games ahead of Babe Ruth's majestic record of 60 homers, and there are some impetuous enough to suggest that Willie is the one to climb that Everest of baseball some day.”

Dirck Halstead
The July 26, 1976, cover of TIME

“While proclaimed dull because of its lack of suspense, the convention was highly significant. In Carter’s now famous metaphor of faith, it saw the Democratic Party reborn…For Carter, the convention marked a new climax in a remarkable political ascent (just three years ago, when he was Governor of Georgia, panelists had failed to recognize him on What’s My Line?). It also served to position him, more sharply than he had been perceived before, as a liberal. He did so by choosing Minnesota Senator Walter (‘Fritz’) Mondale as his running mate and by using the themes he struck in his acceptance speech.”

Herb Ritts
The July 21, 1997, cover of TIME

“[N]ow, at 23, she has sold more than 5 million copies of her debut album, Pieces of You...Jewel is worried about being put on a pedestal. “People look at me in magazines and feel like I’m a phenomenon, as if what I’ve accomplished is beyond their ability. I tell them to knock it off. If you respect what I’ve done, then do something yourself.” She is certain of what she is. ‘I still giggle to think I’m a writer,’ she says. There is another word she prefers to singer-songwriter. Not artist or performer. ‘Entertainer,’ she says. ‘It’s a craft, and I like that.’”