*** THIS NFT WILL BE ACCOMPANIED WITH THE ORIGINAL, PHYSICAL ISSUE. ***

On January 2nd, 1928, TIME named Charles Lindbergh its first "Man of the Year," establishing one of the most acknowledged global recognitions to this day.

In 1999, TIME "Man of the Year" gave way to "Person of the Year." And, in 2020, TIME established the "100 Women of the Year" project to spotlight the influential women who were often overshadowed.

This is the genesis of this recognition. Charles Lindbergh. 1927 Man of the Year.

From the issue:

"To date [Lindbergh] has flown to France; Belgium; England; Mexico; Canada in the interests (his) of aviation progress and the interests (governmental) of international good will ... Grumblers wondered if interest accruing to the national welfare by his flights is worth the calamitous crash of principal which would accompany his death. Col. Lindbergh is the most cherished citizen since Theodore Roosevelt. Thought they: 'He is worth keeping.' One way to keep him is to keep him on the ground.

Others argued savagely that Lindbergh must fly for his life in the public eye; heroes age swiftly when seated at office desks; argued that by his very nature he must fly.

Unconscious of these wrangles over the national coffee cups, Col. Lindbergh tended to business. He climbed into The Spirit of St. Louis at Mexico City; nosed upward; set off for Guatemala, British Honduras, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama.

In Detroit a school teacher put by her pointer and her students' papers. Mrs. Evangeline Lodge Lindbergh dressed herself warmly and was swept southward by the propeller windstorm of a sturdy trimotored Ford monoplane. One night she spent in St. Louis. The next day as her famed offspring in Mexico City was piloting on his first flight President Plutarco Elias Calles, the monoplane sprang to Tulsa, Okla. The third sunset found her in Brownsville, Texas. Next day up from the crowded field at Mexico City rose Col. Lindbergh in The Spirit of St. Louis. Swallowed in the clouds he missed the monoplane which he had flown to meet. Shouts from the field of 'Vivi Senora Leenbaire' as Mrs. Lindbergh stepped out of the Ford plane. She met her wandering boy an hour later at the American Embassy.

En route Mrs. Lindbergh was loquacious. Previously laconic regarding the achievements of her amazing child she expressed herself to the press thus:

'He has always been my boy. I have always loved him, been proud of him and thought he was the world's greatest.'"