NEW YORK, New York-President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, a U.S. senator and the only Black woman to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president and one of Biden's rivals for the Democratic nomination for president, have been named "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine, the prominent New-York-based magazine that made its start in 1923 and is the second most circulated weekly magazine behind People Magazine announced Thursday.

Biden is the 11th president -elect to win the title, and Harris is the first vice president ever chosen for the distinction.

He will be inaugurated on Jan 20, 2021 in Washington D.C., the nation's capital, and is the 46th president of the United States of America.

Citing last month's historic election that saw Biden unseat incumbent president Donald Trump with a record number of votes during a raging pandemic and with Harris as his running-mate and the first Black woman to compete on a major party political ticket in America, Time Magazine editors chose the duo to grace its cover as the most influential persons of 2020, a tradition that began in 1927 when aviator Charles A. Lindbergh was first handed the honor.

At that time Time called it "Man of the Year" rather than "Person of the Year," an indication that its magazine editors have become more sophisticated over the years, though few women have been chosen for the honor.

In 1999, the title was changed to "Person of the Year."

Women who have been selected for recognition after the renaming include "The Whistleblowers" (Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley, and Sherron Watkins) in 2002, Melinda Gates (jointly with Bill Gates and Bono) in 2005, Angela Merkel in 2015, "The Silence Breakers" in 2017, Greta Thunberg in 2019 and Kamala Harris (jointly with Joe Biden) in 2020.

Others making Time Magazine's "Person of the Year," which can be either a single person or persons of notable statute who has impacted the world one way or another, also include Civil Rights icon the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Queen Elizabeth ll, and  Valadimir Putin.

Finalists for this year's "Person of the Year" included outgoing President Donald Trump, front-line coronavirus workers and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the Movement for Racial Justice.

Biden is a former longtime U.S. senator out of Delaware who served as vice president for two-terms under former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president.

He has become the fair-haired boy of the Democratic Party who out did President Trump  via the Nov 3 general election by winning both the electoral college and the popular vote, and he got the most popular votes ever of any U.S. president.

In spite of numerous unsuccessful attempts by Trump and his attorneys to challenge the outcome of the election in the courts, Biden won the presidency this year with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232.

He won the popular vote over Trump 51 percent to his 47 percent, or with  81.3 million votes to Trump's 74.2 million votes.

A former California attorney general, Harris is currently the only Black woman serving in the U.S. Senate.

A native of of Oakland, she was first elected to Senate in 2016.

When Biden chose her as his running mate she became the fourth woman to compete on a major party presidential ticket in America behind vice presidential candidates Sarah Palin in 2008 and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and Hillary Clinton in 2016, Clinton a presidential candidate that year.