Image copyright Time

US President-elect Donald Trump has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2016.

The property tycoon and reality TV star completed one of the biggest upsets in political history when he beat Hillary Clinton to the White House.

Mr Trump told NBC's Today show shortly after the announcement it was a "great honour" which "meant a lot" to him.

He was chosen from a shortlist that included Mrs Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The former leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, was also on the list for his role in the successful campaign for Britain to leave the European Union.

Mrs Clinton came second in the selection, Time's managing editor Nancy Gibbs said, adding that the choice of Mr Trump was "straightforward".

Time said the president-elect had redrawn America's political rules.

The magazine invites readers to vote on who they think has earned the title, but the final decision is made by editors.

Others considered included gold-medal winning US gymnast Simone Biles, singer Beyonce Knowles and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Heroes and villains: Previous winners

In being named Time's Person of the Year for 2016, Mr Trump joins an illustrious list of the great and the not-always-so-good.

It is perhaps not a surprise he was chosen - Time traditionally picks the president-elect, and it has been more than two decades since the last exception was made.

But who else has graced the front cover over the years?

Pope Francis

Image copyright Getty Images

In 2013, the world's first pontiff from the Americas was chosen as Person of the Year.

Argentinean Jorge Mario Bergoglio had become Pope Francis in March of that year, and had already made his mark, rejecting the glittering trappings of the role to focus on the poorest in society.

Vladimir Putin

In 2007, the title went to a man who Mr Trump has repeatedly said he admires: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, whether Time Magazine admires Mr Putin is less clear.

"TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honour. It is not an endorsement," it wrote in an editorial explaining the decision that year.

"It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world - for better or for worse."

Martin Luther King

The civil rights activist was named Person of the Year in 1963 - the same year he stood at the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his acclaimed "I Have a Dream" speech.

He was the first African American to grace the cover, and publically said later he saw it not simply as a personal victory, but a victory for the civil rights movement.

King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

Adolf Hitler

If there was ever a recipient to prove the claim that Person of the Year was not an "honour", it was the choice for 1938.

Among other things, 1938 was the year Adolf Hitler "had stolen Austria before the eyes of a horrified and apparently impotent world".

But it is the closing line which is perhaps the most chilling: "To those who watched the closing events of the year it seemed more than probable that the Man of 1938 may make 1939 a year to be remembered."

Wallis Simpson

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Wallis Simpson, pictured with her husband, the Duke of Windsor

The first woman to be named what had been until then the "Man of the Year" was Wallis Simpson, the divorcee who had almost brought the British monarchy crashing to the ground.

She is still one of the few women to grace the cover alone. Others include Queen Elizabeth II, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Philippine President Corazon Aquino.