This week, TIME Europe publishes a special issue to celebrate 60 years of TIME magazine publishing in Europe, entitled '60 Years of Heroes'. "Welcome to the greatest party ever held," writes TIME Senior Editor, Catherine Mayer. "In the 60 years that TIME has been publishing an Atlantic edition extraordinary people have emerged from the churn and turmoil, creativity and chaos of a period that witnessed the aftermath of world war, the toppling of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the vanquishing of apartheid in South Africa, the advance of women, the failure of old certainties and the rise of new fears. These people are our heroes, and in this special anniversary issue, we celebrate them and their many achievements."

"Some forged reputations in battles against repression and prejudice, others tapped into the energies of the era to produce great works of art. But the party isn't a solemn one. We've also invited the men and women who have made our world more exciting: actors, musicians, adventurers, entrepreneurs, sports stars, together with representatives of a younger generation, brave hearts in an age of instability. Heroism is about taking risks—with ideas, with conventions, sometimes with life itself. Some of our heroes died prematurely; others lived to their full measure. All of them changed our world for the better. We raise a glass to them all—and to heroism."

The full list of 60 Years of Heroes is as follows:

LEADERS & REBELS
1. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2. Andrei Sakharov
3. Charles de Gaulle
4. Giovanni Falcone & Paolo Borsellino
5. Helmut Kohl
6. Imre Nagy
7. Jean Monnet
8. King Juan Carlos
9. Lech Walesa
10. Linus Torvalds
11. Margaret Thatcher
12. Mikhail Gorbachev
13. Nelson Mandela
14. Petra Kelly
15. Shirin Ebadi
16. Simone de Beauvoir
17. Václav Havel
18. Yitzhak Rabin

BUSINESS & CULTURE
1. Judi Dench, Glenda Jackson, Helen Mirren & Vanessa Redgrave
2. Chinua Achebe
3. Coco Chanel
4. Enzo Ferrari
5. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti
6. Francis Bacon
7. François Truffaut
8. Freddie Laker
9. Galina Ulanova
10. Hasso Plattner
11. Henry Moore
12. J.K. Rowling
13. John Lydon
14. Maria Callas
15. Mary Quant + Barbara Hulanicki
16. Nadine Gordimer
17. Naguib Mahfouz
18. Ole & Godtfred Kirk Christiansen
19. Pablo Picasso
20. Paul Bocuse
21. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
22. Rem Koolhaas
23. Samuel Beckett
24. Sophia Loren
25. The Beatles

INSPIRATIONS & EXPLORERS
1. Abebe Bikila
2. Anna Politkovskaya
3. Bernard Kouchner
4. Bono and Bob Geldof
5. Christiane Amanpour
6. Princess Diana
7. Franz Beckenbauer
8. Jacques-Yves Cousteau
9. Jean-Claude Killy
10. Martina Navratilova
11. Mother Teresa
12. Natasa Kandic
13. Peter Benenson
14. Pope John Paul II
15. Queen Rania
16. Reinhold Messner
17. Yuri Gagarin

The profiles of the Heroes were written by TIME's editors and writers and guest writers Sir Richard Branson, Jacques Chirac, George H. W. Bush, Martin Scorsese, Gordon Brown, Cherie Booth, Paul Wolfowitz, José Manuel Barroso, Boris Becker, Luca di Montezemolo, Haile Gebreselassie, Beppe Severgnini, Wole Soyinka, Carla del Ponte, Václav Klaus, Lou Reed, H.R.H. Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, George P. Schultz, Richard Holbrooke, Alain Ducasse, Naomi Wolf, Dominique Lapierre, Cecilia Bartoli, Joe Eszterhas, Sir Anthony Caro, Dennis Tito, Elena Bonner and Peter Brown.

"We couldn't be more proud of the quality of the writers and celebrities we persuaded to join us for this special issue. This issue is a wonderful way to celebrate our 60th anniversary and has inspired us to go on to even greater things," says Michael Elliott, Editor, TIME International.

The cover package also features photographs by David Bailey, Terry O'Neill, Mario Testino, Anton Corbijn, Tom Stoddart and Harry Borden. There are also illustrations by Kevin Sprouls and Anita Kunz.

A gala event will be held at the Royal Courts of Justice on November 30 to celebrate the people profiled in this special issue and 60 Years of TIME in Europe.

TIME's 60 Years of Heroes issue will be on newsstands from Monday 6 November and is also available online at www.timeeurope.com.