Reader's Choice: Man of the Year: Anderson Cooper

We told you who we thought was the Person of the Year, and published our story with Nate Silver that explained how the influential statician shaped politics and culture in 2012. But we wanted to hear from our readers who they thought Out's Man of the Year should be so we put it for a vote, providing a list of 10 newsmakers from the past year. Now the votes are in and we have the results.

With over 29 percent of the votes, Anderson Cooper was the clear winner of our first Out Man of the Year poll. That was followed by 15% of the votes for Zachary Quinto and Frank Ocean with 14.2% of the votes.

It's been a pretty exciting year for the newsman. Here's a recap of some of his 2012 highlights.

January: Anderson Cooper hits a milestone: 10 years with CNN

February: AC interviews Janet Jackson on his Anderson talkshow, celebrates 100th episode

March: Cooper has guest Miss Piggy on his talkshow

April: Anderson is named No. 6 in Out's Power 50 list.

May: Anderson agrees to let Andrew Sullivan publish a letter stating: "The fact is, I'm gay."

June: Anderson gets sassy on United Airlines flight (while sitting next to Jonny Weir)

August: Photos of AC's bf, Ben Maisani, kissing another man in Central Park published

September: Second season of Anderson's daytime talk show, now titled Anderson Live, begins in new studio, features Beyonce

Also in September: Coop talks about coming out on his daytime talk show

October: Andy Cohen is a regular on Anderson Live, and Star Jones accuses Cooper of coming out for ratings

November: Cooper reports from Gaza, while a bomb goes off nearby

December: Anderson temporarily blinded while on assignment

New Year's Eve: Gal pal Kathy Griffin simulates fellatio on Cooper during CNN's NYE's live broadcast

Here's the full list of names and votes.