New York City’s first Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop took place in 1907.
The event was created by Adolph Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, to mark the newspaper’s new headquarters in Times Square. The first ball was lowered from a flagpole atop One Times Square on December 31, 1907, welcoming 1908. It replaced an earlier fireworks display that had been used to celebrate the opening of the Times building.
The ball-drop tradition has continued with several redesigned balls. The illuminated sphere was not lowered in 1942 or 1943 because wartime blackout rules restricted nighttime lighting in New York. Instead, crowds observed a moment of silence and heard the chimes of Times Square churches. The modern crystal-covered ball is far larger and more technologically advanced than the original, but the midnight descent remains one of the world’s best-known New Year’s Eve rituals.