One Times Square hosted the first New Year's Eve ball drop in 1907.
The building was constructed for The New York Times, which moved its offices there in 1905. Its address helped give the surrounding area the name Times Square, replacing the earlier name Longacre Square. The newspaper organized public celebrations to promote its new headquarters.
The first ball descended from a flagpole on the building on December 31, 1907, marking the beginning of 1908. The structure has remained the visual center of the tradition even though The New York Times later moved elsewhere and the building went through changing commercial uses.
One Times Square is often confused with the Empire State Building because both are famous New York landmarks and appear in holiday imagery. The Empire State Building is in Midtown Manhattan, but it did not host the first Times Square ball drop.