The New Year's Eve ball has been dropped in Times Square since 1907.
The tradition began on December 31, 1907, when the first ball was lowered from the flagpole atop One Times Square. Newspaper publisher Adolph Ochs introduced the event as a dramatic way to mark the new year and attract attention to his newspaper headquarters.
The ball was not dropped every year without interruption. New York City's wartime dimouts suspended the visible celebration in 1942 and 1943, when crowds instead observed a minute of silence and listened to chimes from a sound truck. The ball returned in 1944.
Modern versions are made from Waterford crystal triangles and illuminated by thousands of LEDs. A common mix-up is calling it a crystal ball in the fortune-telling sense; it is a large illuminated time ball lowered along a mast. The descent lasts about 60 seconds and ends at midnight in the Eastern Time Zone.