Which New Year's Eve event in New York City was suspended during the 1942 and 1943 wartime blackouts?

The Times Square ball drop was suspended during the 1942 and 1943 wartime blackouts in New York City.

During World War II, restrictions required cities to reduce visible light so enemy aircraft would have less help locating targets. New York City's Times Square celebration therefore did not use the illuminated ball in those two New Year's transitions. Instead, crowds observed midnight with a period of silence and then the ringing of church bells.

The annual ball drop had begun in 1907 and had already become a recognizable public ritual. Its temporary interruption shows how the celebration adapted to national emergency rather than simply continuing unchanged.

The ball drop returned after the war. The blackout years are sometimes confused with cancellations caused by weather or later changes in crowd-control arrangements, but the specific interruption in 1942 and 1943 was connected to wartime lighting restrictions.