Facts About the History of New Year's Eve Celebration in Times Square

Tweet

About 4,000 years ago the Babylonians celebrated the New Year but it wasn't in the winter as it is now. It was celebrated in the spring. The annual ball drop in New York's Time square started in 1907. Then it was a 5-foot-wide iron ball. It was designed to bring festivities and visitors to the newly named Times Square. It did not drop in 1942 or 1943 due to 'dim-outs' during World War II but people still did gather in Times Square. Actually, the first Times Square New Year's Eve celebration happened in 1904 at The New York Times' new building at the intersection of 7th Ave, Broadway, and 42nd Street but no ball was dropped until three years later. The owner, Adolph Ochs decided to continue this by dropping a 700-pound iron and steel ball at the top of the newspaper building and this tradition continued. In 1917 it was the coldest of ball drops with New York weather at -17. But in 1965 and 1972 it was 58 degrees. In 2020 the ball drop was done virtually due to Covid-19 and there were no crowds in Time Square. People watched it on tv or online. Today the ball takes 50,000 watts to power the ceremony. The ball weighs 11,875 pounds and is 12 feet in diameter. It is made up of 3,000 Waterford Crystals and 32,000 LED lights. Based on the time zones the first place to experience the New Year is Kiritimati(Christmas Island) and the last place is Baker Island and Howland Island which are both not inhabited. Happy New Year! (Early I know) Picture courtesy of Google.