Today in history: First Times Square Ball
I will be celebrating from the comforts of my home. Couple logs in the fireplace, some champagne and a nice home cooked meal! The best way to say goodbye to 2021 and hello to 2022.
First Times Square Ball
December 31, 1907
A workaround for a banned New Year’s Eve fireworks display, the first Times Square ball was ceremoniously dropped 114 years ago today. Times Square was named after “The New York Times,” and the legendary ceremony has always occurred atop One Times Square, the newspaper’s headquarters from 1905 until 1914. “New York Times” owner and publisher Adolph Ochs commissioned the original New Year’s Eve ball, which had a five-foot diameter and weighed 700 pounds. Decorated with 100 25-watt light bulbs, the iron-and-wood contraption was created by metal worker Jacob Starr, a teenage Ukrainian immigrant. During the last minute of 1907, crowds watched as six men with a pulley system and a stopwatch lowered the ball down the skyscraper’s flagpole.
The ball’s current and seventh iteration is an exceptionally elaborate showpiece, worth more than $1 million. Weighing 11,875 pounds, it boasts a 12-foot diameter, and the exterior glimmers from 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles, plus 32,256 LED lights. Times Square visitors can view the iconic attraction any day of the year. The ball’s annual descent is controlled by a laser-cooled atomic clock in Colorado, and watched by a global audience of more than a billion people.
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