SNAP!

[#1]

Have a Ball on New Year’s Eve. Every year, millions of eyes from around the world will be focused on the sparkling Waterford Crystal Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball. At exactly 11:59 p.m. the ball begins its descent as voices unite to count down the final seconds. Joined by midnight kisses and popping favors, this tradition has become one of the great iconic gestures to kick off the upcoming year. Celebrating New Year’s in Times Square first became a tradition in 1904. Three year’s later a great countdown ball joined the party.  (Do you know?  What two years did the ball take a “hiatus”?)  

Photo right: The crystal paned ball that will signal the start of 2011.

History of the Times Square Ball

The tradition began after New York Times square officially opened its headquarters in 1904. Alfred Ochs convinced the city to rename the intersection, formerly known as Longacre Squares, to Times Square. A grand party was thrown to commemorate the milestone. This New Year’s Eve event started with an all-day street festival and culminated with fireworks at midnight.

The idea of a ball "dropping" to signal the passage of time dates back long before New Year's Eve was ever celebrated in Times Square. The first "time-ball" was installed atop England's Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. This ball would drop at one o'clock every afternoon, allowing the captains of nearby ships to precisely set their chronometers (a vital navigational instrument). Around 150 public time-balls are believed to have been installed around the world after the success at Greenwich, though few survive and still work.

Timeline

1907: Ochs decided to use this tradition and came up with the concept of a “time ball” that would descend just before midnight to mark the end of the year. In 1907, the first ball to drop was an illuminated 400-pound iron and wood orb lowered from a flagpole. The original ball was lit by one hundred 25-watt light bulbs and was 5 feet in diameter.  

1920: A 400-pound ball made entirely of wrought iron replaced the original. 

1955:  The iron ball was replaced with an aluminum ball weighing a mere 200 pounds. This aluminum Ball remained unchanged until the 1980s, when red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the Ball into an apple for the "I Love New York" marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988. After seven years, the traditional glowing white Ball with white light bulbs and without the green stem returned to brightly light the sky above Times Square. In 1995, the Ball was upgraded with aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but the aluminum ball was lowered for the last time in 1998.

1981: Red lights and a green stem were added to make it an apple promoting the city's "I Love New York" tourism campaign. That flashy phase ended in 1988 in favor of simple white lights, followed later by edgier rhinestones and strobes.

 2000:  The biggest overhaul was saved for the ball that would ring in the new millennium. Plumping up to 1,070 pounds, the massive new ball touted handcrafted Waterford crystal triangles, each with a design symbolizing various messages such as "Hope for Fellowship," "Hope for Wisdom" and "Hope for Abundance." With minor tweaks, that sphere remained through the 2007 fiesta.

2008: The ball is revamped again. The current ball is  12 feet in diameter (double the size of balls past) and weighs 11,875 pounds; it sparkles with 32,256 LED lights and 2,668 crystals. It's not the only thing that's gotten bigger since the 1900s; a crowd estimated at a million people will be celebrating in Times Square on Dec. 31, and millions more will be watching worldwide.

2009 – The 2008 design is maintained, but its diameter is doubled, and it is 20% more energy efficient than the previous one.

Do you know?  What two years did the ball take a “hiatus?

The ball has heralded a new beginning every year, with the exception of 1942 and 1943, during World War II. The ball was temporarily put out of commission by a war-time "dimout." Instead crowds gathered in the square and observed a moment of silence before hooting and hollering.