when was the first ball drop

The “first ball drop” people usually mean is the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop, which first happened on the night of December 31, 1907, to ring in the year 1908.

Quick Scoop

• The first Times Square ball drop took place on December 31, 1907, after New York City banned fireworks at the earlier New Year’s celebrations.

• It was organized by Adolph Ochs, owner of The New York Times, as a new way to mark midnight from the top of One Times Square.

• The original ball was made of iron and wood, weighed about 700 pounds, was roughly 5 feet in diameter, and was lit by 100 small incandescent bulbs.

• Around 200,000 people are estimated to have gathered for that first event, helping cement Times Square as New York City’s New Year’s Eve focal point.

When people today ask “when was the first ball drop,” they’re almost always talking about that 1907 Times Square tradition, even though time balls as a signaling device existed in the 19th century for ships and observatories.

TL;DR: The first Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop was on December 31, 1907, welcoming 1908, and it has continued (with updated balls and brief crowd restrictions) into the present day.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.