The lighted Ball - a geodesic sphere that is 12 feet in diameter, descends 70 feet in sixty seconds. The Ball is covered with 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles and lit by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs and weighs 11,875 pounds.
At the stroke of Midnight (12:00 AM), the lights on the New Year’s Eve Ball are turned off as the numerals of the New Year are lit.
The first New Year's Eve celebration to be held in Times Square took place on December 31, 1903.
At the time, the square was still named Longacre (a few months later it was renamed after the newspaper) and Adolph Ochs, the owner of the New York Times had moved the newspaper's headquarters to number one. He decided to celebrate the opening of the new headquarters with a midnight fireworks show on the building roof. And thus started a tradition which evolved in 1907 with the construction of the first Time Ball.
The story says that the first time it actually dropped one second after midnight.
I've watched the ball in New York drop on television for years now, but I never knew it had been a tradition for over a century! Wow, how cool. And it's really funny that the ball was dropped late the first time. :D
RépondreSupprimerCe commentaire a été supprimé par un administrateur du blog.
SupprimerI've made it a point to watch the ball drop on TV regardless of the circumstance. In fact, I decided to watch it after I got food poisoning coming back from China... fun times. It's still pretty spine tingling when the ball hits the bottom, despite having watched it do so for years and years.
RépondreSupprimerWow!
RépondreSupprimerTo me, it's a very good tradition, it's really beautiful to see that!
I wish I can see it in real life one day!