No meeting next week as we welcome Art Wood who will be bringing us an update on Hillsborough County
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The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where the ball descends down a specially designed flagpole, beginning at 11:59:00 p.m. ET, and resting at midnight to signal the start of the new year.
The event was first organized by Adolph Ochs, owner of The New York Times, as an extension to a series of New Year's Eve fireworks displays he held at the building to promote its status as the new headquarters of the Times, while the ball itself was designed by Artkraft Strauss. First held on December 31, 1907, to welcome 1908, the ball drop has been held annually since, except in 1942 and 1943 in observance of wartime blackouts. The event is currently organized by the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, a company led by Jeffrey Strauss.[1]
The ball has been updated seven times to reflect improvements in lighting technology: the original ball was 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter, constructed from wood and iron, and illuminated with 100 incandescent light bulbs. By contrast, the sixth iteration of the ball contained over 32,000 LEDs, and the seventh iteration debuting for 2025–26 is 12.5 feet (3.8 m) in diameter. Since 1999–2000, the ball has featured an outer surface consisting of crystal panels manufactured by Waterford Crystal, which contain inscriptions and designs representing a yearly theme.
The ball itself has remained atop One Times Square nearly year-round since 2009; with a renovation of One Times Square slated to be completed in 2026, the ball will become publicly accessible as part of a new observation deck, several previous iterations of the ball (including a recreation of the first ball) will be exhibited as part of a new museum.
The prevalence of the Times Square ball drop has inspired similar "drops" at other local New Year's Eve events across the country; while some use balls, some instead drop objects that represent local culture or history.
