Each year, in the final hours of December 31, people around the world eagerly await midnight—a moment symbolizing a new year and a fresh start. For decades, Americans have tuned into the festivities in Times Square, New York via radio, then TV, and have honored the occasion with fireworks, champagne toasts, and even a midnight kiss.
The universal celebration of the new year at the stroke of midnight dates back to the late 19th century. Before then, there was no standard time system in the United States, and time was very localized. The exact moment of midnight could vary from town to town and village to village.
That started to change in 1883, when railroad companies began using four continental time zones, resulting in the greater synchronization of public clocks. Under this system, people could pinpoint the current hour and minute with accuracy, and time became more coordinated. With these advancements—and the invention of electric lighting on public streets by the late 1800s—the notion of celebrating the new year as the clock strikes midnight was born. This all helped pave the way to the creation of the public New Year’s Eve celebrations, including the one in Times Square in the early 1900s.
“It’s really not until the late 19th century when you get the age of public clocks, when you have lots and lots of public clocks in public spaces that are accurate and that are set to an agreed-upon time standard, that New Year’s begins to move into the streets, if you will, or at least moves toward being a clock-oriented holiday,” says Alexis McCrossen, professor of history at Southern Methodist University and author of Marking Modern Times: A History of Clocks, Watches, and Other Timekeepers in American Life.
No Coordinated Moment at Midnight
Before a standard time system was in place, there was little synchronicity even among neighboring communities. And before the creation of the railroad, there wasn’t necessarily a need for great precision.
“If you’re limited to the speed of a horse, there’s no way to cover enough ground that the time difference between where you started and where you ended can matter in the course of a day,” says Chad Orzel, associate professor of physics and astronomy and department chair at Union College, and the author of A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks.
That’s why, before the late 19th century, New Year’s was more of a calendar holiday honoring the first day of the new year, rather than the “clock-oriented” holiday it later became, McCrossen says. A few “mischief makers” would celebrate on December 31 on public streets, she says, and others attended church services. But there were no synchronized midnight celebrations.
A Need for Time Standardization
In the decade following the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the major U.S and Canadian railroad companies recognized the need for a timekeeping system that spanned great distances to help coordinate train schedules. Factories and weather services similarly found value in the idea. The rise of the telegraph and more streamlined communications between cities facilitated this need.
By the 1870s, railways operated around 50 regional time zones. Railroad time became a standard as towns and cities began to grow.
“You could buy big, fat books that would tell you the difference between every single rail station you could possibly visit and the local time where you were,” says Michael O’Malley, professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University and author of Keeping Watch: A History of American Time. (He was referring to the Travelers’ Official Guide, which was released monthly by the railroad companies.)
In November 1883, the major U.S. and Canadian railroad industries instituted four continental time zones. While the countries’ federal governments didn’t steer the change, the railroad was an economically powerful force with political influence over local governments. Despite some initial pushback from certain towns and cities, especially those located near time zone borders, many embraced the shift, Orzel says. (Federal oversight over time zones didn’t begin until the Standard Time Act in 1918.)
Celebrating at the Stroke of Midnight
By the late 19th century, a growing awareness of the exact time of day helped popularize the notion of celebrating the new year at midnight, McCrossen says. Different institutions in various cities began staging New Year’s Eve spectacles. The Philadelphia City Hall tower clock was unveiled—and started ticking—on January 1, 1899 at midnight. In New York City, massive fireworks were launched near City Hall by the Brooklyn Bridge. Churches rang their bells the second the new year arrived, with music blaring in the background.
Commercial entertainment venues such as theaters, ballrooms, hotels and restaurants also began hosting New Year’s Eve parties and shows to draw people into public spaces, McCrossen says.
“There was a sense of, ‘Let’s make this a big celebration. We’ll do it leading into that magic moment of midnight, and then that will be a kind of grand finale when the new year comes, and we’ll all be out on the street together,’” McCrossen says.
This was more true than ever by the end of the 1800s and into the early 1900s, when towns and cities’ use of electricity to illuminate public streets became more widespread, McCrossen says. And with the holiday now a midnight celebration, many common New Year’s traditions—like the midnight kiss and toast—could take place at exactly 12 a.m.
“It allowed those traditions to last and take a lasting form,” McCrossen says. “But those traditions themselves have a really long, ancient lineage.”
Evolution of the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop
Eventually, celebrations like the modern New Year’s Eve festivities at Times Square came to fruition. As early as 1904, revelers headed to Broadway and 42nd Street on December 31 for a night of excitement. For a few years, The New York Times held a midnight fireworks show, until city officials expressed safety concerns in 1907.
Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs then replaced the fireworks with a 700-pound “time ball”—a device historically used to signal the time to ships at sea—resting at the top of the flagpole crowning Times Tower. Illuminated with 100 electric light bulbs, the dazzling sphere made its way to the ground. The year 1908 lit up to a backdrop of cheers, cars honking, and cow bells ringing.
