Roughly a million people will crowd into Times Square for the drop of the iconic Times Square Ball tonight. The tradition was started in 1907 by the New York Times’ owner, Adolph Ochs, when the city banned fireworks. The ball has dropped every year at midnight (00:00) on January 1st since then with the exception of 1942-1943, the years of WWII when ‘lights out’ was enforced.