The Stroke of Midnight: The Emergence of New Year’s Eve in America, 1820-1929

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To announce the arrival of 1908, at midnight on December 31, 1907 The New York Times dropped a time ball from its new building in Herald Square (now known as Times Square).  The spectacle was an immediate and recognized success, described as “remarkable,” “entirely different,” and “wonderful.”  Large-scale and widespread New Year’s Eve celebrations were new at the start of the twentieth century.  With midnight as their focal point, they trumpeted the temporality of clocks rather than calendars as did prevalent New Year’s Day rituals and activities. This paper tells the story of the emergence of New Year’s Eve in America.