Times Square Ball Drop

Fails and Mistakes

1949:

 Ball doesn’t hit bottom on time

1950:

 A fuse blows
1956:

 Ball lights go out at 11:59:58, and the 1956 signs are off until 12:15
1958:

 Ball doesn’t hit bottom on time

1963:

 Ball lights go out early

1967:

 Ball doesn’t hit bottom on time

1970:

 Ball doesn’t hit bottom on time and side Allied Chemicals signs are off
1974:

 The noise which is supposed to play at midnight plays early instead.

1978:

 1. The ball freezes 12 seconds before midnight.

 2. Sign lights up WAY tooo early, three seconds before midnight.
1982:

 Ball doesn’t hit bottom on time

1983:

 Ball is halfway up the pole at 17-13 seconds

1984:

 Sign lights up half a second early

1985:

 Ball doesn’t hit bottom on time, and the 1985 sign lights up at 12:00:01
1987:

 Ball doesn’t hit bottom on time

1988:

 Ball lights go out at the leap second (1988 is a leap year)

1989:

 Ball doesn’t hit bottom on time, and the 1989 signs lights up half a second
late
1996:

 Times Square Ball Glitch starts and lasts for 2 seconds, making the 1996 signs
light up late
1998:

 Ball doesn’t lower until 11:59:20 (40), ball doesn’t hit bottom on time, and
the 1998 signs light up on fire
1999:

 Ball drop button is pressed late.

2000:

 Fireworks are launched half a second late

2003

 Countdown screen turns off at 11:59:20 (40), but there was still a crowd
countdown
2004 and 2005:

 Countdown off by 1 second, nut the signs light up at the correct time
2006:

 Crowd countdown accords to the Budwieser Countdown, not the Coca-Cola

Countdown
2007:

 Imagine theme is ended up late; Sign lights up early

2008:

 Sign lights up early

2009:

 Sign lights up late

2010:

 1. Countdown glitches for 1 second.

 2.
2011:

 The ball drop button is pressed late, and the clock is a second early
2014:

 Toshiba Clock is way too late

2015:

 10 second countdown did not had fireworks

2017:

 Top right fireworks launcher didn’t work

2018:

 Toshiba Clock is early

2019:

 Heavy rain causes fireworks to turn to smoke, making the tower very hard at
the stroke of midnight
2020:

 Volkswagen Clock is 1 second early

2022:

 Full “Happy New Year” sign completes late