History of New Years Eve Celebrations in Times Square, New York City

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Times Square, one of New York City’s premier tourist destinations, is located on a major intersection in Midtown Manhattan--at the junction of Broadway and 27th Street and from West 42nd Street to West 47th Street. It occupies the blocks between 6th and 8th Avenues from east to west, and West 40th and West 53rd Streets from north to south.

Formerly known as Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building.

New York in 1904 was a city on the verge of tremendous changes - and, not surprisingly, many of those changes had their genesis in the bustling energy and thronged streets of Times Square. Two innovations that would completely transform the Crossroads of the World debuted in 1904: the opening of the city's first subway line, and the first-ever celebration of New Year's Eve in Times Square.

Looking north from 43rd street, a huge crowd gathers around a Christmas tree to welcome in 1938

The 1904 all-day street festival culminated in a fireworks display set off from the base of the Times building, and at midnight the joyful sound of cheering, rattles and noisemakers from the over 200,000 attendees could be heard, it was said, from as far away as Croton-on-Hudson, thirty miles north along the Hudson River.

The New York Times' description of the occasion paints a rapturous picture: "From base to dome the giant structure was lit - a torch to usher in the newborn year..."

The night was such a rousing success that Times Square instantly replaced Lower Manhattan's Trinity Church as "the" place in New York City to ring in the New Year. Before long, this party of parties would capture the imagination of the nation, and the world.

New Year’s Eve at Times Square is now a global tradition. Approximately 1 million people gather there each year; additionally, millions across the United States and about 1 billion people all over the world tune into the New Year’s Eve celebration. The famous ball (currently made of Waterford Crystal) drops from One Times Square, a tradition that began on December 31, 1907 and has continued ever since, except during World War Two when a moment of silence was observed followed by the tolling of church bells, as the blackout restrictions prevented excessive New Year’s Eve festivities.

 Times Square has cemented its place in American popular culture. It has been featured in movies such as Vanilla Sky, King Kong, and Spider-Man. ABC’s Good Morning America and MTV’s Total Request Live are broadcast live from their studios at Times Square. Additionally, many exclusive, popular, and specialty retailers and restaurants have locations at Times Square, such as the Hard Rock Cafй, Virgin Records, Toys R Us, ESPN Zone, Sketchers, Planet Hollywood, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, Ruby Foo’s, and Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. Today’s Times Square is a perfect family destination.

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Historic SS Canopic in Pictures

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SS Canopic

Breakfast Menu

Type: Passenger liner

Tonnage: 12,268 GRT
                7,717 NRT

Length: 578 ft 3 in (176.25 m)

Beam: 59 ft 3 in (18.06 m)

Depth: 35 ft 10 in (10.92 m)

Masts: 2

Propellers: 2

Engines: 6-cylinder triple expansion steam engine

Boilers: 6

Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)

Promenade Deck State Room

Port of Registry: Liverpool

Capacity:

• 1,300 passengers:
• 250 × 1st class
• 250 × 2nd class
• 800 × 3rd class


The Canopic was originally built in 1990 as the Commonwealth for the Dominion Line. 

This 12,268 GRT ship was 578 feet (176 m) long, and powered by a 988 nhp 6-cylinder triple expansion steam engine which gave her a service speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). She could carry up to 1,300 passengers.

In 1903 the Commonwealth was sold to the White Star Line and renamed Canopic. 

The Canopic made her first White Star Line voyage on January 14, 1903 on the Liverpool to Boston service.

In 1904 Canopic was transferred to the New York to Mediterranean service.

From 1917 to 1919 Canopic operated under the Liner Requesition Scheme.

In February 1919, Canopic reverted back to White Star Line, and in July went to the New York to Mediterranean berth.

In 1922 Canopic replaced the Arabic on the Mediterranean route.

On April 13, 1922 she made her first voyage on the Liverpool to Halifax to Boston route, then to the Montreal run for the summer.

On November 10, 1922 Canopic started on the Bremen to New York service.

 In November 1923 she took over the Hamburg to New York route.

In September 1924 she was put on the Liverpool - Philadelphia - Portland, Maine to end her career

In October 1924, Canopic was sold for breaking up and scrapped at Briton Ferry, South Wales.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, millions of people emigrated from Europe to the United States and Canada. White Star was among the first shipping lines to have passenger ships with inexpensive accommodation for third-class passengers, in addition to places for higher paying first- and second-class. 

White Star advertised extensively for emigrant passengers. When the Line began operations in 1870, the majority of their business in the emigration trade was centred on Great Britain, and Irish emigrants remained a chief source of income for much of the company's history. 

From the start, a great deal of their business also came from Scandinavia, with Norway and Sweden being the largest areas of success. As the years passed, the company expanded its services into continental Europe, eventually tapping into the massive streams of emigrants from Italy, from the Slavic regions of Central Europe under the control of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and nations such as Romania and Bulgaria in southeastern Europe struggling with slowed economic growth and overpopulation. Also included was Europe's massive population of Ashkenazi Jews from several areas of Eastern Europe generally known as the Pale of Settlement (a region within the Russian Empire designated under anti-Semitic governmental policies as the only area in which Jews were allowed to settle permanently, and which included primarily areas of far western Russia, the modern-day countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Belarus, and the remnants of the former kingdom of Galicia, an historic ethnic region with a huge Jewish population, now divided between southeastern Poland and the western Ukraine). 

The Line eventually expanded their services of travel across all regions of Europe, spanning from the Iberian Peninsula to the Middle East. No exact figures are available, but White Star liners may have carried as many as two million emigrants to North America. They maintained a handful of shipping routes for passengers, including these most widely used ones:

•  Liverpool to New York, calling at Queenstown, Ireland
• Liverpool to Boston, calling at Queenstown, Ireland    
• Genoa to New York, calling at Naples, Palermo, and Gibraltar, beginning in 1904
• Southampton to New York, calling at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, beginning in 1907.   
• Liverpool to Montreal, calling at Queenstown, Ireland, beginning in 1909.

SS Canopic lands in Boston, Oct 17, 1920

In 1933 White Star and Cunard were both in serious financial difficulties because of the Great Depression, falling passenger numbers and the advanced age of their fleets. Work was halted on Cunard's new giant, Hull 534 (later the Queen Mary) in 1931 to save money. In 1933 the British government agreed to provide assistance to the two competitors on the condition that they merge their North Atlantic operations. The agreement was completed on 30 December 1933.

The merger took place on 10 May 1934, creating Cunard-White Star Limited.

The White Star Line's Head Office building still exists in Liverpool, standing on 30 James Street. The building on James Street, which had been unused for the past 10 years, has recently reopened as 30 James Street - Home of Titanic Hotel providing accommodation for 310 guests on 11 floors.

Cunard Line itself has, since 1995, introduced White Star Service as the brand of services on their ships RMS Queen Mary 2, MS Queen Victoria and the MS Queen Elizabeth. The company has also created the White Star Academy, an in-house programme for preparing new crew members for Cunard ships.

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