"Time-balls" precede the Times Square New Year's Eve tradition. Balls have been "dropped" since at least the 1830s at England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where a ball dropped at a set hour every day for captains to set their navigation tools.

For 122 years, Times Square has been the center of worldwide attention on New Year’s Eve, ever since the owners of One Times Square began in 1904 to conduct rooftop celebrations to greet the New Year. The first Ball Lowering celebration occurred in 1907, and this tradition is now a universal symbol of welcoming the New Year.

Here’s what time CNN’s "New Year’s Eve Live" begins, along with everything you need to know about watching Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen’s annual boozy special.

Shortly after midnight on Thursday, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as the mayor of New York City, to be followed later in the day with a public inauguration that will cap an astonishing yearlong rise from the obscurity of the State Assembly’s backbench to the helm of America’s largest city.

President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military carried out a "large-scale strike" in Venezuela early Saturday morning and took Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife into custody.

Some people have begun to gather for Mayor Zohran Mamdani's inauguration. Police have set up barricades along Broadway near Fulton Street.

During his public inauguration ceremony at New York City Hall on New Year's Day, Mamdani was sworn in by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Brooklyn-born independent and fellow democratic socialist who has been an ideological ally, before addressing the crowd.

While multiple outlets, including CNN, ABC and CBS will be airing the New Year's Eve celebrations live on their TV channels and streaming platforms, audiences can also catch the live webcast on Times Square's official website starting 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 31.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order Friday establishing the Mayor's Office of Mass Engagement to streamline City Hall's existing community affairs and public engagement units.