• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was first held on November 27, 1924.
• It's been a hallmark of the holiday season since then, featuring celebrities and character balloons.
• This year's parade airs on Thursday, November 28 at 8:30 a.m. ET on NBC.

On Thursday, November 28, Macy's will kick off its 98th Thanksgiving Day Parade.

But what's extra special about this year's parade is that it's also the 100-year anniversary of the first Macy's parade — then called the Macy's Christmas Parade — which was held on November 27, 1924. (The company skipped the event from 1942-1944 because of World War II.)

Since then, the parade has grown into a spectacle of giant helium balloons, extravagent floats, marching bands, Broadway performances, celebrity appearances, and more.

"Every single year, we really try to deliver the best in entertainment," Kathleen Wright, director of production operations for Macy's studios, told the "Today" show on Monday.

So, as more than 5,000 volunteers, 32 balloons, and 22 floats prepare to grace the streets of New York City, here's a look back at Macy's first parade and how the tradition has evolved over the last 100 years.

1924: Macy's held its first parade on November 27, 1924; it was called the Macy's Christmas Parade.

The first parade featured live animals from the Central Park Zoo.

1927: Live animals were replaced with the now classic helium balloons.

Happy Dragon (pictured above) and Felix the Cat were two balloons on display that year.

1930s: Walt Disney helped design the first Mickey Mouse balloon.

The balloon handlers were also dressed as Mickey Mouse.

1940s: The parade was canceled from 1942 to 1944 due to rubber and helium shortages during World War II, but it was back on for the rest of the '40s.

An Uncle Sam balloon graced the streets of New York City in the 1940s.

1950s: The Radio City Rockettes have been perfectly aligned since their first performance at the parade in 1957.

The Rockettes were founded in 1925.

1960s: Miss Teenage America 1961 Diane Lynn Cox rode a float in the parade.

She was accompanied by her "Prince Charming," actor Troy Donahue.

1968: Snoopy, the beloved beagle from the "Peanuts" comics, made his balloon debut.

The balloon was named "Flying Ace Snoopy."

According to Macy's, Snoopy is the "longest-running character balloon" in the parade's history.

1970s: Kermit the Frog made his debut in 1977.

The balloon handlers were also dressed as Kermit, with green outfits and yellow collars.

1980: The Sesame Street float followed a marching band.

Sesame Street began airing in 1969.

1982: Woody Woodpecker flew high above Macy's.

The Woody Woodpecker show aired between 1940 and 1972.

1984: Raggedy Ann waved to onlookers.

Raggedy Ann was a character created by author and artist Johnny Gruelle in 1915.

1985: The Betty Boop balloon was 67 feet tall.

The ballon also held over 15,000 cubic feet of helium.

1986: Olive Oyl and Swee'Pea were preceded by a group of clowns.

Olive Oyl and Swee'Pea were characters from "Popeye."

1988: The Pink Panther was on the case.

The first Pink Panther film was created in 1963.

1989: A Ronald McDonald-shaped balloon carried balloons of its own.

An estimated 1.8 million people attended the chilly parade.

1990: Clifford the Big Red Dog lived up to his name.

The first "Clifford" story was published in 1963 by Norman Bridwell.

1991: Spider-Man made his first appearance at the parade.

It was fitting for a Spider-Man balloon to fly over New York City, just as the character does in the comics and movies.

1992: Bart Simpson cruised through town on his skateboard.

"The Simpsons" remains the longest-running scripted sitcom in television history.

1993: Members of America Sings!, a performing arts nonprofit organization for young amateur singers, belted out American classics.

The singers wore red sweaters with white scarves as they waved American flags.

1994: The Cat in the Hat premiered as a new balloon in Times Square.

A billboard for the Tony Award-winning musical "Kiss of the Spider Woman" can be seen in the background.

1995: Beethoven was big. Like, really big.

There are eight "Beethoven" movies in total.

1996: Betty Boop reappeared.

She was sitting on a crescent moon again.

1997: Winds gusting up to 43 miles per hour caused many of the 17 balloons in the parade to rip and deflate.

One of the balloons blew into a lamppost, knocking it into the crowd and injuring two people, The New York Times reported in 1997.

1998: "Rugrats" were all the rage.

"Rugrats" characters Chuckie and Tommy rode their dog Spike in the 1998 parade.

1999: Before "Googling" became a verb, internet search engine Ask Jeeves was the way to go.

The Ask Jeeves float was accompanied by Miss America winner Heather French.

2000: A marching band led the way for Arthur.

The animated children's series "Arthur" aired from 1996 to 2022.

2001: The trauma of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center was still raw.

Members of the New York City fire department carried an American flag.

2002: Justin Guarini, the runner-up on season one of "American Idol," crooned a Christmas song.

Guarini placed second to Kelly Clarkson on the show's first season.

The "100 Christmases" sign behind him was a nod to the age of Macy's iconic storefront in Herald Square, which opened in 1902.

2003: Simple Plan rocked out on the M&M float.

The band released the singles "Addicted" and "Perfect" in 2003.

2004: A news ticker shared stories about "Desperate Housewives" and the war in Iraq.

Performers followed the parade route on stilts and unicycles.

2005: Charlie Brown was part of the fun.

The "Peanuts" character chased after his football.

2006: It rained on this parade. Poor Big Bird.

The Big Bird balloon sank to the ground due to inclement weather.

2007: Shrek floated above the city in all of his glory.

The third "Shrek" movie, "Shrek the Third," came out in 2007.

2008: Miley Cyrus was at the height of her Disney stardom.

Cyrus appeared on a float for the 2008 animated Disney movie "Bolt," in which she was the voice of Penny. 

2009: Keke Palmer blew a kiss to adoring fans.

Palmer sang her song "Top of the World" on a Build-A-Bear float. At the time, she was the star of Nickelodeon's "True Jackson, VP."

2010: Miranda Cosgrove rode with the Minions from "Despicable Me."

Cosgrove voices Margo in the "Despicable Me" franchise.

2011: Members of the NYPD marched through Times Square.

Spider-Man followed closely in the background.

2012: US Olympic gymnasts Kyla Ross, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney, and Gabby Douglas of the "Fierce Five" sported their gold medals from the London Olympics.

The Fierce Five led Team USA to gold in the team all-around for the first time in more than a decade.

2013: Despite the cold and concerns about the wind, the parade continued as planned.

The National Weather Service reported that the high in Central Park that day was 35 degrees. Despite cold temperatures, the New York Daily News reported that 3.5 million people attended the event.

2014: Spider-Man flew past Macy's.

In "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," which was released in 2014, the titular character was played by Andrew Garfield.

2015: A record number of police officers patrolled the parade in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris.

For the first time, the parade featured 200 officers from the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau's Critical Response Command, The New York Times reported.

2016: Macy's celebrated its 90th Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Marching band drums marked Macy's 90th parade.

2017: The red Power Ranger balloon flew down the streets of New York.

The balloon handlers wore matching red outfits.

2018: SpongeBob SquarePants flew down the street sporting a Santa hat.

Perhaps SpongeBob was paying tribute to the original "Christmas Parade."

2019: Disney's Olaf from "Frozen" made his third consecutive parade appearance after debuting in 2017.

"Frozen 2" came out in 2019.

2020: Santa Claus and his elves wore face masks to the parade in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Despite there being no live crowds, the parade still featured performances from the Goo Goo Dolls, Sofia Carson, CNCO, Pentatonix, and more.

2021: Broadway's cast of "Wicked" performed "One Short Day."

Broadway performances have been a parade staple for decades.

2022: NBC has been the parade's official broadcast partner since 1952.

In 2022, NBC's Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker were part of the show.

2023: Pokémon character Pikachu has appeared in every parade since 2001.

According to Macy's, each blade on Pikachu and Eevee's Poké Ball sleigh is about the same length as a semi-trailer truck.

2024: This year's parade will include six new balloons and seven new floats.

While there will be more than 10 combined new balloons and floats, Macy's still leaves room for the classics like Tom Turkey, which is "the longest running title float in the Parade," according to the brand.

• Macy's said it discovered an employee intentionally made accounting errors totaling $132 to $154 million.
• Auditing experts told BI the available evidence suggests a failure of internal accounting controls.
• They said the issue should have been caught much earlier —regardless of any single employee's intent.

In accounting as in air travel, a common saying applies: "If you see something, say something."

Following the news that Macy's discovered a sizable error in its financial records, auditing experts told Business Insider that the company must now explain how its controls broke down.

The retailer said Monday that it was delaying its quarterly earnings release after discovering an employee deliberately made an accounting error totaling between $132 million and $154 million over three years.

Even in a situation where someone intentionally introduced errors to a company's books, former KPMG partner Jerry Maginnis said, "Your system of internal control should have caught it."

Since retiring from the accounting firm in 2015, Maginnis now serves on the audit committees of several companies and is an executive in residence at Rowan University. He said he never handled financial records for Macy's, which has been audited by KPMG since 1988.

"Somebody else should have been reviewing and catching it, and so this was a breakdown in internal control as well as bad accounting," Maginnis told BI.

Macy's said it fired an individual who "intentionally made erroneous accounting accrual entries" and launched an investigation. The employee had "responsibility for small package delivery expense accounting," the company said.

The retailer said that it spent $4.36 billion on small package delivery expenses in the three years that the error had been taking place, making the error less than 5% of that line item. According to Macy's press release, no money was improperly spent.

The employee's potential motives and exactly what went wrong is likely to be the subject of investigation by Macy's audit committee, KPMG, and others, accounting experts told Business Insider.

The last time Macy's reported a major accounting issue was in 2006 when the company restated financials over a "cash flow classification," according to Ideagen Audit Analytics, a research and data provider.

Monday's announcement preceded Macy's regularly scheduled third-quarter earnings report. The company said its next update will come on December 11.

"If they weren't going to delay their earnings, we probably never would've heard about this," said Michelle Leder, the author of a book about reading financial statements who now runs the website Footnoted, which analyzes securities filings. "You could argue that maybe they've already disclosed more than they're required to disclose."

Without more details, the accounting experts who spoke to BI said it is hard to understand exactly what happened.

One possible explanation may be as simple as "sometimes accountants make mistakes," said Francine McKenna, a former accounting professional who now publishes The Dig newsletter about accounting topics and auditing firms.

"Sometimes errors accumulate, and then what happens is you go into preservation mode," she added. "You just keep perpetuating the error in order to hide it because you don't want to raise your hand and say, 'An error happened, I couldn't get it fixed for a year and a half, and now the number is really big.'"

While stronger internal controls could shift some of the onus off of individuals having to make that choice, Maginnis also said that the accounting profession depends on individuals having a personal commitment to tell the truth at all times.

Regulations set by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which require public companies to maintain effective internal controls, are intended to catch mistakes like this much earlier and provide an avenue for audit firms to issue warnings about company controls.

The pressure will now be on Macy's auditor, KPMG, to show that it is appropriately scrutinizing Macy's accounting practices and controls, McKenna said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you'll see a material weakness in internal controls because something is not working here," McKenna said. "There was a hole somewhere."

• Macy's has delayed Q3 earnings as it investigates over $130 million in hidden expenses.
• Macy's said a single employee was responsible for "erroneous accounting accrual entries."
• The employee is no longer working at Macy's, the company said.

Macy's delayed its third-quarter earnings, saying it is undertaking a forensic investigation into a single employee's concealment of more than $130 million in expenses.

The department store chain said Monday that the employee — who was responsible for small-package delivery expense accounting and no longer works at the company — intentionally hid between $132 and $154 million in expenses over the course of three years.

"There is no indication that the erroneous accounting accrual entries had any impact on the company's cash management activities or vendor payments. The individual who engaged in this conduct is no longer employed by the company," the company said.

Macy's stock price fell as much as 4% in premarket trading on Monday.

The company was due to report its earnings on Tuesday; it said the release is now planned for December 11.

"At Macy's, we promote a culture of ethical conduct. While we work diligently to complete the investigation as soon as practicable and ensure this matter is handled appropriately, our colleagues across the company are focused on serving our customers and executing our strategy for a successful holiday season," Tony Spring, the CEO of the chain, said in a statement accompanying the news.

A spokesperson for Macy's declined to comment further.