Fireworks burst from behind a mountain at the Sacred Festival and Coronation of their Imperial Majesties in Paris, France, in the early 1800s. The festival celebrates Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine as they are crowned Emperor and Empress of France.
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Red, white, and boom? How fireworks came to America
From bamboo torches to high tech displays, the U.S. and countries around the world have put their own spin on fireworks.
As dusk sets on the Fourth of July, bursts of light, movement, and color bedazzle America’s skies. Fireworks—thousands of which launch from municipal festivals and backyards each Independence Day—are, for some citizens of the United States, quintessential emblems of nationalism.
But what makes these illuminations so patriotic? And how do the very first fireworks compare to the ones we launch today?
Well, the first fireworks were not American at all.
Around 200 BC—millennia before Europeans landed in North America—people in Liyuan, China, created firecrackers by tossing bamboo stalks into pits of fire. Some say the resulting noise was intended to ward off evil spirits. Then, fast forward to 600 AD, Chinese alchemists took the practice a step further by devising a gun-powder remedy
