Fireworks in America, part of July 4 since 1777

Magnificent fireworks displays delight spectators each year on the Fourth of July, America’s celebration of Independence Day. We celebrate 250 years in 2026 since Independence Day began during Heritage Days, but how did the fireworks tradition get started? The tradition of setting off mini-explosions of color (particularly red, white and blue) in America on July 4, as it turns out, goes back almost as far as American independence itself.

The first recorded fireworks in America date back to the earliest European settlements in 1608. These were set off by Captain John Smith celebrating the Jamestown, Virginia settlement. Colonists brought these traditions from Europe, and by 1777, fireworks became a cornerstone of Independence Day celebrations to symbolize freedom.

How fireworks became a July 4 tradition dates to the summer of 1776, during the first months of the Revolutionary War. On July 1, 1776 delegates of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia were debating whether the 13 original colonies should declare their independence from Britain’s Parliament and King George III.

British ships sailed into New York Harbor that very night, threatening George Washington’s Continental troops. The next day, July 2, delegates from 12 colonies voted in favor of independence with New York following on July 9. The motion carried, and on July 3 Congress revised a draft of the Declaration composed by Thomas Jefferson.

John Adams, excited at the prospect of an independent America wrote, “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, (time) in the history of America.” He continued, “It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by Solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival … It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews (displays), games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations (fireworks) from one end of this Continent to the other from this time forward forevermore.”

As it turns out, Adams was off by just a couple of days. On July 4, 1776 after making a total of 86 changes to Jefferson’s draft, Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence. Most delegates, however, did not sign it until August 2.

The Declaration’s first public readings took place in Pennsylvania and New Jersey on July 8, 1776. The first organized celebration of the event was held on its one-year anniversary, July 4, 1777, in Philadelphia, and as Adams predicted there were fireworks.

“Yesterday the 4th of July, being the anniversary of the Independence of the United States of America, was celebrated in this city with demonstrations of joy and festivity,” reported the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July 5, 1777. “About noon all the armed ships and galleys in the river were drawn up before the city, dressed in the gayest manner, with the colors of the United States and streamers displayed … and at night there was a grand exhibition of fireworks (which began and concluded with thirteen rockets) on the Commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated.”

Adams lived to see exactly 50 years of American independence. On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of Congress’ adoption of the Declaration of Independence, he died at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, just five hours after Thomas Jefferson’s death in Virginia. Adams’s hometown of Boston saw its own fireworks display that July 4, as Colonel Thomas Crafts of the Sons of Liberty took the opportunity to set off fireworks and shells over Boston Common. In the years to come, various cities continued the tradition of celebrating independence, holding picnics, parades, speeches and fireworks displays for the occasion, though Boston was the first to designate July 4 an official state holiday in 1783. In 1870, Congress established Independence Day as an official holiday.

Many historians believe that fireworks originated in China, which continues to produce and export more fireworks than any other country in the world. (Others trace their roots to the Middle East or India.) It is thought that, as early as 200 B.C., the Chinese had already stumbled upon a sort of natural firecracker: they would roast bamboo, which explodes with a bang when heated due to its hollow air pockets, in order to ward off evil spirits. Later Chinese alchemists began mixing other ingredients, yielding an early form of gunpowder, which they stuffed into the bamboo shoots that were thrown into a fire to produce a loud blast and sparkling explosion; hence fireworks were born.