Jul 1, 2023 3 min read

For almost as long as the United States has celebrated Independence Day, fireworks have been a staple of Fourth of July celebrations in major cities and small towns across the country.

And we have John Adams to thank for that.

Before the Declaration of Independence was even signed, then-future President Adams envisioned fireworks as part of festivities.

Washington & Jefferson professor emeritus Tom Mainwaring notes that Adams, one of the 56 signers of the declaration, called for a celebration of American independence after the Continental Congress voted on July 2 to break ties with Great Britain.

On July 3, Adams sent a letter to his wife, Abigail, calling for “a great anniversary festival.”

Adams wrote, “The Second Day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.”

He went on to outline how the country’s declared independence from England should be celebrated.

The day, he wrote, should be marked with “pomp & parade, with shews (shows), games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

Adams was off by a couple of days for the holiday, Mainwaring pointed out, losing out in the battle for when to celebrate American independence.

“Adams believed to his dying day that July 2 marked the true anniversary of American independence and reportedly declined invitations to speak on July 4,” Mainwaring said via email.

But he was right about the “illuminations.”

The following year, in 1777, Philadelphia held a July 4 fireworks show.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post wrote, “The evening was closed with the ring of bells, 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.”

Ships in the Delaware River also offered a 13-gun salute (one for each state) to ring in July 4, Mainwaring said.

Boston, too, commemorated July 4, 1777, by lighting off fireworks on the Boston Commons.

Independence Day celebrations became entrenched after the War of 1812 – which again pitted the U.S. against Britain – when fireworks were even more widely available.

Francis Scott Key’s “Defense of Fort McHenry,” which later was set to the tune of a drinking song and renamed, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” became the national anthem and featured the line, “the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,” held up the use of fireworks in independence celebrations.

So, where did fireworks come from?

Fireworks have been a part of cultural celebrations for centuries, especially in China, where it’s believed that around 900 AD, alchemists in search of a life-extending elixir mixed saltpeter with sulphur and charcoal, which exploded with a flash and bang when exposed to an open flame.

Eventually, the alchemists stuffed the gunpowder into hollowed-out bamboo sticks, then roasted them to produce fireworks.

Today, more than 14,000 fireworks displays are held on the Fourth of July. In 2022, Americans spent more than $2.3 billion on fireworks, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association (Massachusetts is the only state that has banned all consumer fireworks).

An interesting July 4 fact that Mainwaring notes: former U.S. presidents and Declaration of Independence signers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

So when you watch with awe your community’s Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza, take a moment to think of Adams – the man who spurred the idea to light up the skies each Independence Day – and our founders, knowing that’s what they wanted us to do.