The Fourth of July is Americana at its core: parades and cookouts and cold beer and, of course, fireworks.
The display of pyrotechnics has been a big part of Independence Day from the outset. Founding Father John Adams saw it coming.
Fireworks were around centuries before America became a nation. The American Pyrotechnics Association says many historians believe fireworks were first developed in the second century B.C. in ancient China by throwing bamboo stalks into fires, causing explosions as the hollow air pockets overheated. Adams was so adamant that he turned down invitations to festivals and other events, even while serving as the nation’s second president. Ironically, Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, both died on the 50th anniversary of the document’s formal adoption, July 4, 1826.Statistics from the American Pyrotechnics Association show that in 2000, American consumers spent $407 million on fireworks. By 2022, that figure rose to $2.3 billion.
“I have seen people who have blown off fingers,” said Dr. Tiffany Osborn, an emergency room physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. “I’ve seen people who have lost eyes. I’ve seen people who have significant facial injuries.”
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