Here are five things to know about July Fourth, including the origin of the holiday and how fireworks became part of the tradition.
FILE - Fireworks explode over the Las Vegas Strip during a 4th of July Fireworks show, July 4, 2021, in Las Vegas. Extremely hot, dry conditions forecast through the Fourth of July across much of the West are heightening concerns about wildfires and the dangers of fireworks. Those pyrotechnics also make it an especially dangerous holiday, typically resulting in more than 10,000 trips to the emergency room.
Commemoration of America's independence “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,” Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail, dated July 3, 1776. His letter to his wife aside, Adams refused to celebrate the holiday on July 4 because he felt July 2 was the real Independence Day. Why? It was on July 2, 1776, that the Continental Congress voted in favor of the resolution for independence, though the Declaration of Independence wasn't formally adopted until two days later.
“People went to the fireworks store beginning Memorial Day weekend and they just didn't stop,” said Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. “They were firing off fireworks all of 2020. It shocked the industry, to be quite honest with you.” The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that in 2022, 10,200 people were treated at emergency rooms and 11 deaths were blamed on fireworks. About three-quarters of injuries happened in the period around the Fourth of July.
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