Tallahassee, Fl (#WTXLdigital) -- Apple Pie, barbeque, block parties... These are few family fun things I think of when it comes to the Fourth of July. So how is it that loud explosives got added into the mix for Independence Day celebrations?
To find the answer we have to go all the way back to July 3rd, 1776 when John Adams had a vision for this historic date of American freedom.
"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival", Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail, about the signing of the Deceleration.
John Adams continued on to describe all the grand celebrations he felt necessary to celebrate freedom. This is where he included "Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
And for the first anniversary of the Fourth of July, Congress authorized Philadelphia to set off fireworks, according to historian James Heintze.
The Evening Post, a Philadelphia newspaper, described an entire day of festivities that "was closed with the ringing of bells, and at night there there was a grand exhibition of fireworks".
By 1786 James Heintze's research showed that fireworks were so abundant that some cities outlawed them because of the danger of fires.
Although there might have been a firework set back in '86, the American Pyrotechnics Association is happy to say the industry in America is growing strong. 186.4 million pounds of fireworks were sold in 2013.
I think John Adams would be happy to see the us, the "succeeding generations" celebrating every year and the extensive evolution of nation wide "illuminations" we have come to know and love.
