The very first Independence Day celebration in 1777, was celebrated with fireworks.  Unlike today’s firework celebrations, they were only one color – orange.  Fireworks were originally discovered around 200 BC, in China, when sticks of green bamboo were thrown into the fire.  The air trapped in the hollow segments caused the bamboo to expand and crack, creating loud, cracking sounds.  Modern Fireworks were invented in 800 AD, when an alchemist mixed sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (a food preservative) hoping to find the secret to eternal life. Instead, the mixture caught on fire, and gunpowder was born! When the powder was packed into bamboo or paper tubes and lit on fire, history had its first fireworks!