A forgotten 1776 celebration launched America’s booming fireworks tradition
America’s 250th anniversary gives Americans an opportunity to discover important stories that led to our nation’s birth. One lesser-known event takes something highly familiar to us today — fireworks — and shows something that is often forgotten—the tyranny and grievances leading to American independence in the first place.
Though fireworks displays are highly popular on July 4 each year, behind the fun and frivolity is an origin story that surprisingly started not on July 4 but on May 16, 1776, which I wrote about in my new book, A Great and Grateful Nation: From Grievance to Gratitude and my children’s book, First Fireworks for Independence. This makes May 16, 2026 the 250th anniversary of America’s fireworks tradition.
Weeks before the Continental Congress declared independence from England, 112 men throughout Virginia gathered in Williamsburg for an important meeting. Among them were the up-and-coming James Madison and George Washington’s brother, John Augustine Washington. General Washington was with the army in New York at the time.
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Why did they meet? Virginians everywhere were living in chaos in 1776. Gone was their legislative body, the House of Burgesses. The royal governor had disbanded it. Similar to the plight of the Iranian people today, the government that did exist was attacking them. Lord Dunmore, Virginia’s royal governor, was terrorizing Virginians. Aboard an armed ship, he was traveling through the rivers burning farms and murdering citizens.
"By a late act all these colonies are declared to be in rebellion, and out of the protection of the British Crown, our properties subjected to confiscation," the Virginians wrote in the resolution they adopted on May 15, 1776.
Less than a year earlier in July 1775, the Continental Congress had sent King George III an olive branch petition seeking to "restore peace and security to America under the British government." Refusing to read it, the king had declared war instead.
These Virginians wrote in their 1776 resolution that "instead of a redress of grievances" from the king’s "imperious and vindictive administration" the British military had instead "increased insult, oppression, and a vigorous attempt to affect our total destruction."
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Their choices were dire. "In this state of extreme danger, we have no alternative left but an abject submission to the will of those overbearing tyrants or a total separation from the crown and government of Great Britain."
Voting unanimously to declare Virginia independent from England, they called on the Continental Congress to do the same for the 13 colonies.
"That the delegates appointed to represent this colony in General Congress [the Continental Congress] be instructed to propose to that respectable body TO DECLARE THE UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES."
These Virginians celebrated the next day. On May 16, 1776, the militia paraded through Williamsburg. Offering toasts to General Washington and for an American victory, they held a feast. They also replaced the British flag atop of the governor’s palace with the Grand Union Flag, which featured something new: 13 red and white stripes to represent the 13 colonies.
Best of all, they ended the day in a spectacular way with golden fireworks that night. "…[T]he evening concluded with illuminations [fireworks], and other demonstrations of joy, everyone seeming pleased that the domination of Great Britain was now at an end, so wickedly and tyrannically exercised for these twelve or thirteen years past, notwithstanding our repeated prayers and remonstrances of redress."
Their exuberance reflected their gratitude for uniting together and taking this courageous step. Over the next several weeks, 13 newspapers, including four Pennsylvania newspapers, reported on Virginia’s festivities, which may have inspired John Adams to predict how independence would be celebrated everywhere once the Continental Congress declared independence.
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Adams wrote that the "memorable epoch in the history of America … will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more."
When the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, they turned the 13 colonies into the 13 United States of America. What did the Virginians do when they heard the news? They launched fireworks again in Williamsburg.
A year later on July 4, 1777, the nation’s first anniversary, the people of Boston and Philadelphia launched fireworks to celebrate independence for the first time there. More cities joined in until fireworks became the rule, not the exception, for how Americans rejoice each year on July 4.
As the United States celebrates 250 years of independence in 2026, remembering the founding generation’s grievances and the origin of fireworks helps us to be grateful for the founders’ courage to declare independence in the first place. As we make America great again today, these stories go a long way to show what made America great in the first place, which is something to celebrate.