The Ruggieri family of pyrotechnicians innovated on European fireworks displays

The "green men" were among the first European pyrotechnicians

In the 1600s, men wore leaf-covered caps when handling fireworks to protect against sparks. Headgear was also worn by those helping to maintain order when leading medieval fireworks processions, often acting like jesters to entertain viewing audiences.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

Fireworks' chemical composition and internal layout produce their unique displays

The burning of different metal compounds, facilitated by combining fuel with oxidizers, results in explosions of varying colors. The timing and pattern are engineered through the arrangement of pellets and fuses.

China makes 90% of the world's fireworks, with Liuyang as its production capital

Fireworks were invented in China, but their predecessor, the firecracker, was discovered in Liuyang upon burning bamboo. Pyrotechnics have since become part of the city's culture. Liuyang has won many international fireworks display competitions.

The most fireworks launched from a pyrotechnics suit is 642

Frenchman Laurent Nat, a pyrotechnics artist and performer with over 10 years of experience, set the world record on June 13, 2014. The suit, inspired by clothes worn by professional firefighters, is made out of 100% cotton and incorporates stilts to allow fireworks to be fired in all directions.

Watch a pyrotechnician answer questions about fireworks

Professional pyrotechnician Patrick Cyrana answers the internet’s most curious questions about fireworks, from designing ghost effects and exploring how electronic firing systems work to explaining what it takes to create displays in the rain.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Fireworks make a loud booming sound after exploding due to air expanding faster than the speed of sound.

A New York fireworks ban necessitated a new way to ring in the New Year

In 1906, the city banned fireworks displays, forcing the Times Square celebration to find a new centerpiece. The Times commissioned Jacob Starr, a Ukrainian immigrant who worked for Strauss Signs, to develop an ornament. He returned with the now-iconic New Year’s ball.

The deadliest fireworks accident in history was Marie-Antoinette's wedding

In 1770, a fireworks display in Paris celebrating the marriage of Marie-Antoinette to the Dauphin, later known as Louis XVI, resulted in as many as 3,000 deaths. Most casualties were caused by trampling from a panicked crowd of thousands rushing away after some fireworks were blown into the spectators.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Fulgurites are glass sculptures made by lightning vaporizing sand

Sometimes referred to as fossilized lightning, these tube-like structures are formed when high-temperature electrical currents fuse mineral grains into crystals, which can feature branching patterns resembling filaments of current. Their name derives from "fulgur," the Latin word for lightning.

A history of raising the alarm, from rattles to 911

Because fires spread so quickly, communities around the world have deployed many tactics to raise the alarm to get help. This history from the Museum of Natural History dives into the use of rattles, bells, and brigades to gather help to fight fires, showing just how far we've come since 911 was introduced in 1968.

One of the Widow Clicquot’s many innovations was the process of riddling

Riddling involves storing Champagne bottles at an angle and methodically turning them in order to collect any sediment in the neck of the bottle. The technique—which was kept a strict secret—cut down on both time and waste, allowing the House of Clicquot to outsell its competitors for decades until word inevitably leaked and riddling became the standard.

What was the Great Fire of Rome?

In the hours between July 18 and 19 in 64 CE, the glittering capital of ancient Rome became engulfed in flames. This 46-minute podcast details the Great Fire of Rome that destroyed much of the city, according to historical literary sources. The fire burned for nine days after starting at market stalls near the Palatine Hill and the Circus Maximus, one of the city's largest chariot racing stadiums. The fire's cause remains unknown.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

The unexpected origin story of the snow globe

In 1900, a Vienna tradesman named Erwin Perzy I was attempting to invent an inexpensive way to improve light amplification in hospital operating rooms. After experimenting with a glass globe filled with water, the idea for the snow globe struck. Industrious as well as inventive, Perzy eventually turned his idea into a successful business. Read the full article to learn how the invention grew to become recognized globally.

The world's first geothermal power plant was built in 1913 in Devil's Valley

In Tuscany, Italy, Prince Piero Ginori-Conti of Trevignano established the plant nine years after creating a generator that powered five light bulbs using steam vents in the area. Within three years, a second plant was built with two generators, each with 10 times the energy output of the first.

The Medicis of Italy innovated 'bills of exchange,' precursors to checks

At the time, lending money for interest (also known as usury) was banned in much of the Christian world. The enterprising Medicis developed bills of exchange to allow merchants to promise payment without cash or coin (with some discrete means of earning interest woven in). Learn more about how this family laid the foundation for modern banking.

Marie Curie's daughter Irene discovered artificial radioactivity

The discovery continued the family's Nobel legacy by winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 alongside her husband, Frederic Joliot. Their work laid the foundation for the use of radioisotopes in medicine, agriculture, and energy production.

Tombaroli steal precious items from ancient people's tombs in central Italy

The tombaroli, or tomb-robbers, raid ancient Etruscan tombs in the dark hours of the night to recover vases, statuettes, mirrors, ornaments, jewellery, and other objects in gold, bronze, and terracotta. Read a firsthand account of a tombarolo who made a living handing stolen items to middlemen who sold them to wealthy buyers abroad. The lives and practices of tombaroli are also explored in the 2023 film "La Chimera."

Chromium contaminants in a ruby crystal gave the world's first laser its red color

The red light originates from a long-lasting excited electron state in the element's atomic structure. The brittle gray metal has historically been used in pigment production, the manufacturing of rust-resistant stainless steel, and the creation of durable coatings with long-lasting shine for metals, wood, and leather.

Photography was invented by a romantic artist

The invention of photography changed the landscape of art forever. The first photographs were created by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, a romantic era printmaker, by using light and chemistry to expand upon images produced by the earlier camera obscura.

Renaissance Faire's provide an escape into the late medieval world

These cultural events (roughly 300 distinct fairs in the US) stem from the original festival in Los Angeles in 1963. Long viewed as a hippie festival, the fests attract eclectic fans—historians, craftworkers, dramatists and drinkers. Listen to a quick survey of the festival's surprising origins.

Artist Raphael was one of the three supreme masters of the High Renaissance

Raphael was a prolific and versatile painter who worked as a sponge, adopting the practices of other great painters while making them his own. Thanks to his creating many iterations of the same scene, we can analyze how his mastery evolved over his career.

Le Crueset's France factory makes 10,000 of its $400 cast-iron pots each day

After nearly going bankrupt in the 1980s, the company expanded its color options and product line to boost sales—something that's also fueled the brand's fanaticism. The Le Crueset Dutch oven was among Julia Child's kitchen staples, and the 2009 hit "Julie & Julia" reintroduced Child's famous Dutch oven to a new generation, resulting in a sales boom.

'Romeo and Juliet' was based on a preexisting narrative poem

Arthur Brooke's "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" was first published in 1562 and shares many details with Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare wasn't alone in his borrowing; Brooke's poem was based on other earlier Italian stories. None of this writing was considered fan fiction—copyright law didn't exist, and stories were regularly cribbed from preexisting sources.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity

The plants were grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

The agricultural origins of paintball guns

The paintball field industry—where players compete in pseudo-battle using the (minimally) harmless guns—is worth over $1 billion annually, and it continues to grow. This fun piece breaks down the relatively recent history of the industry by...

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

The board game Risk was created by an Academy Award-winning screenwriter.

See images of medical cases of firework injuries shared on this 'Instagram for doctors.' (Warning: Graphic content)

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.