The Fourth of July is arguably the holiday Americans enjoy celebrating the most. After all, they've been celebrating the birth of our nation for a long, long time.

Did you know that Massachusetts held the first official state Independence Day celebration in 1781 and that the first advertisement for fireworks appeared in a New York City newspaper in 1800, followed by the first public Fourth of July reception at the White House a year later? By July 4, 1876, centennial celebrations were held all throughout the U.S. as well as abroad.

But as history shows, dark times curtailed national celebrations, but never dulled the American...