Being New Year’s Eve I was just briefly checking the history of fireworks, and noticed this quote from the wiki.
The prevailing academic consensus is that gunpowder was formulated in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality.
Once again a side-effect of scientific research spins off in directions we could never have imagined. The quest for life prompted the discovery of the greatest source of death ever known: gunpowder.
Eclipse Now 