I'd always thought that fireworks (and rockets) were invented in China. But apparenty they were developed much earlier in "Magna Graecia" i.e. by Greeks in southern Italy.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrockethistory.htm (Fireworks - and all sorts of noisy explosive gimmicks - are still very popular in Naples, especially at midnight on new year's eve.) Cheers Giancarlo
