The biggest celebration in the area was the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks show. The 25-minute display lit up the sky over the East River, and with the Brooklyn Bridge as the backdrop, it was truly a spectacular sight witnessed by hundreds of thousands of spectators.

A look back at how Cape Girardeau’s Fourth of July celebrations have changed since the 1880s, from picnics and parades to fireworks and air shows, as chronicled in local newspaper archives.