At first glance you might think that there could not possibly be anything in common between a 13th century festival in China and the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. However there is a link and that is that they both relied on the use of rockets.
The Chinese first developed rockets by filling bamboo tubes with an explosive made from saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur. The sealed tubes would be thrown onto fires during celebrations because it was thought that the loud explosions would protect them. When these tubes were not perfectly sealed though they would fly out of the fire and could explode some distance away. It wasn’t long before the ancient Chinese realised the military potential of these devices and primitive rockets were used to repel a Mongol invasion in 1232 AD. Word of these amazing new weapons quickly spread around the world and soon rockets were being used in military operations in North Africa and Europe. During the 15th and 16th centuries they were widely used in naval battles to set fire to enemy ships. Around this time they also started being used for more peaceful purposes again. In 16th and 17th century Europe firework displays using rockets became a very popular form of public entertainment.