Minecraft wiki entry for Firework_Rocket, associated text: Launching a rocket by hand on a wooden pressure plate activates it. The same doesn't hold for stone pressure plates, or for a dispenser placing a rocket onto a wooden pressure plate.
New Years 2012 is what inspired Jeb to add fireworks.[4]
If the player shoots a firework into a Nether portal, it explodes in the Nether.
There are around 2×10136 distinct fireworks.