At least 40 years ago in southern rural Texas there was an unbelievably loud boom which I thought was thunder until I looked at the cloudless blue sky. The second most perplexing thing about it to me as young teenager was how unfazed my sleeping dad was. I wanted empathy for the alarm I felt.
I haven't thought about it in years but that used to be one of the sounds of freedom...a sonic boom. Used to hear a lot of those when I was younger.