World’s Fair®

The ice cream cone — the ultimate edible container — debuted by happy accident at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, where a waffle vendor rolled his pastries into cones to help out an overrun ice cream stand. And just like that, handheld joy was born.

The sundae’s story begins with a clever workaround: in the late 1800s, some soda fountains were barred from selling soda on Sundays, so they simply replaced the fizz with chocolate or fruit syrup over scoops of ice cream — creating the earliest sundaes and turning a restriction into a crowd pleasing novelty.

Before ice cream trucks and freezer cases, early novelty treats were sold by “hokey pokey” men — street vendors who roamed neighborhoods with pushcarts, offering small scoops and simple confections to crowds eager for portable sweetness long before modern novelties existed.

In 1920, a boy who couldn’t decide between buying ice cream or a chocolate bar inspired Christian Kent Nelson to combine the two — leading to the invention of the first chocolate covered ice cream bar. By 1922, the treat was such a sensation it was selling a million bars a day, proving handheld novelties were destined for stardom.

In 1928, a Texas candy factory accidentally dropped an ice cream filled cone into melted chocolate and then onto a counter of chopped nuts, creating the first Drumstick. When someone noticed the finished treat looked a bit like a chicken leg, the nickname stuck just as fast as the chocolate shell.

In 1905, eleven year old Frank Epperson accidentally froze a cup of soda with a stirring stick still inside, discovering what would become the Popsicle. He patented the recipe in 1924, and the frozen treat soon became a summertime staple.