The St. Louis World’s Fair (also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) ran for seven months in 1904 and saw the introduction of a number of foods we still eat today. These included hamburgers, hot dogs, peanut butter, cotton candy, and ice cream cones.
Several people in attendance at the fair claim to have been the first to create edible containers for ice cream, but Charles Menches is often considered the inventor. According to Menches, while at the fair on July 23, he watched little girls put their ice cream into the holes of small cakes. Inspired, he ran to the nearest confectioner’s booth and bought a round cake (some accounts say a waffle), rolled it around his finger and then filled it with ice cream.
Whether Menches was indeed the first can be disputed, but it’s widely accepted that the ice cream cone, or “cornucopia,” was born and became popular at the St. Louis World’s Fair.
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Formally known as Mr. Softee but his friends just called him Nutty Buddy.