Ernest Hamwi was selling Syrian pastry at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. When a nearby ice cream vendor ran out of dishes, Hamwi rolled some pastry into a cone so ice cream could be put inside. The ice cream cone was a huge a hit. However, an Italian immigrant named Italo Marchiony received a patent to manufacture ice cream cones earlier that same year, suggesting more than one person invented ice cream cones.