Cones made from rolled, baked wafers are very old, but nobody knows when they first held ice cream. Early 19th-century France is a candidate, and cone recipes appeared in French cookbooks by 1825. The earliest clear record is an 1888 English cookbook by Agnes B. Marshall, whose cornet with cream recipe is often credited as the origin of the modern cone. Cones took off in the United States after 1902, when Italian inventors patented waffle moulds for ice cream cups. The most famous story says that at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, Syrian vendor Ernest Hamwi rolled a waffle into a cone when a neighbouring seller ran out of paper cups. Other vendors, including Abe Doumar in Norfolk, Virginia, also claim the idea, so the true inventor remains disputed.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.