Frank epperson popsicle inventor

Frozen desserts have been enjoyed for millennia. Ancient Roman slaves were sent up into the mountains to retrieve blocks of ice, to be crushed and served with fruit and spice syrups.

Medieval Venetial explorer Marco Polo enjoyed sorbets and ices when he traveled to the Chinese court of Kublai Khan.

Frank epperson popsicle inventor

And in the early history of the United States, Thomas Jefferson entertained many visitors to Monticello with iced sorbets and freezes.

Fast forward to 1905, when an 11-year-old boy named Frank Epperson of Oakland, California had an accidental epiphany after he inadvertently left a glass—filled with water, powdered soda mix and a wooden stick for stirring—outside overnight.

When young Frank found the glass in the morning, the soda mixture was frozen solid, so he ran the glass under hot water and removed the ice pop using the stick as a handle. Frank, who knew he'd stumbled across a great idea, kept making the pops for his friends—and when he became an adult, he made them for his own child