• One legend claims that the Medici family organised a competition for the most original culinary recipes. It was won by a chicken seller (a Ruggeri) who submitted a composition of water, sugar, and fruit. It is thought that Catherine de' Medici brought Ruggeri and his ice cream arts across the Alps.
• Another half legend is about the architect Bernardo Buontalenti, who invented an iced dessert for Charles V of Spain in 1559, at a famous inaugural fest for the Belvedere Fort of Cosimo I de' Medici. His recipe is recorded as cold cream made of milk, honey, egg yolk, a sprinkle of wine, aromatised with bergamot, lemon, and orange.

• 1674: The French author Nicolas Lemery cites the first recipe in French for aromatised ice.
• 1685 - 1686: Scientist and poet Francesco Redi wrote in his poem Arianna inferma "Let cellars and ice-jugs be at the ready, and decanters packed to the neck is crystalline snow."
• 1692 - 1694: Well-organised recipes for making sorbets were written by Antonio Latini, chef du table, and director of the kitchens for a Spanish viceroy in Naples. One chapter had detailed descriptions for how to mix snow with sugar, salt, lemon juice, strawberries, cherries, and chocolate. He also mentioned a "sorbet made of cooked milk."

• 1769 - 1770: By the late 1700s, wafers rolled into a cone shape were served at the end of the meal or along with fruit and pastries.
• 1770: Giovanni Basiolo brought ice cream to New York. He sold Panera, a semi-frozen coffee and milk product popular in Genoa.
• 1775: Doctor Filippo Baldini from Naples published the book, 'Sorbets and frozen products, the medical and physical benefits.'
• 1782: Iced products are served when George Washington inaugurates the celebrations for the birth of a new heir to the French throne. Iced products were served throughout the summer at other events and became habitual.

• 1843: Nancy M. Johnson creates and patents an "artificial freezer" to make iced products. Two years later, William Young added a motor.
• 1851: Jacob Fussel poured leftover cream and milk into the 'artificial freezer,' and later opens the first ice cream factory.
• 1881: The beginning of the Sundae: cups of vanilla ice cream with various syrups and decorations on top.
• 1884: In Turin, the Gelateria Pepino ice cream parlour opens and dry ice is used to transport ice cream.

• 1896: Italo Marchioni begins to serve and sell cone-shaped wafer cups in New York. He patents his method of making them in 1903.
• 1902: In Great Britain, Antonio Valvona patented an oven for baking "biscuit cups for ice creams."
• 1904 St. Louis World Fair: Syrian Ernest A. Hamwi decided to curve his wafers to make them cone-shaped and offered them to replace ice creams sold on a plate.
• 1920: The advent of ice cream vans. Harry Burt is the first to sell strolling ice creams on a stick. He bought vans with refrigeration units to supply the whole Mahoning Valley in Ohio.
• 1923: Californian Frank Epperson patents a "frozen ice on a stick" and later named it Pop's Icle.
• 1927: Otello Cattabriga from Bologna developed a mechanical system similar for churning butter. He manufactured the "electric motor-ice-cream-makers" on an industrial scale.
• 1938: J.F. McCullough and Alex McCullough invented soft ice cream. They realised that ice cream tasted better before it was entirely frozen and developed a system that allowed more air in the ice cream.

The first ice cream factories opened in the USA before the war. In Italy, pre-confectioned ice cream was a post-war delicacy.

In recent years, home-made or artisan ice-cream has become increasingly sophisticated in technique and ingredients.