When Phandroid reader Bennett Todd [Thanks!] sent in a Phantip saying today’s Google Doodle hinted that perhaps an Android Ice Cream announcement was imminent, I rushed to check it out. Indeed, the April 3rd Google Doodle features two “Ice Cream Sundaes” as the O’s in Google.

Unfortunately, if you mouse over the image, you get the true reason why today’s Google Doodle includes Ice Cream:

119th Anniversary of the First Documented Ice Cream Sundae

Indeed, a quick all-knowing Wikipedia entry shows that April 3rd is the Ice Cream Sundae Anniversary:

Supporting Ithaca’s claim, researchers at The History Center in Tompkins County, New York, provide an account of how the sundae came to be: On Sunday, April 3, 1892 in Ithaca, John M. Scott, a Unitarian Church minister, and Chester Platt, co-owner of Platt & Colt Pharmacy, created the first historically documented sundae.[4][5] Platt covered dishes of ice cream with cherry syrup and candied cherries on a whim. The men named the dish “Cherry Sunday” in honor of the day it was created. The oldest-known written evidence of a sundae is Platt & Colt’s newspaper ad for a “Cherry Sunday” placed in the Ithaca Daily Journal on April 5, 1892. By May, 1892, the Platt & Colt soda fountain also served “Strawberry Sundays,” and later, “Chocolate Sundays.” Platt & Colt’s “Sundays” grew so popular that by 1894, Chester Platt attempted to trademark the term ice cream “Sunday.”[6];

But in that very same article, stories from Evanston, Illinois and Two Rivers, Wisconsin claim THEY invented the Ice Cream Sundae in 1890 and 1881 respectively. The Ithaca story is from 1892. The folks from Ithaca have refuted one of the stories and keep in mind that Google states “First Documented” Ice Cream Sundae not the first one to invent the Ice Cream Sundae, so now age old disputes are getting solved here.

It appears as though this is more of a coincidence than anything else. I wouldn’t expect an Ice Cream announcement before Google IO, but when it is announced, I’m now wondering if Google will go with Ice Cream Sundae instead of the previously rumored Ice Cream or Ice Cream Sandwich. Afterall… they’ve got to put SOMETHING in that lawn of theirs!