Eskimo Pie Day is observed worldwide every January 24, celebrating the chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar known as Eskimo Pie. The treat was invented by schoolteacher and candy store owner Christian Kent Nelson in Onawa, Iowa, who was inspired by a boy unable to choose between a chocolate bar and ice cream. Nelson experimented with ways to adhere melted chocolate to ice cream bars and initially sold his creation as “I-Scream Bars.” In 1921, he collaborated with chemist Russel William Stover, who improved the chocolate coating and renamed the product Eskimo Pie. Nelson received a patent for Eskimo Pie on January 24, 1922, which is now marketed by Nestlé, with various companies licensed to produce chocolate-covered ice cream under the same name. In some regions, such as the former Soviet republics and France, the term "Eskimo" has become a generic term for chocolate-covered ice cream on a wooden stick.