Tuesday is Free Cone Day at Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen is ringing in the summer season before spring even arrives with Free Cone Day on March 15.

All customers at participating locations will receive a free small vanilla soft-serve ice cream cone.

In the spirit of giving, Dairy Queen will accept donations for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, which the company has sponsored since 1984.

Tuesday might just be warm enough to fully enjoy Free Cone Day, with the National Weather Service predicting a high near the mid-60s and showers likely.

Founded in Joliet, Sherb Noble opened the first Dairy Queen on June 22, 1940, at 501 N. Chicago St. in Joliet. Though that location hasn’t been a Dairy Queen since the 1950s, the building still stands as a city landmark.

Soft-serve ice cream was developed in Illinois by a friend of Noble’s, a gent named John Fremont “Grandpa” McCullough, along with his son Bradley, in 1938. They sold the frozen treat at a store Noble owned in North Dakota, and on the first day sold 1,600 servings. They opened the first Dairy Queen two years later in Joliet.

The company is headquartered today in Edina, Minnesota, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

For locations near you, visit the Dairy Queen website.