Croissants

The origin of the Croissant dates back to 13th century Austria, and it was originally called a Kipferl. The story goes that a city (possibly Vienna) was under siege from the Turks. A baker was up early, mixing his bread dough to bake when he heard a faint rumbling sound, which, upon investigation, was revealed to be a Turkish attempt to tunnel under the walls. After the tunnel was destroyed, the baker asked that he have exclusive rights to bake a crescent-shaped pastry to commemorate the incident, and thus the croissant was born!

Later, an Austrian officer, one August Zang, opened a Viennese bakery in Paris. The kipferl proved to be extremely popular, causing the bakery to experiment, adding things to the generic pastry, and the name was changed to Croissant due to the crescent shape.