Mcdonald's Timeline

1937: Richard and Maurice Mcdonald opened a barbecue restaurant in 1940, in San Bernandino, California.
1948: They turned the restaurant into a burger and milkshake drive-thru, becoming one of the first fast food restaurants.
1954-55: Ray Kroc, travelling salesman, discovers Mcdonald's and buys the rights to franchising. The next year he opens the first franchised Mcdonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois.
1956: Harry Sonneborn develops the financial model, which proposed that would own all the land that a franchised restaurant was sat on, thus creating a large real estate business which would bring in lots of profit for the company.
1959: Kroc appoints Sonneborn as the first CEO of the Mcdonald's company.
1961: Kroc buys out the entire company from the Mcdonald brothers for $2.7 million, the brothers tried to stay in business after having to rebrand to "The Big M" but were not getting customers because of a competing Mcdonald's nearby.
1962-63: Mcdonald's introduce the golden arches logo and Ronald Mcdonald, their two most iconic symbols.

Replica of the first McDonald's restaurant opened by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois; demolished in 2018.

1965: Mcdonald's company goes public and joins the New York Stock Exchange.
1967: Kroc removes Sonneborn from CEO position and appoints himself as the new one. Mcdonald's also goes international by opening their first restaurant in Canada.
1974: The first Ronald Mcdonald House opens.
1984: Ray Kroc dies.
1993: The first McCafe opens up in Australia.
1996: Mcdonald's opens up their 20,000th location, doubling the amount of locations they've had since 1988.
2000: Mcdonald's has opened up 11,000+ restaurants outside of the United States.
2022: Shares reach an all-time high in June, putting the company's market capitalization at $218 billion. McDonald's is operating a record number of restaurants, ending the year at 40,275 stores in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. It posts $6.2 billion in annual profit on $23.2 billion in revenue.