15 May 1940: McDonald’s first restaurant opens

In 1940 two brothers, Maurice and Richard McDonald, set up a fast food restaurant in San Bernardino, naming it "McDonald's Bar-B-Q". Eight years later they streamlined the menu to focus on a few key items, such as burgers, fries and milkshakes. They also dropped the second part of the name, renaming their restaurant McDonald's.

Then in 1952 the brothers commissioned architect Stanley Meston to produce an efficient, modern design, with the location of every piece of equipment planned out beforehand.

Armed with this concept, they began to seek out franchisees. While they quickly found several takers, it wasn't until Ray Kroc (who had sold milkshake machines to the original branch) suggested nationwide franchising that McDonald's really began to take off.

MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

After securing franchising rights for most of the United States in return for a 1.9% royalty on gross sales, Kroc set up McDonald's Corporation. Frustrated with the brothers' lack of ambition, Kroc later purchased the entire business from them. On 21 April 1965, he listed the company on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1967 the first international branch opened in British Columbia, Canada, and by 1968 McDonald's had 1,000 restaurants.International expansion in Asia and Europe began in 1971. During the 1980s the company managed to fend off the competition from rival chains, while continuing to expand: branches in Moscow and Shenzhen opened in 1990. But more recently, criticism that the company's food is unhealthy and causes obesity has resulted in falling sales.

However, McDonald's has made investors rich. While the price of a Big Mac, which debuted in 1967, has gone up just over ten-fold from $0.45 to $4.79 (in the US), the adjusted stock price is now 488 times its value in 1970.