The first McDonald’s restaurant was started by Maurice and Richard McDonald in 1948 in San Bernardino, CA. Appliance salesman Ray Kroc was impressed with the business model created by the two brothers and offered to open another restaurant. The McDonald brothers agreed and Kroc opened up the first McDonald’s franchise in 1955. At the same time, the McDonald’s Corporation was created.
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.
62 words
Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "First McDonald's opened". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=3289, accessed 10 June 2026.]
