Founding of McDonald's

McDonald's began as a drive-in restaurant opened in San Bernardino, California, by the brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. In the late 1940s they simplified the menu, speeded up service with an assembly-line kitchen, and became successful with the Speedee Service System. The salesman Ray Kroc, who supplied their milkshake machines, became their franchising agent in 1954, opened his own outlet near Chicago, and later bought them out. He turned the chain into a global network of franchises, which spread the fast food model worldwide. McDonald's became one of the best-known brands and a symbol of globalisation and, to critics, of unhealthy diets.

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