While initially founded by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald as a Bar-B-Q restaurant in San Bernardino, California back in 1940, McDonald’s became the fast-food giant that we know it as today in 1955 when the first official McDonald’s franchise restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois. A year prior, salesman Ray Kroc had visited the McDonald’s in San Bernardino intending to sell the brothers more multimixers.
But Krok, then 52, found himself fascinated by the self-service drive-in restaurant and when he learned that the brothers were looking for a nationwide franchising agent his fate was sealed. On April 15, 1955 McDonald’s welcomed customers into its flagship franchise restaurant…