when did mcdonald's open

McDonald’s first restaurant opened on May 15, 1940, in San Bernardino, California, run by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald.

Quick Scoop: What “opened” means here

When people ask “when did McDonald’s open,” they sometimes mean different milestones:

• The original McDonald brothers’ restaurant: May 15, 1940, San Bernardino, California (called McDonald’s Bar-B-Que / McDonald’s Famous Barbecue).

• The first Ray Kroc McDonald’s (start of the modern corporation): 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois.

So if you just want the classic trivia answer to “when did McDonald’s open,” it’s 1940 —that’s when the first McDonald’s restaurant opened its doors.

The global fast‑food giant of today traces back to that single 1940 drive‑in, later transformed into the streamlined burger operation that inspired Ray Kroc’s franchising push.

TL;DR: McDonald’s opened its first restaurant on May 15, 1940, in San Bernardino, California; the modern franchise era kicked off with Ray Kroc’s Des Plaines location in 1955.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.