Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first McDonald's restaurant opened on the 15th of May 1940 in San Bernardino, California, founded by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. This location was situated at 1398 North E Street and began as a streamlined hamburger stand with a goal to make one million dollars before the founders turned fifty.
Ray Kroc joined the McDonald's operation on the 15th of April 1955 as a franchise agent and eventually purchased the brothers' equity in 1961 for 2.7 million dollars. The original San Bernardino restaurant was torn down in 1971 and the site was sold to the Juan Pollo chain in 1998.
In India, the company introduced millet-based buns on the 4th of September 2024 and opened its first vegetarian-only restaurant in 2012 at Amritsar. In Europe, McDonald's sells beer in Germany and France, macaroons and croissants in France, and is known as McDo in France.
McDonald's generates significant revenue from owning 70% of restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land, which is valued at an estimated 42 billion dollars. This real estate strategy makes the company the second-largest private employer in the world after Walmart with 1.7 million employees.
The McLibel case lasted ten years and resulted in a European Court of Human Rights ruling that the unequal resources of the litigants breached the defendants' rights to freedom of speech. The Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants trial awarded 2.86 million dollars to 81-year-old Stella Liebeck for third-degree burns, which was later reduced to 640,000 dollars.
McDonald's plans to add 900 restaurants in the U.S. and 10,000 more worldwide to reach 50,000 restaurants globally by 2027. The company aims to expand its loyalty program to 250 million 90-day active users and automate restaurants using artificial intelligence and Google Cloud technology.