Short answers, pulled from the story.
Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald founded McDonald's, opening the first location at 1398 North E Street in San Bernardino, California, on the 15th of May 1940. Their original goal was to earn $1 million before they turned 50.
The Speedee Service System was introduced by the McDonald brothers in 1948 to streamline service through speed, lower prices, and volume. It involved firing carhops, eliminating silverware and plates, and reducing the menu to nine items, including hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and three soft drink flavors in one 12-ounce size.
Ray Kroc joined McDonald's as a franchise agent, opening his first location on the 15th of April 1955. He purchased the McDonald brothers' equity in 1961 for $2.7 million, and is described in the source as an aggressive partner who drove the brothers out of the industry. The corporation now credits Kroc's 1955 store as its official founding location.
The Big Mac Index is an informal economic measure used by The Economist newspaper that compares the price of a Big Mac across world currencies to gauge purchasing power parity. As of July 2015, Switzerland had the world's most expensive Big Mac and India the least expensive.
McDonald's had operated in Russia since 1990 and held 438 stores there by August 2014. In March 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, McDonald's closed and sold all 850 Russian locations. The new owner reopened them under the name Vkusno i tochka, with a condition that McDonald's branding could not be used.
The McLibel case began after London Greenpeace distributed a critical leaflet in 1990 and McDonald's sued two activists who refused to retract their statements. The trial called 130 witnesses and lasted ten years, making it one of the longest cases in English civil law. The European Court of Human Rights later ruled that the unequal resources of the parties had breached the defendants' right to free speech.