The company began as a barbecue restaurant. In 1948, it was reorganized as a hamburger stand.

McDonald's was founded in the United States in 1940.

The original mascot of McDonald's was "Speedee", a man with a chef's hat on top of a hamburger-shaped head. Speedee was eventually replaced with Ronald McDonald.

According to McDonald's, Chicken McNuggets come in four shapes: the bell, the bow-tie, the ball and the boot.

The first Happy Meal promotion was the Star Trek Meal, to promote Star Trek: The Motion Picture in December 1979. The packaging consisted of various images and games related to the film, as well as a comic strip adaptation of the film. Consumers had to buy numerous meals in order to complete the set.

The business began with a restaurant opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald.

The first McDonald's was located at 1398 North E Street at West 14th Street in San Bernardino, California.

Originally, Grimace was the "Evil Grimace", with two pairs of arms with which to steal milkshakes. After that first campaign, the character was revised to be one of the "good guys", and his number of arms was reduced by two.

Businessman Ray Kroc joined the company as a franchise agent in 1955. He subsequently purchased the chain from the McDonald brothers and oversaw its worldwide growth.

Although he was originally a trollish old man, Hamburglar was revised in 1985 as a red-head Dennis the Menace-type child.