Seventy years ago this week, a hamburger joint named McDonald’s opened in northwest suburban Des Plaines. No one except for its Oak Park-raised owner Ray Kroc may have believed the tiny to-go place ...

At the age of 52, Ray Kroc discovered a small but effective hamburger stand owned by the McDonald brothers in 1954. At the time, Kroc was selling milkshake machines. However, he was impressed by ...

The first McDonald's franchise opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955. By the 1970s, McDonald's had grown into an increasingly popular fast-food establishment. The Quarter Pounder ...

Ray Kroc bought the original McDonald's from the McDonald brothers after visiting in 1954 and founded McDonald's as we know it in 1955. The San Bernardino, California, location sold burgers for 15 ...

Jacob Bunge is deputy bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal’s Chicago corporate news bureau, which covers agriculture, food companies, restaurants, manufacturing and airlines.

Though Ray Kroc is credited with the meteoric rise of McDonald’s around the world, Richard and Maurice “Mac” McDonald started the fast-food burger joint in San Bernardino, California.

Ray Kroc transformed a small family-owned burger stand into McDonald's, the world's biggest fast-food empire. A McDonald's restaurant in New Zealand is inside a decommissioned plane. See inside it ...