Profile America: about a gastronomic milestone

Washington / DC. (gov) April 15 marked the 62nd anniversary of the opening of a small hamburger restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. It was the first of what would become one of the world’s best-recognized brand names – McDonald’s. The franchise shop belonged to Ray Kroc, whose main interest at the time was selling the machines that mixed milkshakes. The name came from two McDonald brothers who ran a hamburger shop in California. The first day’s revenue at the Illinois outlet was 366.12 USD. That shop is now a museum housing artifacts from the growth of the chain. In the U.S. today, there are nearly a quarter-million fast-food outlets serving hamburgers and other comestibles, with earnings of over 185 billion USD per year – according to the U.S. Census Bureau.