McDonald's introduced the Big Mac in 1967, making it one of the most recognizable products in the company's brand history.
The sandwich was created by Jim Delligatti, a McDonald's franchisee who operated restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. He developed a larger hamburger with two beef patties, a middle bun layer, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and the distinctive Big Mac sauce. McDonald's first sold it in the Pittsburgh region before introducing it nationally in 1968.
The product strengthened McDonald's identity by giving the chain a signature menu item that could be named and marketed consistently. Its three-part bun and stacked construction also made it visually distinctive in advertising.
The 1967 date refers to the regional introduction, while 1968 refers to the nationwide rollout in the United States. Those dates are sometimes incorrectly treated as interchangeable. The Big Mac later became an international price-comparison reference through The Economist's Big Mac Index.