McDonald’s introduced the Big Mac in 1967.
The sandwich was created by Jim Delligatti, a McDonald’s franchisee who operated restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. Its distinctive structure used two beef patties, a middle slice of bread, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and Big Mac sauce on a three-part sesame-seed bun.
The Big Mac became one of McDonald’s most recognizable products and eventually a useful symbol for comparing prices between countries. The Economist’s Big Mac Index uses the sandwich as an informal measure of purchasing-power differences, although the index is not an official currency standard.
The Big Mac is sometimes dated to 1968 because that was the year it became available nationwide in the United States. Its initial introduction occurred in 1967, before the national rollout.