McDonald's opened its first restaurant operated by Ray Kroc's company in 1955.
Kroc opened the restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, through McDonald's System, Inc. The location became the first restaurant in the system he built around the McDonald brothers' operating methods and franchise model. It is often called the first McDonald's restaurant under Kroc's organization.
The date is important in branding history because national expansion required consistent restaurant design, signage, menus, uniforms, and advertising. The company could turn the McDonald name and arches into a repeatable identity only after the operating system was adapted for many franchise locations.
This milestone is not the same as the McDonald brothers' first restaurant. Their original San Bernardino business opened in 1940, and their Speedee Service System followed in 1948. Kroc's 1955 Des Plaines restaurant represents the beginning of the corporate expansion associated with modern McDonald's.