Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's restaurant he franchised in 1955.
Kroc opened the Des Plaines, Illinois, location on April 15, 1955. It became the ninth McDonald's restaurant overall and the first outlet created under Kroc's franchise organization. The site later became important to McDonald's corporate history and was reconstructed as a museum.
Kroc had encountered the McDonald brothers' restaurant while selling them multimixer machines. Impressed by their efficient kitchen system, he obtained the rights to franchise the concept beyond the brothers' existing California locations.
The 1955 opening is sometimes mistaken for the founding of McDonald's itself. Richard and Maurice McDonald had opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino in 1940, and they created the Speedee Service System in 1948.