McDonald's modern striped “M” logo with the arches joined at the bottom debuted in 1968.
The 1968 logo refined the earlier Golden Arches symbol into a more unified corporate mark. Its joined arches formed a clear M, while the striped treatment gave the symbol a distinctive appearance for signs, packaging, and printed advertising.
This logo followed the 1962 design associated with Jim Schindler, which first combined the two arches into an M-like form. The later 1968 version should therefore be understood as a major refinement, not the beginning of the arches themselves.
Dates are often mixed up because McDonald's changed its architecture, typography, and logo treatments several times. The arches originated as restaurant-building features in the 1950s, while the recognizable corporate M developed through later redesigns.