---
title: "Which came first, McDonald's or Pakistan?"
description: "McDonald's vs Pakistan: McDonald's came first, by 7 years — 1940 against 1947. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/mcdonalds-vs-pakistan/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, McDonald's or Pakistan?

**Which came first, McDonald's or Pakistan?: McDonald's**

1940 — 7 years before Pakistan

McDonald's came first, by 7 years. Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino.

## Side by side

|  | McDonald's | Pakistan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1940 | 1947 |
| Date | — | 1947-08-14 |
| Category | company | country |
| What happened | Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino. | Pakistan became independent at midnight, one day before India. |

## McDonald's

The brothers opened in 1940 as a barbecue drive-in and reinvented it in 1948 with the Speedee Service System — a tiny menu, no waiters, food assembled on a production line. The company itself dates its founding to 15 April 1955, when Ray Kroc opened his franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois. Both dates are defensible and the corporate one is not the restaurant one.

## Pakistan

Pakistan and India were created by the same act of parliament, but Mountbatten had to attend both ceremonies, so he took the Pakistani one in Karachi on 14 August and the Indian one in Delhi on the 15th. Pakistan is therefore one day older than India in the sense the question means. Independence in both cases took effect at the same instant: midnight between the two dates.

## Common questions

### Which came first, McDonald's or Pakistan?

McDonald's, by 7 years — 1940 against 1947.

### When did McDonald's start?

1940. Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino.

### When did Pakistan start?

1947. Pakistan became independent at midnight, one day before India.

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## Sources

- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]