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History of Burger King

aspect of history

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ5775463 ↗
Source-derived summary

Burger King was founded as Insta-Burger King on July 23, 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida by Keith G. Cramer and Matthew Burns, inspired by the McDonald brothers' original store in San Bernardino, California. They achieved success with Insta Broiler oven. In 1959, Miami franchisees James McLamore and David R. Edgerton purchased the company, restructured and renamed it Burger King. The brand expanded to over 250 locations in the United States, when they sold it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967. Over the following decades, Burger King underwent multiple ownership changes, including acquisitions by Grand Metropolitan (1989), Diageo, and later 3G Capital (2010), Burger King merged with Tim Hortons, forming the foundation of the multinational Restaurant Brands International.

History

Insta-Burger King

Burger King was founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, as Insta-Burger King by Keith G. Cramer and his wife's uncle, Matthew Burns. Their first stores were centered around a piece of equipment known as the Insta-Broiler, which was very effective at cooking burgers. It proved so successful that, as they grew through franchising, they required all of their franchises to carry the device.

While the Jacksonville chain kept expanding, two friends named James McLamore and David R. Edgerton, both alumni of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration were seeking an opportunity to open their own business. McLamore had visited the original hamburger stand belonging to Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California, and sensing potential in their innovative assembly line-based production system, decided to open a similar operation.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “History of Burger King” as aspect of history. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around History, Burger and King.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1953, 1959, 1967, 1989—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with History, Burger and King providing the first useful test.
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Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5775463. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1953, 1959, 1967 and 1989.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “History of Burger King” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.