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Think you know all about fast food? Here are fast facts about our cultural favorite.

1. In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food. In 2006, the spending rose to nearly $142 billion.

2. The first located printed reference to hamburgers appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 1894.

3. In 1949, Forrest Raffel and his younger brother Leroy created a restaurant that sold roast beef sandwiches. They spelled out the initials “Raffel Brothers (RB) to create the name “Arby’s.”

4. The popularization of the drive-thru led car manufacturers in the 1990s to install cup holders in the dashboards. As fast food drinks became larger, so did the cup holders.

5. Carl Karcher of Anaheim, California, launched Carl’s Jr in 1956. They were mini versions of the restaurant he already owned and, hence, he called them Carl’s Jr.

6. French fries are the single most popular fast food in America. In 1970, french fries surpassed regular potato sales in the United States. In 2004, Americans ate 7.5 billion pounds of frozen french fries.

7. Today, Americans consume approximately 70 million “tater tots” a year. They were created to utilize potato shreds left over from french fry production.

8. In-N-Out Burger is one of the few fast food restaurants that actually slice each potato by hand shortly before it is placed in the deep fryer.

9. By the end of the twentieth century, one out of eight American workers had at some time been employed by McDonald’s and 96% of Americans had visited McDonald’s at least once. It was also serving an estimated 22 million Americans every day and even more abroad.

10. The first McDonald’s mascot was “Speedee,” a little chef with a hamburger hat. McDonald’s later settled on the iconic Ronald McDonald—and today 96% of American children recognize him.

For more fun facts, check out http://facts.randomhistory.com/