Chick-fil-A history

In 1949, Ben Cathy was killed in a plane crash along with a third brother, Horace.

Now Truett had to run Dwarf House on his own, and in 1951 he opened a second restaurant in the nearby town of Forest Park.

In 1961, after 15 years in the fast food business, Cathy found a pressure-fryer that could cook the chicken sandwich in the same amount of time it took to cook a fast-food hamburger.

In 1963 Cathy decided to give them a name in order to market the product.

But before the explosive growth of 1971-74, several key aspects of Chick-fil-A's corporate philosophy would develop.

That's why since 1973, Chick-fil-A has given more than $35 million in college scholarships to Chick-fil-A restaurant team members wishing to pursue higher education.

Cathy, who chose not to receive a salary in 1982 in order not to force a pay cut on employees, called a special meeting of the chain's executive committee.

The program began in 1983, when he learned that Berry College in Rome, Georgia, would have to close down part of its campus that housed Berry Academy, for children in grades five through 12.

Three years later, in 1985, Chick-fil-A introduced its Dwarf House line, named after the original restaurant, which offered customers a choice of sit-down family dining or carryout.

The first freestanding location was opened April 16, 1986, on North Druid Hills Road in Atlanta, Georgia, and the company began to focus more on this stand-alone type unit rather than on the food court type.

The fact of this steady repeat clientele engendered in Truett an awareness of what would become a key element of Chick-fil-A's success: as he stated it in his 1989 book It's Easier to Succeed Than to Fail, "Word of mouth in the food business is more important than any other source of advertising.

The company has produced TV commercials, print ads and highway billboards since 1994 with cows holding up signs that say, "Eat More Chicken," or rather, "EAT MOR CHIKIN," suggesting that cows might have trouble with spelling.

Before the "Eat mor Chikin" cows, who debuted in 1995, the chicken that is still featured in the chain's logo was Chick-Fil-A's mascot.

Starting with a 1996 LPGA golf tournament, the company has sponsored a number of sports activities, most notably the Peach Bowl football game, for which it signed a multiyear contract in 1996.

Within six months, sales by the reinvigorated chain had increased by more than 40 percent, and "From that point on," Cathy recalled in 1997, "Chick-fil-A seemed to enjoy one success after another."

In 2008, Chick-fil-A became the first fast-food restaurant to become completely trans-fat free.

He came out in opposition to same-sex marriage in 2012, and it turned out that his WinShape Foundation charity had funneled millions of dollars to political organizations that took a stand against gay rights.