Timeline

* 1930
	+ Harland Sanders, having worked through several different jobs, buys out a Shell gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky. He turns it into a restaurant called Sanders Court, and would serve ham, pork steaks, and fried chicken. The chicken would become very popular among his customers, making Sanders a local celebrity.

* 1935
	+ Ruby Lafoon names Sanders an honorary Kentucky Colonel.
* 1940
	+ Sanders perfects his 11 herbs and spices.
* 1946
	+ Glen Bell, having seen the horrors of WWII first hand, opens a hot dog stand in San Bernardino to bring happiness in his life.
	+ He would eat regularly at the nearby Mexican restaurant, the Mitla Cafe, and reverse-engineer their taco recipe. This would lead to him befriending the owners, who would show him the art of taco making.
* 1951
	+ Bell would sell his hot dog stand and start opening up a taco stand.
* 1952
	+ Sanders franchises his recipe to Pete Harman in Salt Lake City, Utah. Harman would come up with the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken", and later trademark the tagline "It's finger lickin' good."
* 1955
	+ Bell's taco stand would become known as Taco Tia.
* 1956
	+ Sanders would get six other franchisees onboard.
	+ He would sell his failing North Corbin restaurant as a result of Interstate 75.
	+ He would start touring the U.S. for more restaurants franchising his recipe.
* 1958
	+ Dan and Frank Carney, inspired by the existence of pizza parlors, form one of their own on the Wichita State University campus. They call it the Pizza Hut.
	+ Taco Tia would get its name changed to El Taco. Bell, an independent person and already being a minority shareholder, would eventually sell his stake.
* 1959
	+ The Carney brothers gain their first franchise contract in Topeka.
* 1960
	+ Sanders has about 200 franchised restaurants.
* 1962
	+ Bell would open the very first Taco Bell in Downey, California.
* 1963
	+ KFC has 600 restaurants, making it the largest fast food operation at this time.
* 1964
	+ The 74-year-old Sanders would sell his company to John Brown and gain $2,000,000 as a result.
	+ The first Taco Bell franchise opens in Torrance in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County.
* 1966
	+ Pizza Hut has over 145 restaurants.
	+ Between 1966 and 1971, the Carney brothers go international and form restaurants in Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, and the U.K.
* 1970
	+ Taco Bell, having opened 325 franchised restaurants, gets a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
* 1971
	+ Pizza Hut has 1,000 restaurants, making them the largest pizza chain in the world.
	+ Brown sells KFC to Heublein.
* 1972
	+ Pizza Hut gets a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
* 1977
	+ PepsiCo acquires Pizza Hut.
* 1978
	+ PepsiCo acquires Taco Bell.
* 1982
	+ R.J. Reynolds buys out Heublein.
* 1986
	+ PepsiCo buys out KFC for $850,000,000.
* 1989
	+ PepsiCo, bearing its three acquired restaurant chains, Pepsi, and Frito-Lay as its core brands, would start providing funds for the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour.
* 1993
	+ PepsiCo would end its days of financing PBS.
* 1997
	+ PepsiCo spins off the three chains as a separate company, leading to the establishment of Tricon Global Restaurants.
* 2000
	+ Ameriserve Food Distribution, the main supplier for Tricon, files for bankruptcy.
* 2002
	+ Tricon would merge with Yorkshire Global Restaurants to become Yum! Brands.
	+ Yum! would purchase A&W and Long John Silver's.
	+ A co-branding strategy would begin, leading to hybrid restaurants like a KFC/Taco Bell combo in places like San Francisco, a KFC/A&W combo in places like Sacramento County, a Pizza Hut/Taco Bell combo, a KFC/Long John Silver's combo in Springfield, Missouri, etc. There are even combos of the core three restaurants that are referred to as "Kentacohuts".
* 2011
	+ Yum! Brands would spin-off A&W and Long John Silver's as their own companies.
* 2013
	+ An Avian Flu epidemic would take place in mainland China, one of the many places where Yum! Brands is successful.
* 2016
	+ Yum! Brands spins off its Chinese restaurants as their own company, resulting in the creation of Yum! China.
* 2020
	+ Yum! Brands buys out The Habit.