Cheeseburger day is celebrated annually on September 18th. This celebration of one of the most iconic and delicious foods of the USA has been taking place every year since the early part of the Roaring 20s era.

Cheeseburger day is marked in a number of different ways. One of the most common ways it’s celebrated is by major and local fast-food chains offering free cheeseburgers to customers alongside other special offers. Usually, the free offers have some sort of limit to prevent people from taking advantage of the generosity. This may be limiting the free cheeseburgers to one per customer, to only the first ten thousand visitors to the fast food store, or through making them available only for a one or two hour period on the day.

To mark the day, many burger makers will use their creativity and culinary skills to make new variations on the traditional cheeseburger. This usually involves using premium types of cheese, other meats, and a variety of unusual garnishes.

The cheeseburger was invented by Lionel Sternberger. Or so the story goes.

“Legend has it that young Lionel Sternberger was working at his father’s roadside stand when he burned one side of a burger,” says Little. The stories about Sternberger offer two reasons as to why he might have topped the burger with cheese. “Rather than throw it away, he covered the error with cheese and served it to a delighted customer. Or, a hobo came by the stand and wanted as much as he could get for his 15¢ and asked for everything possible on it, including cheese.”

Whatever the real story might be, that little burger with cheese became a regular fixture on the menu. It was called the “Aristocratic Hamburger: The Original Hamburger with Cheese.” “Sternberger was supposed to have a pretty sharp sense of humor, which could explain the Aristocratic Burger title,” says Little. It seems to be a happy coincidence that Lionel Sternberger was responsible for the first cheeseburger.

‘Burger’ is actually a stripped name. The actual name is Hamburger. The name Hamburger was derived from Hamburg steaks that were introduced to the US by German immigrants. Hamburgers weren’t really much popular until its introduction at St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

The World’s Tiniest Cheeseburger Is Made in Japan. Okay, so this “fact” doesn’t exactly come with a stamp of approval from the Guinness World Records. But it is a totally edible delight to behold. The Japanese YouTube channel Miniature Space has made everything from teeny-weeny potato chips to minuscule ramen. And, most relevant for us, the cheeseburger.

• Each year, Americans eat a whopping 50 billion burgers, or three burgers a week. That’s a lot of beef!
  Hamburgers and cheeseburgers account for 71 percent of beef served in commercial hotels in the United States.
• McDonald’s sells 75 hamburgers a second.
• While the hamburger was coined in New Haven, the cheeseburger claim to fame is found in Denver. Louis Ballast of Humpty Dumpty Drive was awarded the trademark in 1935.
• The Jimmy Buffet song “Cheeseburger in Paradise” was first inspired by a boat trip that he took. The trip was hampered by bad weather and he was forced to eat nothing but canned food and peanut butter that was aboard the boat and he found himself craving a cheeseburger.
• The most expensive burger sold in America is sold from the New York City food truck 666 Burger. The $666 burger is wrapped in a gold leaf, topped with lobster, caviar, truffles, foie gras, and aged gruyere cheese melted with steam from champagne poured on a hot griddle. The good thing is you get $300 back, as the burger comes wrapped in three greasy $100 bills.
• The biggest cheeseburger ever was cooked by a Minnesota casino in 2012 and weighed 2,014 pounds. It required a special oven, a crane, and a special bun that had to be baked for seven hours.
• During the First World War, the U.S. Government tried to rename burgers as “Liberty Sandwiches” in order to promote patriotism and avoid using its original Germanic name.
• Approximately 40 percent of hamburgers served in the United States contain cheese on them. A survey conducted at Red Robin stated that over 70 percent of their customers would like cheese added into the patty itself.