Lee Iacocca is known for his engineering of both the widely successful Mustang and the largely unsuccessful Ford Pinto. Starting as an engineer at Ford, he was then moved from the engineering department to work in sales and marketing.
It was on this day, July 13th, in 1978 that Henry Ford II fired Lee Iacocca as the President of Ford Motor Company.
Henry Ford, as he was planning to retire himself, wanted to pass the company on to his son. Ford found his excuse to fire Iacocca when Iacocca went to the board of directors to find support for a disagreement with Ford. Iacocca went on to become the President of Chrysler Corporation, which was facing bankruptcy at the time, and he revitalized the company by producing more fuel-efficient cars and using aggressive marketing strategies.