Auto industry icon Lee Iacocca dies at 94

Lee Iacocca.
(Image credit: Matthew Simmons/Getty Images)

Lee Iacocca, the auto industry leader known for helping develop the Ford Mustang in 1964 and rescuing Chrysler in the 1980s, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 94.

The son of Italian immigrants, Lido Anthony Iacocca was born Oct. 15, 1924, in Pennsylvania. After graduating from Lehigh University, Iacocca began working at the Ford Motor Company in 1946, and made history when he helped create the Mustang; Ford sold a record 418,812 Mustangs during the model's first year. He became president of Ford in 1970, before being fired by Henry Ford II in 1978.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.