Jan. 26, 1920: The Lincoln Motor Co. begins its short, brutish life as a Delaware corporation under the leadership of former Ford Motor Co. consultant Henry Leland. After a clash with Henry Ford, Leland set out on his own and founded the Cadillac Motor Car Co., which was eventually acquired by General Motors Corp. At GM, Leland clashed with CEO William Crapo Durant and again set out on his own and founded Lincoln. But he ran smack into a shrinking market for luxury cars, and two years after producing his first model—the L—Lincoln was reeling. Former opponent Ford stepped in and took Lincoln off Leland’s hands in 1922. The business thrived as a division of Ford and reached its peak in the early 1970s, when William Conrad planted his ample girth behind the wheel of an immense Continental Mark IV to track down bad guys in the CBS detective series “Cannon.” But it’s been downhill ever since. Unfortunately, the brand never shook its image as the ride of choice for portly private dicks.—Jeffrey Kanige
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