February 25, 1981: Black Wednesday

If you work for a large corporation and are called into the President's office you're likely confused. Are you about to be promoted? Fired? You have no idea. Corporate presidents don't fire average employees; they leave heavy lifting like that to HR and feel-good promotions are usually left to the managers. There is an exception to every rule and if you found yourself in the President's office at Apple computer on Black Wednesday, the news wasn't good.

The president of Apple at the time was Mike Scott. Scott called over thirty people involved with the Apple II into his office and fired each one personally. That afternoon Scott assembled the remaining Apple employees, provided a keg of beer and explained his actions thusly: "I used to say that when being CEO at Apple wasn't fun anymore, I'd quit. But now I've changed my mind—when it isn't fun any more, I'll fire people until it's fun again."

Unfortunately for Mr. Scott, he had also fired one person unintentionally that day: himself. Mike Markkula was unhappy with the firings and stripped Mr. Scott of any real power shortly after Black Wednesday. The day Michael Scott tried to get the fun back and ended up canning himself was February 25, 1981.