Fairfax Harrison (1869–1938) was an American lawyer, businessman, and writer. The son of the secretary to the Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Harrison studied law at Yale University and Columbia University before becoming a lawyer for the Southern Railway Company in 1896. By 1906 he was Southern's vice-president of finance, and in 1907 helped secure funding to keep the company solvent. In 1913 he was elected president of Southern, where he instituted a number of reforms in company operations. By 1916, under Harrison's leadership, the Southern had expanded to an 8,000-mile (13,000 km) network across 13 states, its greatest extent until the 1950s. Following America's entry into World War I the federal government took control of the railroads in December 1917, running them through the United States Railroad Administration, on which Harrison served. Harrison struggled to keep the railroad afloat during the Great Depression, but by 1936 Southern was once again showing a profit. Harrison retired in 1937, intending to focus on his hobby of writing about historical subjects including the roots of the American Thoroughbred horse, but he died three months later in February 1938.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_Harrison

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1535:

The appearance of sun dogs over Stockholm, Sweden, inspired the painting Vädersolstavlan, the oldest colour depiction of the city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4dersolstavlan

1657:

Anglo-Spanish War: An English fleet under Admiral Robert Blake attacked a Spanish treasure fleet at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Cruz_de_Tenerife_(1657)

1939:

Billie Holiday recorded her version of "Strange Fruit", which gained fame as an emblem of the Civil Rights Movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit

1968:

British Member of Parliament Enoch Powell made his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech in opposition to immigration and anti-discrimination legislation, resulting in his removal from the Shadow Cabinet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_of_Blood_speech

1978:

Soviet fighters shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 902 after it violated Soviet airspace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_902

2010:

An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, caused the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_explosion

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

capias: (law) An arrest warrant; a writ commanding officers to take a specified person or persons into custody. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/capias

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain And the last lion roars at the last dusty fountain In the shadow of the forest though she may be old and worn They will stare unbelieving at the last unicorn. for The Last Unicorn by   --Peter S. Beagle https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_S._Beagle