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Fairfax Harrison (March 13, 1869 – February 2, 1938) was an American lawyer and businessman. He became a lawyer for the Southern Railway Company in 1896, and by 1906 he was the company's vice-president of finance. In 1913 he was elected president of Southern; under his leadership, the company expanded to an 8,000-mile (13,000 km) network across 13 states. Following the United States's entry into World War I, the federal government took control of the railroads, running them through the United States Railroad Administration, on which Harrison served. After the war, Harrison worked to improve the railroad's public relations, upgrade the locomotive stock by introducing more powerful engines, increase the company's amount of railroad track and extend the area serviced by the railway. Harrison struggled to keep the railroad afloat during the Great Depression, but by 1936 Southern was once again profitable. Harrison retired in 1937 and died three months later. (Full article...)

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On this day

March 13

British attack on Cartagena de Indias

1567 – A Spanish mercenary army surprised a band of rebels at the Battle of Oosterweel in the Habsburg Netherlands, beginning the Eighty Years' War.
1741 – War of Jenkins' Ear: The British began an assault against Spanish forts in the Caribbean in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (depicted).
1964 – Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City, prompting research into the bystander effect due to the false story that neighbors witnessed the killing and did nothing to help her.
1996 – A gunman killed sixteen children and a teacher at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland, before committing suicide.

John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden (b. 1719)
Adolf Anderssen (d. 1879)
Meinhard Michael Moser (b. 1924)
Jan Howard (b. 1929)

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Today's featured picture

Ethel Reed (March 13, 1874 – 1912) was an internationally recognized American graphic artist. This c. 1895 photograph of Reed, taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston, is in the collection of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Photograph credit: Frances Benjamin Johnston; restored by Adam Cuerden

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