Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Last of the Comstock Lode's "Bonanza Kings," John William Mackay, 71, unexpectedly passed away in London on July 20, 1902.
Note: Though "Mackay never set foot in the town," the Custer County town of Mackay, Idaho is named for him as he owned the local copper mines.

He was quoted as saying, "You can't beat Mackay, all he has to do when he needs money is go to Nevada and dig up some more".



John William Mackay (November 28, 1831 – July 20, 1902) was an Irish-American industrialist who rose from rags to riches. Born into abject poverty and raised in the slums of New York City, Mackay joined in the California gold rush in 1851. He did not find gold but moved to Nevada in 1859 and found silver. He became one of the four Bonanza Kings, a San Francisco partnership which capitalized on the wealth generated by the silver mines at the Comstock Lode in Nevada. He was one of the richest Americans in his time. He also headed a telegraph business that laid transatlantic cables, and he helped finance the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway Company. Estimates gauged his assets as high as $100 million, making him one of the richest in America at the time.


Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 74

Once Mackay had conquered the Atlantic with the Commercial Cable Company and the vast land mass of North America with the Postal Telegraph Company he turned his sights on laying the first cable across the Pacific. He subsequently formed the Commercial Pacific Cable Company in secret partnership with the Great Northern Telegraph Company and the Eastern Telegraph Company and although he died in 1902 before this part of his vision was completed, his son Clarence Mackay, saw the project through to completion between 1904 and 1906.

Commercial Pacific operated a cable line from San Francisco to Manila, Philippines, via Hawaii and Guam, with a subsequent spur that went from Manila to Shanghai, China. The Mackay System expanded under Clarence H. Mackay's leadership, acquiring several other entities including the Federal Telegraph Company, its radio stations and research laboratories, in 1927. In 1928, the entire system was bought out by Sosthenes Behn's International Telephone and Telegraph. ITT organized the Postal Telegraph & Cable Corporation as a shell to acquire and control the Mackay System on May 18, 1928. Though plagued with financial troubles during the Great Depression, the Mackay System continued to be the chief rival of Western Union until 1943.

In March of that year, Congress authorized an amendment (Section 222) to the Communications Act of 1934 permitting the merger of the domestic operations of telegraph companies (clearing the way for Western Union to acquire Postal Telegraph). By May 1943 a merger plan had been put together, which the FCC approved by September, and the merger was complete by October 1943. The international communications (cable and radio) parts of the Mackay system remained with ITT.

1.  Clarence H. Mackay (1874-1938), family man, sportsman, business man, and patron of the arts.
2.  Harbor Hill (1898-1938), 648 acre Mackay estate, Roslyn, New York.
3.  Commercial Cable Company (1883-1988). See John Crellin's site.
4.  Postal Telegraph-Cable Company (1886-1943).
5.  Mackay Radio Company (1925 to 2006).
6.  International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) (1923 to 1997).
7.  Art, Arms and Armor and Tapestry Collections.

Find the above numbered items at Clarence H. Mackay, Harbor Hill and the Postal Telegraph

The Mackay mansion contained a vault where bullion and cash from the Gould and Curry mine was stored. In the 1800’s two men attempted to rob the vault, only to find that an armed guard was stationed inside. The two men were killed. Even had a Gold Leaf Decorated Toilet. Trump would certainly approve!

The home is preserved as a museum and is open to the public for tours. The tour guide reveals that none other than Johnny Depp stayed in the mansion for a week while filming the 1995 film “Dead Man”. The house is reported to be haunted and is a popular destination for paranormal enthusiasts. More information on the Mackay Mansion can be found at their website.

See Western Mining History

Men walked the streets of Virginia City as if pacing the roof of a fathomless treasure house, and their heads were constantly in the clouds. They saw a network of silver beneath their feet and the fine strands widening into solid wedges of ore. The eyes of the soberest minded even were dazzled by the vision, and the fancy of the imaginative ran wild. No metaphor can exaggerate the prevailing delirium.



Photos & more info:  The Comstock Lode: Nevada’s “Big Bonanza”

Lastly, the boat in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) was named after him as well.
The scene was filmed on the River Thames, at Tilbury Docks in Essex, on August 4th 1988.


In 1921 a new cable-laying ship was built & named John W. Mackay by the Commercial Cable Company in his honour.
1977: Laid up with the idea of preservation on the Thames or Tyne. Neither happened.
It was sold for scrap in 1994.

Another mining guy who became far richer in diamond mining was Cecil John Rhodes who died 4 months earlier in 1902. He had big aspirations of conquering America and bringing it back under the British wing.


July 21, 1944: U.S. amphibious forces began the liberation of Guam. Eight minutes into the assault, two Marines used a boat hook as a mast to plant the first U.S. flag in the campaign to recapture the island from the Japanese. The battle of Guam lasted till August 10th.




July 21, 1947: 42,000-Pound Bomb, Largest Known, Due for AAF Test Soon
"There was a hint over the weekend that military experts may be looking into the future for an even more fearful weapon-an atomic bomb which when dropped from a high altitude might sink deep into the earth & produce a man-made quake."

But the announcement concluded with this cryptic statement:
"With the introduction of atomic warfare in WWII, it is logical that the need for these specialized types of bombs may be even greater for future defense."





July 21, 1947: “Speaking of Pictures: A Rash of Flying Disks Breaks Out over the U.S.” So that's how the saucers got here.


Here's a 3-page PDF of the section:  LIFE magazine, Jul 21, 1947


We are here?



Excerpt from Albert Einstein in May 1949 essay "Why Socialism?" on what he was seeing then that appeared in the first issue of the socialist journal Monthly Review:

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of  competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological  development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation  of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones.

The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the  enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the  members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The  consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.

Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite  impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."


July 21, 1960: Actress and icon Marilyn Monroe arrived at Reno, NV to begin filming the movie "The Misfits," which co-starred Clark Gable, and was filmed in and around Reno. The Misfits was released on Feb 1, 1961.




Australia's Green Bird flower plant has flowers shaped like Hummingbirds.


Crotalaria cunninghamii or green bird flower known as Mangarr to the Nyangumarta Warrarn Indigenous group is a short-lived perennial plant native to Australia, and its habitat is the deserts, coastlands, drainage lines, and sand dunes of the northern half of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.


USA #1 on this day in 1973: