Of course we have to dedicate this song to him
Here's your Today in History -
July 10, 1958 -
The first parking meter was installed in England on this date in 1958, along with the second through 625th. It took nearly two dozen years for the parking meter to travel across the Atlantic: the first American parking meter had been installed in Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935.
It was invented by Oklahoma City's Carl C. Magee, the head of that city's chamber of commerce, as part of an effort to free more parking spaces for daytime shoppers. Downtown parking spaces had typically been taken by office workers who left their cars parked on the street all day, making it difficult for shoppers to find open spaces and thereby causing incalculable pain and suffering. (Double-parking was not invented until 1963.)
Your humble writer considers the parking meter one of the great instruments of totalitarian control, and cannot understand how conspiracy theorists who lose sleep over Roswell, the Masons, and black helicopters can walk blithely past dozens of parking meters every day.
Current estimates ("wild guesses") suggest there are now more than five million of these coercive devil machines deployed across the United States. They absorb millions of dollars in small change every day, and generate still more ill-gotten revenue by means of fines levied against persons who refuse to kneel before them.
I urge my readers to recall the words of Alexander Hamilton, who observed in the Federalist Papers that "no people are free who must pay for municipal parking."
The first concrete-paved street was built 112 years ago today in Bellefountaine, Ohio. Paved streets are good. I have no problem with paved streets, unless they're lined with parking meters.
July 10, 1856 -
Inventor and electromechanical genius Nikola Tesla is born to Serbian parents in what is now Croatia. Remember, if we could only harness the free floating electricity, we could do away with the electric companies.
July 10, 1923 -
Hailstones as heavy as two pounds kill 23 people in Rostov, Russia. That's a lot of snow.
July10, 1972 -
A herd of angry, startled elephants emerges from India's Chandka Forest, and tramples five villages, killing 24 inhabitants. So kids, don't frighten the elephants, hands in the car please.
July 10, 1984 -
British customs officials in London open a large wooden crate marked "diplomatic baggage" because of its extremely odd odor. Inside they discover Alhaji Umaru Dikko, Nigeria's former Minister of Transport and Aviation. He had been abducted, drugged, and bound for Nigeria to face trial for embezzlement. That must have been some stench.
July 10, 1985 -
Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior is blown up by in Auckland Harbor, killing a photographer. After the New Zealand government determines that French secret agents were responsible, the French Defense Minister resigns and the agents are jailed.
July 10, 1992 -
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega sentenced to 40 years in prison for eight counts of drug trafficking, money laundering, and racketeering. This is what comes from working with friends like the American Government.
And so it goes.
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