Sure, we all hate parking meters, but before July 19, 1935, they were just a gleam in the eye of America's crooked municipal bosses and the ladies who performed their happy endings. On this day, that year, the city of Oklahoma City installed the first automatic parking meter in the US, the Park-O-Meter. According to the History Channel, the city paid for the meters with funds collected from them. According to Hollywood, "Cool Hand" Luke did hard time for sawing their heads off — and providing vicarious pleasure to countless millions wronged by parking authorities everywhere.
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