On This Day in History

François Duvalier (pictured), nicknamed Papa Doc, was elected President of Haiti as a populist before consolidating power and ruling as a dictator for the rest of his life.

Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate U.S. president Gerald Ford, but failed due to unfamiliarity with her weapon.

An American Vela satellite detected an unidentified flash of light near the Prince Edward Islands in the Indian Ocean, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.

A tugboat towing a barge collided with a rail bridge in Mobile, Alabama, U.S., deforming the tracks and causing the derailment of a passenger train eight minutes later, which killed 47 people and injured an additional 103.

The Nordhordland Bridge, crossing Salhusfjorden between Klauvaneset and Flatøy in Vestland, and Norway's second-longest bridge, officially opened.

Dolphin, the first emulator for the GameCube that could run commercial video games, was released.

Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, was attacked by two suicide bombers who killed 127 people.

The NASA spacecraft MAVEN entered into orbit around Mars to study the planet's atmosphere.