On July 6, 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.
In 1854, the first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Michigan.
In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.
In 1933, the first All-Star baseball game was played in Chicago; the American League defeated the National League, 4-2.
In 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.
In 1957, Althea Gibson claims the women’s singles tennis title at Wimbledon and becomes the first African American to win a championship at London’s All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
In 1971, jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong died in New York at the age of 69.