Today in History.....July 6

On this day in …

* 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga

* 1854, the first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Mich.

* 1917, during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence captured the port of Aqaba from the Turks

* 1923, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed

* 1945, President Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom

* 1945, Nicaragua became the first nation to formally accept the United Nations Charter

* 1967, the Biafran War erupted. (The war, which lasted 2 1/2 years, claimed some 600,000 lives.)

* 1989, the U.S. Army destroyed its last Pershing 1A missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas, under terms of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty

* 2001, former FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleaded guilty to 15 criminal counts and agreed to give a full accounting of his spying activities for Moscow. ALSO: The United States turned over to Japanese authorities an American serviceman accused of rape. (Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Woodland was convicted of rape and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.)

* 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed after refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of an undercover CIA operative's name (Miller was jailed for 85 days before agreeing to testify)